Sophia Heath

Lady Sophie Mary Heath was a pioneer Irish aviator and proponent of women’s events in the Olympic Games. She founded the English Women’s Amateur Athletic Association in 1922 and published Athletics for Women and Girls in 1925, a collection of papers presented to the International Olympic Committee on behalf of female athletes. Heath was the first woman to earn a commercial pilot’s license from the British Ministry (1926) and to fly solo from Cape Town to London (1927–28).