Julia Collins is Jeopardy's Winningest Female
alum.mit.edu
alum.mit.edu
[1] http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/05/17/4121297/julia-collins-...
It's also possible that the article is a way to put female success in an apparently (if the list of best all-time performers is any indication) male-dominated "field" under the spotlight, which can be a way to motivate other female contestants or young girls to appropriate those types of competitions (or any other remotely related field).
I'm not even sure they do need that in the first place, but it's always a process of chicken and egg where seeing someone you can more easily relate to succeed in some domain makes you more likely to realize that there's no reason you couldn't have a stab at it yourself.
So I don't know if that makes sense, but yeah, the female angle might be just a way to get the thing going.