US tennis star Coco Gauff continues to win off the court, with the 2025 French Open champion topping Sportico's list of the 15 Highest-Paid Female Athletes for the third consecutive year.
Fueled by $23 million in off-court endorsements, the $31 million earned by the 21-year-old world No. 3 WTA player edged out the $30 million total income that fellow tennis star and world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka garnered in 2025.
Unsurprisingly, a full 10 athletes on the Sportico Top 15 list are tennis stars, a direct result of the fact that all four Grand Slams and the Masters 1000 tournaments boast equal prize money between the men's and women's competitions — a shift that began with the 1973 US Open.
That established expectation of gender equity in prize money has tennis far outpacing salaries in most other women's sports.
Also making the Top 15 are two LPGA golfers — world No. 1 Jeeno Thitikul (No. 15 on the Highest-Paid Female Athletes list) and US star No. 2 Nelly Korda (No. 7) — as well as popular Olympic skiier Eileen Gu (No. 4), WNBA superstar Caitlin Clark (No. 6), and USA gymnastics legend Simone Biles (No. 11).
Notably, Gu, Clark, and Biles as well as Venus Williams (No. 14) all proved the power of endorsements on this year's list, with nearly all of the quartet's earnings coming from sponsorship deals.
Forbes tapped the most powerful women in sports this week, ranking the Top 25 players, executives, and others pushing the needle in the ever-growing sports — and women's sports — sector.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark is the highest-ranked athlete at No. 4, joined by Unrivaled co-founders Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart at No. 9, as well as tennis stars Serena Williams (No. 11) and Coco Gauff (No. 13), reigning WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson at No. 15, gymnastics titan Simone Biles at No. 18, and world No. 2 golfer Nelly Korda at No. 21.
Also making the 2025 Forbes Most Powerful Women in Sports roster are tennis legend Billie Jean King (No. 23), NCAA basketball coaching icon Dawn Staley (No. 20), and Las Vegas Aces sideline leader Becky Hammon (No. 22).
Women's sports multi-team owner Michele Kang came in at No. 5, with NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman (No. 7), New York Liberty owner Clara Wu Tsai (No. 10), US Soccer president Cindy Parlow Cone (No. 14), and more representing the off-field lineup.
According to the publication, the new annual list honors leaders "who are transforming one of the world's most influential industries, shaping strategy, driving innovation, and expanding the role of women across the sports economy."
Investments, influence, and growth drivers were all taken into consideration, with Forbes also dividing selectees into five categories: owners/investors, business executives, front office leaders, athletes, and amplifiers.
Women won big at Wednesday's 2025 ESPY Awards, with star athletes from across women's sports earning top honors for outstanding performances over the past year.
Leading the charge was seven-time Olympic gold medal-winning gymnast Simone Biles with ESPYS for both Best Athlete, Women's Sports and Best Championship Performance for her trio of golds at last summer's Paris Games.
"Six-year-old me, who first started tumbling on my parents' sofa in the living room, is floored to be standing before you right now," Biles shared in one of her speeches.
Biles's Team USA teammate Suni Lee, who brought her doctor to the awards, won Best Comeback Athlete after battling kidney disease to return to top the Olympic podium.
The night's Best Breakthrough Athlete was USA Rugby star and 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Ilona Maher, who used part of her speech to encourage young women and girls, telling them to "Take up space. Pitch it faster. Run harder. Put another plate on the bar. And never tone it down."
Also snagging honors as the top athletes in their respective sports were Coco Gauff (Best Tennis Player), Caitlin Clark (Best WNBA Player), Katie Taylor (Best Boxer), and JuJu Watkins (Best College Athlete, Women's Sports).
Meanwhile, USWNT icon Alex Morgan and WNBA legend Diana Taurasi shared this year's Icon Award in recognition of the new retirees' impacts on their respective sports.
"Our mission has always been very similar," Morgan said in her acceptance speech alongside Taurasi. "We fought to leave our game in a better place than where we found it."
Off-court efforts earn 2025 ESPY Awards
Sports leaders whose impact surpassed the proverbial playing field also took home trophies on Wednesday night.
In recognition of her foundation's commitment to promoting diversity and providing tennis opportunities to underserved communities, US legend Sloane Stephens won this year's Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award.
Later, Penn State volleyball head coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley earned a standing ovation alongside her Jimmy V Award for Perseverance.
Schumacher-Cawley, who became the first woman to helm a national title-winning volleyball team by leading her Nittany Lions to the 2024 NCAA Championship last December, did so while battling breast cancer.
"Cancer changed my life, but it didn't take it," said an emotional Schumacher-Cawley. "It didn't take my belief, it didn't take my spirit, and it didn't take my team."
Women's sports came up big in last week's 2025 ESPY Awards nominations, as superstars like WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson, USWNT attacker Mallory Swanson, US Olympic gymnast Simone Biles, and others vie for the annual honors.
The Las Vegas Aces forward earned spots on the shortlists for both Best WNBA Player as well as Best Athlete: Women's Sports, where she's up against Biles plus US track and field icons Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Gabby Thomas.
Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark will also compete for Best WNBA Player alongside Wilson, Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier, and New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart, with Clark also topping the Best Record-Breaking Performance shortlist.
Women's soccer also stole the spotlight, with the USWNT earning a Best Team nod while forward Mallory Swanson nabbed Best Comeback. Fellow Triple Espresso star Trinity Rodman's Olympic quarterfinal overtime goal also snagged a nomination for Best Play.
Dating back to 1993, the ESPYS recognize the most impactful sports stories of the year, including Best Player, Best Comeback, and Best Team.
This year's women's sports nominees feature several 2024 winners, including Clark (Best College Athlete, Best Record Breaking Performance), Biles (Best Comeback Athlete), and Wilson (Best Women's Sports Athlete, Best WNBA Player).
Individual women and women's teams across the sports world will be on hand when the awards hit the red carpet later this month, with the likes of US rugby star Ilona Maher, US gymnast Suni Lee, golfer Nelly Korda, US ski legend Lindsey Vonn, NCAA basketball standout JuJu Watkins, and tennis icons Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka among the 2025 nominees.
How to watch and vote for the 2025 ESPY Awards
The 2025 ESPY Awards will kick off on July 16th at 8 PM ET, airing on ABC.
Fan voting for the awards will close three hours before the start of the ceremony.
Simone Biles returned to the headlines this week, with the seven-time Olympic gold medalist taking to X to voice support for trans athletes in women's sports, emphasizing that she believes the conversation "starts with empathy and respect."
Earlier this month, Biles called out anti-trans athlete activist and former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines for ridiculing a Minnesota high school softball team, calling Gaines a "sore loser" and a "bully."
Gaines, who swam for the University of Kentucky, tied trans UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships. The event sparked her outspoken campaign against trans athletes in women's sports.
"You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans [athletes] feel safe in sports," Biles originally tweeted at Gaines.
Biles later clarified her comments, posting "I've always believed competitive equity & inclusivity are both essential in sport."
"The current system doesn't adequately balance these important principles, which often leads to frustration and heated exchanges," she continued.
While Biles apologized for a comment made about Gaines's body, she also defended her objection to Gaines singling out individual trans youth athletes.
"I was not advocating for policies that compromise fairness in women's sports," said Biles. "My objection is to be singling out children for public scrutiny in ways that feel personal and harmful."
"Individual athletes — especially kids — should never be the focus of criticism of a flawed system they have no control over."
The legendary 1999 World Cup-winning USWNT is heading to Hollywood, with Netflix announcing Wednesday that the streamer is in development on The 99'ers, a feature film based on Jeré Longman’s book The Girls of Summer: The US Women's Soccer Team and How It Changed the World.
Like Longman's book, the film will chronicle the USWNT's journey to winning the 1999 World Cup before a then-US record crowd at the Rose Bowl — as well as the ongoing impact that victory has on women's sports worldwide.
Helmed by Liza Chasin from 3dot Productions as well as a production team that includes actor Ryan Reynolds, who co-owns third-tier UK men's soccer club Wrexham AFC, the film will be directed by Nicole Kassell.
Kassell, who's resume includes The Leftovers and The Americans, earned both an Emmy and Director's Guild Award for her work on the HBO series Watchmen.
Screenwriters Katie Lovejoy and Dana Stevens, who wrote Netflix's Love at First Sight and The Woman King, respectively, will pen The 99'ers script.
Netflix boosts women's soccer content in lead-up to World Cups
This is far from Netflix's first foray into women's sports, with the streamer boasting documentaries on tennis star Naomi Osaka and gymnastics legend Simone Biles, among others — and a new series on F1 Academy women drivers dropping later this month.
Even more, the content giant is all-in on women's soccer. After chronicling the 2023 World Cup journey of the USWNT in a four-part docuseries, Netflix closed 2024 by snagging the exclusive US broadcast rights to the 2027 and 2031 Women's World Cups.
While Netflix acquired the rights to Longman's book in 2020, the timing of The 99'ers development is likely an effort to bolster the broadcaster's women's soccer content in the lead-up to the upcoming World Cups.
On the heels of Unrivaled 3x3 Basketball's successful debut season, TIME honored league founders Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart as two of the year’s most influential people, with the WNBA superstars earning space on Wednesday's 2025 TIME100 List.
"Unrivaled makes female athletes think about everything differently," retired US soccer legend and Unrivaled investor Alex Morgan wrote in the pair's tribute. "It's not always just take the salary and sign on the dotted line and be happy. Sometimes you can just do it yourself better."
Other big names in women's sports also made the cut, including the most decorated gymnast in history, Simone Biles, and retired tennis superstar Serena Williams.
"She is both deeply human and undeniably superhuman — a combination that makes her impact profound," Biles's former USA teammate Aly Raisman wrote of the seven-time Olympic gold medalist. "She inspires us to believe that we, too, can persevere. That we, too, can shatter limits."
Citing Williams's extensive post-tennis resume, which includes significant investments into women's sports, retired US Olympic track star Allyson Felix sang the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion's praises in the 2025 TIME100 List.
"She continues to show that we, as athletes, are so far from one-dimensional," Felix wrote. "She could take a break from being in the public eye and raise her family. Instead, she continues to pave the way."
Gymnastics superstar Simone Biles is Sports Illustrated's newest Sportsperson of the Year, the magazine announced Thursday. The win follows Biles's historic career comeback and gold medal-winning performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
"I don't think the reality has set in of what I've exactly done in the sport," Biles told the magazine. "I can see it, and I hear it from people, and I see a glimpse of it, but the full magnitude I don't think I've realized just yet."
Biles is the first Olympian to earn the honor since LeBron James in 2012.
Biles subsequently returned to the top of the world stage in 2024, bouncing back after a bout of "the twisties" derailed her 2021 Tokyo Olympics run.
In Paris, Biles became the first gymnast to win two All-Around titles in non-consecutive Olympic Games (2016, 2024). She also took gold in the team and vault events as well as silver in the floor event.
With 11 Olympic and 30 World Championship medals, Biles is the most decorated gymnast in history.
Sportsperson of the Year builds an Olympic legacy
While Biles hasn't fully ruled out another trip to the mat, the 27-year-old isn't interested in discussing a potential LA 2028 campaign just yet.
"Because I've accomplished so much, there's almost nothing left to do. Rather than to just be snobby and to try again, and for what?" she said. "I'm at a point in my career where I'm humble enough to know when to be done."
Fever rookie Caitlin Clark rocketed to the upper tiers of Sportico's annual highest-paid women's sports athletes report on Wednesday, landing in 10th place with an estimated $11 million in yearly earnings.
With tournaments like the US Open guaranteeing equal purses across men's and women's events, tennis players dominated the findings, accounting for nine of the 15 entries. This includes first-place Coco Gauff, who, with $9.4 million in prizes plus $21 million in endorsements, tops the list for the second year in a row.
Skier Eileen Gu came in second, complementing her individual earnings with the list's highest-estimated endorsement profits at $22 million. Gymnast Simone Biles came in at No. 9 with an estimated $11.1 million in total income.
Golfers Nelly Korda and Lydia Ko also made the cut, mirroring the LPGA Tour's expanded purses.
Report highlights endorsements in women's sports
The report underlines the continued importance of endorsements in the women's game — particularly within team sports, where many athletes rely on supplemental income to boost relatively small pro salaries.
However, 2024's estimated $221 million in total earnings is up 27% over last year, with 11 athletes making at least $10 million compared to six in 2023.
Sportico's 15 highest-paid women's sports athletes
1. Coco Gauff: $30.4 million
Prize money: $9.4 million | Endorsements: $21 million
2. Eileen Gu: $22.1 million
Prize money: $62,000 | Endorsements: $22 million
3. Iga Świątek: $21.4 million
Prize money: $8.4 million | Endorsements: $13 million
4. Zheng Qinwen: $20.6 million
Prize money: $5.6 million | Endorsements: $15 million
5. Aryna Sabalenka: $17.7 million
Prize money: $9.7 million | Endorsements: $8 million
6. Naomi Osaka: $15.9 million
Prize money: $870,000 | Endorsements: $15 million
7. Emma Raducanu: $14.7 million
Prize money: $671,000 | Endorsements: $14 million
8. Nelly Korda: $14.4 million
Prize money: $4.4 million | Endorsements: $10 million
9. Simone Biles: $11.1 million
Prize money: $135,000 | Endorsements: $11 million
10. Caitlin Clark: $11.1 million
Salary/bonus: $100,000 | Endorsements: $11 million
11. Jasmine Paolini: $10 million
Prize money: $6.5 million | Endorsements: $3.5 million
12. Jeeno Thitikul: $9.1 million
Prize money: $7.1 million | Endorsements: $2 million
13. Jessica Pegula: $8.2 million
Prize money: $4.2 million | Endorsements: $4 million
14. Elena Rybakina: $7.9 million
Prize money: $3.9 million | Endorsements: $4 million
15. Lydia Ko: $6.7 million
Prize money: $3.2 million | Endorsements: $3.5 million
The 91st, your one-stop-shop for all things USWNT at the 2024 Paris Olympics is back and breaking down the Olympic semifinals.
It wasn't always pretty, but the result remains the same. The USWNT is through to the Olympic gold medal match after back-to-back 1-0 extra time wins over Japan and Germany. Hosts Jordan Angeli, Jess McDonald, and Duda Pavao react to those games, provide player ratings, and talk through Brazil's stunning win over World Cup champions Spain.
Later, Allie Long joins in for a game of "This or That," addressing such pressing issues as whether or not Simone Biles or Katie Ledecky is the bigger GOAT.
To close things out, the crew previews the USWNT's gold medal final and discusses whether Emma Hayes should make some shock lineup changes in order to put the best XI on the pitch.
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