Iga Świątek Dethrones Serena Williams As The World’s Highest-Paid Female Athlete In 2023

This article appeared on Forbes.com

Con Serena Williams retired and Naomi Osaka Sidelined for a year due to injuries and then childbirth, the list of the highest-paid athletes in the world has a new number 1: the 22-year-old Polish tennis star Iga Świątekwhich he did approx 23.9 million dollars in 2023 (before taxes and agent commissions).

Since when Forbes introduced the ranking in 2008, Maria Sharapova she is the only other woman besides Williams and Osaka to have claimed the crown, reigning for eight consecutive years until Williams took over in 2016.

Iga Świątek: a record year

The monster year of Świątek it included the women’s singles title at the French Open, as well as four new sponsorship deals, but it’s also no coincidence that she, like Osaka, Williams and Sharapova before her, plays tennis. Twelve of the 20 highest-paid female athletes in the world, and nine of the top 10, come from the sport, which offers sizable prize money and extensive marketing opportunities for female athletes.

Golf and soccer each have two athletes represented in this year’s top 20, while badminton, basketball, gymnastics and freestyle skiing round out the list with one athlete each.

The 20 highest paid athletes made money 226 million dollars

Together, the 20 highest earning women they earned approx $226 million in 2023. That’s a 13% drop from 2022’s $258 million, but the drop can be attributed almost entirely to the loss of Williams (who earned $41.3 million on last year’s list) and the collapse of Osaka to $15 million (from $51.1 million in 2022) during its long hiatus.

There are many reasons to look at the 2023 rankings with optimism. The average for the top 20 is now $8.5 million, up from $7.3 million last year, and 16 of the 20 members of the list are under 30, suggesting they could have earning potential greater. There are also eight athletes earning more than $10 million, matching last year’s record and doubling the number from 2021.

Women’s sports continue to thrive

Overall, women’s sports continued to thrive this year, with the National Women’s Soccer League and the international football who recorded new attendance records, the WNBA announced its first expansion team since 2008 and the LPGA Tour which has promised to push its total prize pool over 118 million dollars compared to approximately $70 million in 2021.

The pay gap

Despite this momentum, however, the remuneration of female athletes is still far behind that of men. The top 20 male athletes in the 2023 ranking of Forbesreleased in May, made $1.9 billion – more than eight times what the top 20 women earned – and from there on the difference becomes even more stark. According to Spotracduring the 2023/24 season, 60 NBA players will earn more than Świątek on their playing salary alone.

Historically, tennis has had a narrower pay gap than other sports, and the WTA Tour he committed in June to equalize purses at its biggest tournaments (the four Grand Slam events have all had the same prize money for men and women since 2007.) But the transition is expected to take a decade, and players have recently expressed themselves on other matters, including playing conditions, tournament operations and maternity coverage.

“We’re the highest paid female athletes, and it’s a huge sport globally, but at the same time, the pay gap It’s still very big.” he said Forbes this fall Jessica Pegulaa member of the WTA Players’ Council and No. 7 in the rankings with $12.5 million, “We always talk about how even it is in the Slams, but those are four tournaments a year, it’s not equal in many other tournaments.”

Basically, the discrepancy It comes down to revenue. For example, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said the league will seek more than $100 million annually in its next media rights deal, starting in 2026. The NBA, by contrast, makes more than $3 billion dollars per season from its U.S. and international rights and is expected to double that number in the next round of deals, which would begin in 2025.

The role played by marketing

However, many elite women’s competitionsincluding the NCAA basketball tournament and the FIFA Women’s World Cup, will renegotiate their broadcast deals in the coming years, giving each organization a timely opportunity to translate the excitement around their sport into significant money.

At the same time, more and more brand names they see the possibility of to sponsor leagues and players, and athletes are making their way to more mainstream media coverage, including the Netflix docuseries about tennis Break Pointwhich featured Świątek in its first season and will highlight Pegula in its second.

“I think we need to do more in marketing,” says Pegula, noting that this year the WTA launched a partnership with private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for the business side. “It’s a truly international sport, there are so many different stories and we reach so many people. But are we really telling those stories to fans in the best way possible? I think it’s something that can really grow and change.”

Forbes ranking of the highest paid athletes of 2023

1. Iga Świątek
tennis player
$23.9 million

2. Eileen Gu
freestyle skier
$22.1 million

3. Coco Gauff
tennis player
$21.7 million

4. Emma Raducanu
tennis player
$15.2 million

5. Naomi Osaka
tennis player
$15 million

6. Aryna Sabalenka
tennis player
$14.7 million

7. Jessica Pegula
tennis player
$12.5 million

8. Venus Williams
tennis player
$12.2 million

9. Elena Rybakina
tennis player
$9.5 million

10. Leylah Fernandez
tennis player
$8.8 million

11. Nelly Korda
golfer
$8.2 million

11. Megan Rapinoe
former footballer
$8.2 million

13. Candace Parker
basketball player
$8.1 million

14. Alex Morgan
footballer
$7.8 million

15. Qinwen Zheng
tennis player
$7.2 million

16. Simone Biles
gymnast
$7.1 million

16. PV Sindhu
Badminton player
$7.1 million

18. Our Jabeur
tennis player
$5.7 million

19. Brooke Henderson
golfer
$5.4 million

20. Markéta Vondroušová
tennis player
$5.2 million

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2023-12-21 15:08:08
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