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.
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."
One of the largest storylines of the Olympics' final week actually stemmed from the first week of competition, as USA Gymnastics battles to retain the Olympic bronze medal won by Jordan Chiles in the individual floor final.
Chiles was awarded bronze after an inquiry from her coaches successfully challenged her original difficulty score, adding a crucial 0.1 to her tally to place her third over Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu.
How did Jordan Chiles lose her bronze medal?
After the final, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that the initial inquiry — the one that resulted in the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) changing Chiles's score — was submitted four seconds after the one-minute deadline. The ruling dictated that Chiles's original score of 13.666 be reinstated, elevating Barbosu to third place and stripping Chiles of her bronze medal.
Truth be told, the move is a drastic measure usually reserved for doping or cheating allegations. It's incredibly rare to force an athlete to return an Olympic medal due to a scoring mistake.
USA Gymnastics submits evidence to refute Romanian appeal
USA Gymnastics is not backing down, stating on Sunday that they had submitted photo and video evidence proving that the team made the inquiry within the allotted time period.
"The video footage provided was not available to USA Gymnastics prior to the tribunal’s decision and thus USAG did not have the opportunity to previously submit it," the Federation wrote.
"The initial error occurred in the scoring by FIG, and the second error was during the CAS appeal process, where the USOPC was not given adequate time or notice to effectively challenge the decision."
While both athletes might be happy to share a bronze, USA Gymnastics is now engaged in an appeal battle with a number of governing nations to preserve Chiles's accomplishment.
"We remain dedicated to supporting her as an Olympic champion and will continue to work diligently to resolve this matter swiftly and fairly," concluded USAG.
Simone Biles and her US women's gymnastics team — dubbed the "Golden Girls" — took Olympic gold in Tuesday's team all-around final, leading after every rotation to finish a dominant 5.80 points ahead of second place.
With high difficultly levels and only one fall, the US's "redemption tour" passed its first major Olympic test of 2024, earning Team USA their third team gold over the last four Games.
Italy took silver, marking their first women's team medal in almost a century, while bronze medalists Brazil earned their first-ever medal in women's gymnastics.
Veterans fuel USA gymnastics' Olympic comeback
Though their Olympic pedigrees can't be denied, Biles, Suni Lee, and Jordan Chiles's collective comeback is now the stuff of legend.
Biles stuck her performances on all four apparatuses, putting to rest any doubts after a case of the twisties caused her to withdraw from the team and individual all-around in Tokyo. Meanwhile, reigning Olympic all-around champion Lee had to overcome rare kidney disease to make her Olympic return, putting in confident routines on three apparatuses in yesterday's final.
In her long-awaited triumph, Chiles earned her first Olympic gold after taking silver in the team event in Tokyo.
Consistency key to US gold medal
Team USA showed their depth despite losing key contributors to injury at last month's Trials, prioritizing stuck routines in an overall steady showing. Biles performed a less taxing Cheng vault as compared to her famed Yurchenko double pike on the team's first rotation, though the historic vault could make a return in the individual all-around competition.
Jordan Chiles suffered the team's only fall — during her mount on balance beam — but shined on floor in the team's last rotation.
Next, all eyes turn to Thursday's individual all-around final, where Biles, Lee, and Brazil's Rebeca Andrade are the gymnasts to watch in the quest for gold.
Simone Biles is headed to her third Olympics, headlining a Team USA that includes a number of familiar faces.
Joining her are Suni Lee, Jordan Chiles, and Jade Carey — both Lee and Chiles were on the Olympic team three years ago, while Carey competed as an individual qualifier in Tokyo and won gold on floor. Teenager Hezly Rivera is the team’s only newcomer.
"This is definitely our redemption tour," Biles said at the US Olympic Gymnastics Trials on Sunday. "I feel like we all have more to give.
"I knew I wasn’t done after Tokyo," Biles added. "Getting back to the gym, trusting the process, I knew I’d be back."
Biles spent much of the Tokyo Olympics on the sidelines after getting the Twisties. Lee went on to win Olympic gold in the all-around, but has struggled in the last year with kidney disease. She was emotional Sunday, telling reporters she "didn’t think I’d be here."
"I’m so, so glad I kept going," she said. "There were so many times I thought about quitting and walking away from this sport."
Joscelyn Roberson and Leanne Wong were named alternates, while leading contenders Shilese Jones, Skye Blakely, and Kayla DiCello all exited with injuries.
At 27 years old, Biles is Team USA’s oldest Olympic gymnast since 1952. And as a whole, this year’s squad is the oldest to ever represent the US at the Olympics, with Carey (24), Chiles (23), and Lee (21) all over the age of 20.
With 2016 all-around gold medalist Biles and defending champion Lee, the roster will be the first from any country in Olympic history to have two Olympic all-around champions on the mat as the quartet hopes to improve on their 2021 silver-medal team finish.
"Of course, gold is the goal," Chiles said. "But this redemption tour is not about that. It’s about us. We all went through so much in Tokyo, and to be back, I’m so proud of all of us."
Biles, however, is taking things one step at a time.
"I feel like success is just what I make it," she said. "I feel like right now I’ve been successful of competing at Olympic trials and making the Paris Olympic team. So then we’ll see from there on out."
Simone Biles took home a ninth All-Around title at the US Championships this weekend, extending her own record and setting the scene for a possibly dominant Olympics run.
Biles also won all four individual apparatus events she competed in: Floor, Beam, Vault, and Uneven Bars. Following the meet, Biles said she "couldn’t be more proud."
"I couldn’t be more proud of how I’m doing this time in the year and just gaining that confidence over and over, getting myself back in front of a crowd and just doing what I do in practice," Biles told the NBC broadcast on Sunday.
A 37-time world and Olympic medalist, Biles automatically qualified for the Olympic trials with her win. A third-straight Summer Games is now firmly within sight for Biles, who suffered from a mental block at the Tokyo Olympics that pulled her from the All-Around competition.
Biles took two years off from gymnastics after the Tokyo Games, emphasizing her ability to have fun as an essential component of her success.
"It took a lot mentally and physically to just trust my gymnastics again and most importantly trust myself," Biles said at a news conference after Sunday's competition. "I think that was the hardest part after Tokyo is I didn't trust myself to do gymnastics.
"Everyone says I look like I’m having fun, so that’s good because I feel like most of the time if I’m not stressing or having anxiety, I do feel like I’m having fun."
The reigning World Champion, the 27-year-old is once again looking like a front-runner to win the All-Around gold medal.
"Now, having gone to two Olympics, each one gets a little bit more stressful because I know exactly what to expect," she said. "I know exactly what I expect from myself."
Even amidst her dominance, Biles took the time to encourage her fellow competitors. Following a fall by Suni Lee, Biles offered up words of support to her former Olympic teammate, saying she knew exactly what Lee was going through.
"I dealt with that in Tokyo," Biles said Sunday. "I just knew that she needed some encouragement and somebody to trust her gymnastics for her and to believe in her, so that’s exactly what I did."
"I don’t think I could have done it without her," Lee said about Biles after the meet. "She’s been one of my biggest inspirations for a long time. I know that we’re kind of teammates and competitors, but she’s somebody that I look up to."
Three-time Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas has withdrawn her 2024 Olympics bid.
Douglas made it official when she exited the Xfinity US Gymnastics Championships this weekend, citing an ankle injury suffered during training this week. The move ends her recent comeback attempt to make the 2024 Paris Olympic team after an eight-year hiatus.
Had she made the Olympic squad, the 28-year-old would have been the oldest American woman to compete in an Olympic gymnastics event since 1952.
"I love this sport and I love pushing my limits," Douglas told ESPN. "I hope I can inspire both my peers and the next generation of gymnasts that age is just a number, and you can accomplish anything you work hard for."
A two-time Olympian, Douglas became the first Black gymnast to win the all-around title at an Olympics in 2012. In 2016, she helped the US to back-to-back team golds at the Rio Games. In February 2024, she announced her impending comeback and returned to competition the following April at the American Classic. She also withdrew from her most recent outing at May's Core Hydration Classic after a troubling start at the uneven bars.
Douglas plans to continue to train after recovering from her injury, with an eye on making it to the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
"I proved to myself and to the sport that my skills remain at an elite level," Douglas said. "My plan is to continue to train for the LA 2028 Olympics. It would be such an honor to represent the US at a home Olympics."
The 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships are here, and Simone Biles has won a sixth all-around title.
Two days after Biles and Team USA won gold in the team competition, the 26-year-old became the most decorated gymnast in the history of the sport. With her individual gold medal, she has won 34 Olympic or world championship medals in her career, surpassing the previous record of 33 set by Belarusian men’s gymnast Vitaly Scherbo.
Already, Biles had etched her name in the record books by landing the Yurchenko double pike in the qualifying session. She is the first gymnast to do so in international competition, so the move will now be named the “Biles II.” And with the team win Wednesday, she became the only gymnast ever to be a part of five gold-medal winning teams at worlds.
On Friday, she added to her success in Antwerp, Belgium, winning her 21st gold medal at the world championships, and her 27th overall.
The U.S. women have won gold in the team competition in seven consecutive world championships, an all-time record. Shilese Jones, Leanne Wong, Skye Blakely and Joscelyn Roberson competed alongside Biles, accumulating a score of 167.729 points and beating out second-place Brazil (165.530).
Biles also is qualified to compete in all four event finals on Saturday and Sunday.
2023 World Gymnastics Championships: How to watch
- Wednesday, Oct. 4 – Women’s Team Final
- 1:30 p.m. ET on Peacock
- Friday, Oct. 6 – Women’s All-Around Final*
- 1:30 p.m. ET on Peacock
- Saturday, Oct. 7 – Apparatus Finals, Day 1
- 8 a.m. ET on Peacock
- Sunday, Oct. 8 – Apparatus Finals, Day 2
- 8 a.m. ET on Peacock; 2 p.m. ET highlights on CNBC
*Note: The women’s all-around final also will be re-aired at noon Saturday, Oct. 14, on NBC.
Simone Biles continues to make history, making a record sixth world championships roster for the U.S. gymnastics team.
The 26-year-old earned an all-around total of 55.7000 at the selection camp, which put her ahead of Shilese Jones and Sky Blakely for the top spot on the roster. She becomes the only U.S. woman to qualify for six world championship teams. Admittedly, though, her performance to make the team was not her best.
“I feel like everybody was nervous [Tuesday] — not just me,” Biles told reporters Wednesday. “And I don’t know why. But it was just rough. So today was a lot better.”
Biles is joined by three gold medal winners from the 2022 world championships – Jones, Blakely and Leanne Wong. Additionally, 17-year-old Joscelyn Robertson was named to the roster.
The event marks a return to Antwerp, Belgium, for Biles, who won the first of her five all-around titles there at just 16 years old. In an Instagram story post following her qualification, she wrote, “Back to where it all started, see you soon Belgium.”
It’s been a decade, but Biles will return to Antwerp – this time looking to become the most decorated gymnast in history.
Currently, Biles has 32 combined Olympic and world championship medals – 25 of which have come at the world championships. She’s currently tied with Larisa Latynina of the Soviet Union, who retired in 1966, for the most medals ever at the two events, but Biles could break that tie with a medal at worlds.
The next major event after the 2023 world championships will be 2024 Paris Olympics, and Biles wants to compete for the U.S. at another Summer Games. But she’s taking it one step at a time, and that now includes a trip to the world championships.
“Everything we’re doing leading up to this next Games, or whatever, is very intentional,” she said earlier this month. “I think I have to take care of myself a little bit more and listen to my body and making sure I’m making time for the important things in my life, rather than before it was just like go, go, go and then making time after.
“This time around, it’s being intentional, going to therapy, making sure everything is aligned so I can do the best in the gym and be like, a good wife, good daughter, good friend — all the good things.”