SPEAKER_00: Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Encyclopedia Wamanica. Today we're talking about perhaps the first superstar of women's sports. She swept the competition all the way back in the Victorian era. She's listed among the most versatile female athletes of all time by the Guinness Book of World Records, and for good reason. She excelled in sports from tennis to field hockey to ice skating. Let's talk about Charlotte Dodd. Charlotte Dodd, also called Lottie, was born on September 24, 1871, in Bevington, England. She was the youngest of four children, all of whom were talented athletes. William Dodd, Lottie's older brother, would later win an Olympic gold medal in archery. The family lived a very comfortable life. Lottie's father, Joseph Dodd, made enough money with his cotton trading business to provide his children with an education from private tutors. The origins of the game we know as tennis today are disputed. But in 1873, Major Walter Clopton Wingfield published A Book of Rules and took out a patent. The sport was then called lawn tennis, and it became a popular game for the English upper class. When Lottie was nine, two tennis courts were built near her family's estate, so Lottie and her siblings took up the sport. Lottie and her older sister Annie took their interest in the game to the next level. In 1883, when she was 11 years old, Lottie entered her first tennis tournament alongside her sister. Though they didn't win, Lottie caught the eye of a journalist who wrote, "'Miss L. Dodd should be heard of in the future.'" Lottie stuck with tennis and continued entering tournaments in the years that followed. A series of incredible performances put her on the map. In one tournament, she nearly beat a reigning Wimbledon champion. Then, at a Waterloo competition, she won her first singles title. By 1887, after steadily winning tournaments, Lottie was well known as a first-class player. What made Lottie so incredible at tennis was her uniquely aggressive style. She was way ahead of her time. In the late 1800s, women played tennis with long skirts and restrictive corsets, which impacted their play. By studying men's tennis and perfecting their techniques, Lottie was able to get an upper hand on her opponents. She hit a lot harder and might have been the first player to habitually hit the ball just before the top of its bounce, giving her more rebound speed. The press started to call Lottie the little wonder. At 15 years old, Lottie entered her first Wimbledon championship and swept the competition. She beat her final opponent in just 10 minutes to become the youngest Wimbledon singles winner. Lottie continued to win one tournament after another. She set a record by winning five Wimbledon titles. In 1893, Lottie played in and won two tournaments. On that strong note, she decided to retire from tennis competitions and to move on to other sports. Two years later, she traveled to winter sports haven St. Moritz and passed a prestigious figure skating event called the St. Moritz Ladies' Skating Test. She later became the second woman ever to pass the men's version of that test. She took up mountain climbing with her older brother and raced on a famous toboggan track in Switzerland. In 1897, Lottie also took up the new game of women's field hockey. She helped found a team, became its captain, and led the team to win every game for which she was present. Two years later, she played for the English national women's field hockey team and helped them beat Ireland 3-1. In the following year's match, she scored both goals in the Ireland game for another victory. After taking a timeout from field hockey for a year due to lower back pain, Lottie took up another unexpected sport, golf. The ladies' golf union was brand new and Lottie helped create a golf team in Essex County. This was the first sport Lottie found difficult to master. Though she regularly entered women's golf championships, she didn't win quite as often. Still, in the 1904 British ladies' amateur, Lottie narrowly beat a previous golf champion. That made her the first woman to win both British tennis and golf championships. In 1905, Lottie and her brothers sold their estate and moved to the southern market town of Newbury. There, they all started seriously competing in archery. It was a fitting choice for the family. One of their ancestors commanded the English archers at the legendary Battle of Agincourt in 1415. After winning her first archery tournament in 1906 and placing well for the next three years, Lottie gained a spot on the British Olympic team and won the silver medal. A few years later, Lottie wound down her sports career and moved with her brother Willie to a new house in the riverside town of Fideport. When World War I hit, Lottie served as a nurse for the British Red Cross. Though persistent back pain kept her from being transferred out of the country, she earned a service medal for working more than 1,000 hours over the course of the war. After the war, Lottie lived a relatively quiet life. She attended the Wimbledon championships every year until her late 80s. She passed away in a nursing home in 1960 at the age of 88. Those who were present said she was listening to the Wimbledon tournament on the radio when she died. Lottie Dodd was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1983 and the International Women's Hall of Fame in 1986. It's hard to overstate her influence in the world of sports and her incredible versatility as an accomplished player of tennis, ice skating, sledding, field hockey, golf, and archery. At a time when women didn't have many opportunities to play sports, she inspired female athletes around the world. All month we're talking about Olympians. For more on why we're doing what we're doing, check out our newsletter, Womanica Weekly. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Encyclopedia Womanica. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. As always, we'll be taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you on Monday.
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