While it might not sound like the most difficult thing in the world, being beautiful and being a world-class female athlete isn't always easy. The world of sports is extremely competitive no matter what gender you are, but women have it even worse than men do, they not only competing against each other, they also are battling against the fact that men's sports are more popular than women's sports, as well as the fact that there is a notion out there that if you are beautiful, then you probably aren't all that tough and have been lucky that you have gotten by on your looks your whole life.

These women on this list are all incredibly gorgeous, but they are all really talented and hardworking as well. They didn't get to where they are in their field by being beautiful, they got there because they are some of the most talented athletes in their field, as well as because of incredible effort.

But did I mention that they were all ridiculously good looking? Here are 20 beautiful female athletes that are more than just a pretty face.

Paige Spiranac Fought To Wear What She Wants

How could a list like this be complete without Paige Spiranac? While she is a professional golfer, she is probably better known for being a social media influencer, if you don't believe me check her out on Instagram she has well over 1 million followers currently and it is growing all the time.

Paige first became famous by fighting the LPGA dress code, which was attempting to crack down on female golfers by making them dress more conservatively.

Paige fought back and by doing so became much more well known throughout the world, letting everyone know there were some brains behind all that beauty.

Sydney Leroux Won Gold

Sydney Laroux is without a doubt a gorgeous woman. She was a member of the United States gold medal soccer team and has played soccer for years professionally, her current team is the Orlando Pride. She embodies what this list is about because although she is an incredibly beautiful woman, she also is and has always been at the very top of her sport competitively. There have been a lot of really pretty women who have played for the United States Soccer team over the years, and in our mind, Sydney is right at the top of that list. With that said, all of these women are more famous for their skill than their looks.

Cathrine Larsasen Won Ten Times In A Row

Cathrine is a Norwegian pole vaulter who won the Norwegian championships ten times in a row between 2004 and 2013. A lot of women from Norway are gorgeous, but none more than Cathrine, who is a perfect example of what we are talking about.

Here is a woman who is just incredibly lovely, but she is also the very best in her country at the sport that she loves.

It seems like maybe you can have it all. She had a baby recently so her competitive life is on hold. This is bad for the country of Norway, as it lost one of its best athletes, but sure is good news for the lucky guy that gets to hang out with her.

Winifer Fernandez Wants Credit For Her Skills

Winifer is a volleyball player for the Dominican national team and a very beautiful one at that. If there is one sport that seems to attract the best looking women, it seems that volleyball might be it. She was placed at number 7 by the Salvadorian newspaper El Mundo among the 10 most beautiful athletes in the world.

She reacted by saying that it is an honor, but that she would like to be thought of for how good of a volleyball player she is and not for how good looking she is.

In other words, Winifer came our strong to say that she is not just a pretty face, which is true, but it is kind of hard not to notice.

Paige VanZant Is More Than Meets The Eye

If there is one sport that people don't think of when it comes to really attractive women, it would be MMA fighting. But flyweight Paige VanZant has done pretty much everything that she can do to dispel that notion.  Let's face it, we all have that little bit of prejudice when it comes to this kind of thing, and I am not just talking about men here, women are not immune to it either. You see someone as pretty as Paige is and you wonder why she would allow her gorgeous face to take punches. Well, the answer is really not all that hard, the reason is obvious, it is because she is an athlete first and a pretty face second.

Eugenie Bouchard Became A "First" 

If we were to wonder if there is another sport other than the sport of volleyball that has all sorts of gorgeous women in it, we would have to think of tennis, although surfers would have to be up there too, so many different women surf who have gorgeous faces. One of the prettiest tennis players around is Canadian Eugenie Bouchard who has had a lot of success in her sport despite her young age.

At the 2014 Wimbledon Championships, Bouchard became the first Canadian-born player representing Canada to reach the finals of a Grand Slam in singles.

We can expect to see a lot more of her in the coming years.

Sierra Blair-Coyle Is Making Her Way To The Top

Sierra is a professional rock climber from Scottsdale, Arizona. There is something about the fact that she is a pro rock climber in general that makes her attractive, women that are into that kind of thing are almost always incredibly cool, and have a true down-to-Earth vibe. But she is also very beautiful. If you want to see more of her pretty face she is very active on Instagram, but it is important to remember that no matter how gorgeous she is, women like Sierra are even more beautiful because of their athleticism and their drive to be the best. She is a perfect example of an athlete who is not just a pretty face.

Blair O’Neal Is An Athlete And Model

Blair O'Neal is just so pretty. If you are not sure who she is, she is a professional golfer as well as a model. Are you wondering if a female athlete can be pretty and still work hard to succeed? Check what she has to say on her website:

"For those who don’t know me, I am a professional golfer, model and I was the winner of Big Break Dominican Republic. I have been lucky enough to travel the world, play some of golf’s greatest venues, meet old fans and build new friendships along the way.

As a model, I have been featured in print, runway, and television." It seems like Blair can have it all, and she deserves it too.

Danica Patrick Joined A "Boys" Sport

Who doesn't know who Danica Patrick is? She is a race car driver, model, and advertising spokeswoman, and manages to be really good at doing all of it. Is there anyone you can think of that proves that being a good-looking woman is not a deterrent when it comes to being a successful athlete?

To make it even more impressive, Danica did it in a sport that has almost always been totally male,

even though in reality, guys don't actually have a physical advantage. She has proven to everyone what a good driver that she is and has shown the world that she isn't just a pretty face, even though she uses her face to make money.

Sally Fitzgibbons Is Making Waves

As I have said before some of the most beautiful women in the world are female professional surfers, and Sally, who is a very good professional surfer from Australia, is one of the most beautiful of all. This is one of those chicken and the egg kind of questions, is it that gorgeous women of a certain type tend to be drawn to surfing, or is it that when a woman spends all her time working out by paddling around on a surfboard getting in shape under the sun that she becomes even more beautiful? It is hard to tell but either way, you slice it Sally has that sort of natural beauty that simply can't be denied. She has an impressive track record and even became the youngest surfer to win an Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) Pro Junior (Under 21’s) event. She also won her first World  Title in Portugal when she was only 16.

Ivet Lalova-Collio Is One Of The Fastest Women In The World

Ivet is a track and field athlete that hails from Bulgaria and competes in the 100m and 200m sprints. She has appeared in 4 different Olympic competitions and has looked amazing in all of them. She is still very active in sports, so don't be surprised if she appears in at least one more Olympic competition before she is through. Women like her are very inspirational to others. She is from a rather small country and is obviously a very attractive woman, and yet, she has continued to work hard at her sport. She is the 12th fastest woman in history, an accomplishment she reached in 2004 when she finished the 100-metre race in 10.77 seconds, tying with Irina Privalova.

Skylar Diggins Is An All-Star Guard

If you follow women's basketball at all, then you know who Skylar Diggins is. She went to college at Notre Dame, where she was the all-time leading scorer then has had a long and successful career in the pros. She plays for Dallas and has made the WNBA all-star team. Skylar is so pretty that it is almost not fair, but that is exactly what makes these types of women so interesting. So often we equate beauty with something else, like if Skylar is so pretty then why would she be so into sports and why would she work so hard at it? This thought process is ridiculous, and Skylar proves that every time she walks out on the court.

Yuliya Yefimova Was Part Of A Controversy 

Yuliya Yefimova is a swimmer on the Russian National Team who is known for the controversy that went on in the Brazil Summer Olympics over possible blood doping. She has never admitted doing it even though she has been supposedly caught twice. While she may or may not be innocent, this proves more than ever that Yuliya is not just a pretty face — I mean come on it appears like she may have cheated to claim an advantage! This is still up in the air though, and she has continued to swim and to have success in the sport. She also has continued to look great while doing it, as she is a very beautiful woman.

Alex Morgan Is A Force To Be Reckoned With 

As we have said before, the United States soccer team is just filled with incredibly hot women who also happen to be incredible athletes. The whole team is filled with really attractive athletes who are not just pretty faces, as a matter of fact, we could probably pick the whole team for this article, but we decided to go with Alex Morgan who is an Olympic gold medalist and FIFA Women's World Cup champion. She also plays forward for Orlando Pride in the National Women's Soccer League. Oh, and did we mention just how lovely she was? Well, she is but she is way more than a pretty face, she is a great athlete.

Allison Stokke Spoke Out

Allison is one of the best examples of an athlete who is not just a pretty face. At one point she was just an anonymous pole vaulter until photos of her and her body were put on websites, making her an Internet sensation against her will. She said,

 "even if none of it is illegal, it just all feels really demeaning. I worked so hard for pole vaulting and all this other stuff, and it's almost like that doesn't matter. Nobody sees that. Nobody really sees me."

Well, Allison, we see you and we commend you for speaking out about it. None of the women on this list are just pretty faces, and Allison shows how being treated that way can really hurt.

Maria Sharapova Is A World-Class Athlete 

Obviously, Maria Sharapova had to be on a list like this, she is incredibly lovely, but is also one of the best tennis players in the world. She has been ranked number 1 in the world as a female tennis player numerous times but has also made a lot of money and gained a lot of fame by trading off on her looks, for example, she has modelled swimsuits for Sports Illustrated numerous times. Is this the kind of thing she should feel bad about? No, not even a little bit, that is really what it is all about if you are a woman you can be one of the best athletes in the world and still be proud of your beauty and show it off as much as you want.

Kaytlin Neil Went From Cheerleading To MMA 

Kaytlin is an MMA fighter and a former competitive cheerleader, and when you think about it, it's very cool. How many women in the history of the world have been paid to fight and also to be a cheerleader? The whole thing shows a lot of confidence in herself. If you are a woman you can be anything you want to be, you can be a tough and confident MMA fighter, or you can be a feminine and bubbly cheerleader, or hey, you can even be both. You see what I am getting at here? While Kaytlin is a very beautiful woman there are obviously a lot of different sides to her, and in no way is she just a pretty face.

Snežana Rodić Works Hard For Her Athletic Physique

Next on the list is Snežana Rodić, a track athlete from Slovenia who specializes in the triple jump. Like some other athletes in this article, in particular, Allison Stokke, Snežana has received a lot of attention over the years because of her body — photos of her have been posted on numerous websites and in numerous lists detailing how attractive she is, but obviously, they never ever say a single thing about her athletic prowess and how hard it took to get there. Think about that for a minute, sure Tom Brady is good looking but people talk more about how talented he is than how hot he is. Snežana is way more than a pretty face.

Darya Klishina Took One For The Team

Darya is a Russian long jumper who has been very successful over the years, winning numerous European Championships throughout her career. She was also in the 2016 Olympic games. She is incredibly beautiful and it is obvious that she could have easily become a model or even an actress, as looks like hers are really hard to come by. Of course, she never has done anything of that nature, she is an athlete and a very good one. During the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, Darya was the only one in her team that was allowed to compete because she appealed the initial decision.

"I am a clean athlete and have proved that already many times and beyond any doubt.

Based in the US for three years now, I have been almost exclusively tested outside of the Anti-Doping system in question. I am falling victim to those who created a system of manipulating our beautiful sport and is guilty of using it for political purposes."

Michelle Jenneke Went Viral

Michelle Jenneke is just the coolest. If you have never seen the viral video of her warming up you truly are missing something. In 2012, a video of her warming up and dancing before a race went viral on YouTube and was even shown on The Tonight Show. Michelle is just the epitome of a young woman who is relaxed and having a really good time, and to top it all off, she obviously looks pretty incredible in it as well. What a lot of people tend to forget though, is that Michelle actually won the race that she became so famous for, and actually even made the Olympic team one year.

Sources: theathleticbuild.com, en.wikipedia.org