Women’s sports had a blockbuster 2024 that featured records for attendance, TV ratings and franchise sales, along with numerous other metrics across multiple sports properties. The interest from sponsors helped the 15 highest-paid female athletes earn an estimated $221 million last year, up 27% year-over-year. Eleven women made at least $10 million, compared to six in 2023.
Yet, according to Sportico’s reporting of the world’s highest-paid athletes published Wednesday, women were absent from the top 100 for the second straight year.
More from Sportico.com
In December, Coco Gauff topped Sportico’s tally of the top-earning female athletes for the second consecutive year at $30.4 million. But that was more than $7 million short of the $37.5 million cutoff needed to make the all-athlete top 100; the American tennis star would have ranked No. 125 in a longer list. Freeskier Eileen Gu, who ranked second behind Gauff on latest the women’s rankings at $22.1 million, would have likely finished outside the top 250.
This is Sportico’s fourth annual look at the top earners in sports, and the first two years featured female athletes. I previously covered the earnings of athletes for more than 20 years at Forbes and started a list of the 50 highest-paid athletes in 2010 that expanded to 100 names two years later. Since 2010, women have been shut out in only 2018, 2023, and now, 2024.
Female representation among the highest-paid athletes has always been scant. Since 2010, there have never been more than three women among the top earners and typically only one or two. Only tennis players made the cut, and it was limited to Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Li Na and Naomi Osaka—only Osaka is still an active pro athlete.
Tennis players are still the highest-paid female athletes, representing nine of the top 15 women’s sports earners in 2024. Gauff is just the third woman in sports to earn more than $30 million in a given year, after Osaka and Williams. The issue is the cutoff to crack the top 100 has moved much higher, driven by bigger TV deals that have goosed salary caps, primarily in the NFL and NBA, which were responsible for nearly 60% of the top 100 in 2024.
A decade ago, Luis Suarez was the 100th highest-paid athlete in the world, earning $17.3 million. In 2019, it was cricketeer Virat Kohli at $25 million. Last year, No. 100 was quarterback Daniel Jones at $37.5 million; Jones was cut midseason by the New York Giants.
Playing salaries in men’s leagues have risen much faster than endorsement earnings for both male and female athletes, but sponsorships are the dominant income source for the top-earning women. Salaries and prize money represented 77% of earnings for the top 100-earning men and 72% for the top 15; it was 29% for the women.
NWSL and WNBA salaries severely lag what their comparative men’s leagues pay, as the overall revenue is a fraction of those leagues. The W had a record year in 2024 with team revenue of roughly $200 million—the NBA was nearly 60x that. WNBA players will see a boost to salaries in their next collective bargaining agreement, with the current one set to expire in 2025 after players exercised an opt-out option. The league’s new media deal is also expected to be six times the prior one on a yearly basis when the final pieces are completed.
Tennis remains the best bet in the near term to put an athlete or two in the top 100. Gauff, just 20 years old, could reach another level with marketers with a few more Grand Slam titles along with her 2023 U.S. Open win.
China’s Zheng Qinwen’s on and off-court profile soared last year, resulting in estimated earnings of $20.6 million. She won a pair of WTA events and reached the finals in three others, including the Australian Open, but her big breakthrough was in Paris at the Olympics. She became the first Asian tennis player, male or female, to win an Olympic gold in singles, triggering major bonuses from sponsors and new deals that will significantly boost her off-court earnings in 2025. She has a dozen endorsement partners, led by Nike.
The endorsement landscape in China is a gold mine for its biggest sports stars, and Zheng is just the second Chinese tennis player to crack the top 10 after Li, whose endorsement earnings approached $20 million a year after she won the French Open (2011) and Wimbledon (2014). Like Li, Zheng is represented by IMG, which has deep connections in China from its past work there.
Best of Sportico.com
Sign up for Sportico’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
#Women #Among #HighestPaid #Athletes #Business #Gains
