A deep dive into the fiercest women’s sports rivalries

The GIST: Forget the mediocre NHL enmities, Team Canada vs. Team USA is the greatest rivalry on ice. Case in point? The perennial powerhouses play an annual multi-game set — aptly titled the Rivalry Series — to showcase the best in the game. Always doing it for the plot.

The history: When it comes to international hardware, Canada and the U.S. have battled in the gold medal game in six of the last seven Olympics, 22 of 23 IIHF Women's World Championships, and 21 of 23 4 Nations Cups. No other country has won a major women’s hockey tournament.

• The bitter rivalry started even before Canadian captain Hayley Wickenheiser’s spicy flag-signing comments after the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics (though no flags were actually harmed).

• Rather, it came to a head after the upstart Americans upset Canada for gold when women’s ice hockey debuted at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. There’s no love lost (except where there’s plenty of love) between the two sides.

The biggest moments: It depends who you ask. For Canadian GISTers, it’s probably the 2002 Olympics, where the red and white exacted revenge for the aforementioned 1998 loss, beating the U.S. on their home soil to take gold.

• As GISTers repping the red, white, and blue, Team USA’s 2018 shootout win in PyeongChang snapped Canada’s Olympic reign, securing the Americans their first Olympic gold since Nagano. A moment 20 years in the making.

The GIST: From an early 90s rivalry against the “Viking b!tches” to hard-nosed battles against a Marta-led Brazilian contingent to legendary forward Alex Morgan sipping tea after scoring a goal against England at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, the USWNT is no stranger to on-pitch drama.

• But the women’s soccer rivalry that stands out is not between two teams, but rather the epic goal-scoring battle between two of soccer’s greatest players — American Abby Wambach and Canadian Christine Sinclair.

Setting the stage: The battles between the USWNT and CanWNT have become spicier over the last 15 years (looking at you, 2012 Olympic semifinal), especially as Wambach and Sinclair took the pitch for their respective nations. But historically, the USWNT has been much more dominant.

• However, as the rivalry between the two sides heated up, so too did the race to be the international goal-scoring leader.

The scoring battle: Two of the most prolific scorers in soccer history, Wambach and Sinclair regularly shared the international and pro pitch. But Wambach climbed the international goal-scoring mountain first: She set the record (men’s or women’s) of 184 international goals in 2015, surpassing fellow American Mia Hamm to reach the milestone in 255 games before retiring the same year.

• It would take Sinclair 35 more games than Wambach, but the Canadian striker took the top spot in 2020 and finished her career with an astounding 190 international goals — a mark that’s unlikely to be passed in the foreseeable future.

The GIST: Before the aforementioned Clark and Reese were getting the media riled up, there was coaches Pat Summitt and Geno Auriemma, and Maya Moore and Candace Parker — the biggest players in two of the most exciting rivalries in women’s hoops history, which, of course, are intertwined.

College women’s hoops era dominated by two legends: The late, great Summitt helmed the Tennessee Lady Volunteers while Auriemma was (and still is) UConn’s bench boss. Accounting for 19 national championships between them, the two iconic coaches owned college basketball in the ’90s and early 2000s…and their relationship was anything but amicable.

• The first women’s basketball rivalry to receive consistent national attention, Summitt and Auriemma’s teams featured hoops icons like Tennessee’s Tamika Catchings and Candace Parker and UConn’s Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi.

• The in-season series — where the two schools clash during the year — was called off by Summitt in 2007, the same year the Huskies were cited for recruiting violations related to freshman phenom (and future WNBA MVP) Maya Moore — accusations revealed to the NCAA in a letter from Tennessee officials. Pour that tea.

Parker and Moore bring collegiate rivalry to the pros: Though the two WNBA superstars never battled on the college court, they brought the fierceness of their alma maters’ rivalry to the pros: Parker for the LA Sparks and Moore for the Minnesota Lynx. The teams split gritty back-to-back WNBA Finals in 2016 and 2017, both of which went to a championship-deciding fifth game.

• These hotly-contested series were pivotal for a women’s hoops scene that had seen lopsided scores and struggles with parity at the college, pro, and Olympic level.

• The international scores were so lopsided, in fact, that the U.S. Olympic team, coincidentally coached by Geno Auriemma, decided to leave two-time WNBA MVP and Vols alum Parker off its 2016 roster. Interesting.

The GIST: If Challengers taught us anything it’s that tennis thrives on drama, and these three rivalries certainly fit the bill. No love triangles required.

Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova: Tennis legends Evert and Navratilova played each other 80 times over their stellar careers — 60 of which were in tournament finals. Even more impressive, between 1975 and 1987, either Evert or Navratilova owned the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) No. 1 ranking for all but 23 weeks.

• Widely considered one of the greatest rivalries in sports history, Evert and Navratilova became close friends after retirement, supporting each other through their respective cancer diagnoses. It’s the friends you make along the way.

Monica Seles and Steffi Graf: Seles and Graf were the next duo to bring the heat to the court, with both players swapping spots atop the WTA rankings in the early ’90s. Their rivalry truly began in 1990, when a surging Seles snapped Graf’s 66-match winning streak. The two superstars would clash 11 more times, with Graf holding an all-time 10-5 edge.

• Unfortunately, this rivalry will always be marred by a horrific on-court stabbing incident in 1993 where Seles was attacked by a deranged Graf fan during a match. And while she’d return to pro tennis in 1995, she missed two years of competition at the peak of her career.

Serena and Venus Williams: Serena Williams had plenty of want-to-be rivals throughout her incredible career — but her longevity at the top of the WTA rankings left most of her fiercest competitors in the dust. In 22 matches against the GOAT, Maria Sharapova only managed two wins while Victoria Azarenka notched only five across 23 matches.

• So who was Serena’s biggest rival? Her sister Venus, of course. The Williams sisters amassed a combined 122 singles titles and faced off against each other 31 times with Serena holding a 19-12 edge. Sibling rivalries just hit different.