Timeline of women's sports in the United States Lyle Alberga, was the first of three women to play Negro league baseball, and thus the first woman to play as a regular on an American big-league professional baseball team. 1954 - The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League played its last season. 1955 - The first LPGA championship was held. 1959 - Arlene Pieper became the first woman to officially finish a marathon in the United States when she finished the Pikes Peak Marathon. 1960 - Mary McGee earns a FIM license and becomes the first official female motorcycle racer in the United States. 1961 - The WIBC Queens all-female
Sport in New Zealand has remained at the forefront of world netball for several decades. In 2008, netball in New Zealand became a semi-professional sport with the introduction of the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship. The sport is administered by Netball New Zealand, which registered 125,500 players in 2006. Unlike Australia, where rugby league is the dominant rugby code, rugby union is the more popular code in New Zealand. The New Zealand domestic league is semi-professional and does not enjoy a high profile. However, the Australian National Rugby League (NRL), in which New Zealand Warriors play, is becoming more popular . The New Zealand national side