Tennis dominates the top ten of the highest-paid women in sport with eight WTA Tour gamers in the top pay strata in 2022.
The top ten highest-paid women in sport
A brand new technology of marketable feminine sports activities stars is now maturing and making hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
In reality, eight of the top-earning feminine athletes in 2022 earned at the very least $10 million, which is greater than double the quantity from a 12 months in the past and essentially the most females to succeed in that milestone since Forbes began retaining observe of it in 2008.
10 Minjee Lee SPORT: GOLF | NATIONALITY: AUSTRALIA | AGE: 26 | ON-FIELD: $4.8 mil • OFF-FIELD: $2.5 mil
In addition to her triumph on the U.S. Women’s Open in June, the second main occasion in her profession, Lee ended second in 2022 with $3.8 million, inserting her in the top 10 of the LPGA Tour’s official cash record for the fifth consecutive 12 months. By successful the Aon Risk Reward Challenge, a season-long competitors that rewards the golfer with the best common rating to par, she added a $1 million prize. Aon, a British monetary companies large, is by the way one in all her sponsors, together with firms drawn to her South Korean roots, together with Hana Bank and the clothes model WAAC.
Tennis dominates earners misplaced
9 Jessica Pegula SPORT: TENNIS | NATIONALITY: U.S. | AGE: 28 | ON-FIELD: $3.6 mil • OFF-FIELD: $4 mil
Although she has but to go to the semifinals of a Grand Slam, Pegula, the daughter of Buffalo Bills billionaire house owners Terry and Kim Pegula, completed the season because the highest-ranked American tennis participant at No. 3, 4 positions in entrance of Coco Gauff. After becoming a member of the expertise company GSE Worldwide in November, the late-blooming celeb, who has her personal skincare line referred to as Ready 24, will attempt to broaden on her endorsement relationships with Adidas, Yonex, and Ready Nutrition.
8 Simone Biles SPORT: GYMNASTICS | NATIONALITY: U.S. | AGE: 25 | ON-FIELD: $0 • OFF-FIELD: $10 mil
Biles is likely one of the few Olympic athletes who doesn’t seem to lose reputation in years with out the Games. She appeared in new commercials for Powerade, Subway, and a Super Bowl advert for software program firm BMC in 2022 whereas additionally releasing an activewear line with Athleta. Together with soccer participant Megan Rapinoe, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in July. She additionally elevated her inventory place in cybersecurity firm Axonius.
7 Coco Gauff SPORT: TENNIS | NATIONALITY: U.S. | AGE: 18 | ON-FIELD: $3.1 mil • OFF-FIELD: $8 mil
Many in the sport suppose it’s solely a matter of time earlier than Gauff wins a Grand Slam after she practically made a breakthrough on the French Open, the place she superior to the singles and doubles finals. Her off-court earnings is likely to be even increased if it weren’t for her agent, Alessandro Barel Di Sant Albano of Team8, and her mother and father, father Corey, who coaches her, and mom Candi, who homeschooled her. She lately signed an extension with New Balance that was rumored to return with a large pay increase. Her long-term potential have been prioritized, whereas tennis-related distractions and burnout dangers have been stored to a minimal.
6 Venus Williams SPORT: TENNIS | NATIONALITY: U.S. | AGE: 42 | ON-FIELD: $0.1 mil • OFF-FIELD: $12 mil
Venus Williams participated in 4 tournaments in 2022, dropping each match she performed, however she has already been granted a wild card to the Australian Open the next month. A participant with a world rating of 1,007 would usually be rejected by conventional tennis sponsors, however Williams’ endorsement negotiations are significantly extra targeted on her celeb than her Grand Slam outcomes. She maintains a busy talking schedule as properly, making greater than 30 appearances this 12 months, every of which is compensated handsomely.
Top 5 highest-paid women in sport
5 Iga Świątek SPORT: TENNIS | NATIONALITY: POLAND | AGE: 21 | ON-FIELD: $9.9 mil • OFF-FIELD: $5 mil
This 12 months’s French Open and U.S. Open victories by Swiatek gave her three Grand Slam singles championships total, yet another than Osaka for essentially the most amongst lively feminine gamers who aren’t named Williams. By outpacing No. 2 Ons Jabeur in each rating factors and prize cash, she took the top spot in the world rankings and on the record of winners for the 12 months. In September, witek Swiatek secured a contract with IMG, the top tennis company, so as to add to a listing of endorsements that already included Asics and PZU, a Polish insurance coverage supplier.
4 Emma Raducanu SPORT: TENNIS | NATIONALITY: BRITAIN | AGE: 20 | ON-FIELD: $0.7 mil • OFF-FIELD: $18 mil
When Raducanu gained the 2021 U.S. Open as an 18-year-old qualifier, it unleashed a wave of sponsorships, together with these from British Airways, Dior, Evian, HSBC, Porsche, Tiffany, and Vodafone, in addition to Nike. Although the younger British singer’s worldwide singles rating, which peaked at No. 10, has dropped to No. 80, entrepreneurs proceed to seek out her to be fairly interesting. To start with, a current examine by the analytics firm SponsorUnited found that she had the best common engagement of any feminine tennis participant for her branded postings on social media.
3 Eileen Gu SPORT: FREESTYLE SKIING | NATIONALITY: CHINA | AGE: 19 ON-FIELD: $0.1 mil • OFF-FIELD: $20 mil
Gu, who was born and raised in San Francisco however competes internationally for her mom’s nation of China, solidified her ascent to prominence on the Beijing Olympics in February by taking house two gold medals and a silver. She has had success outdoors of the ski slopes as properly. She is a Stanford University scholar presently and has an extended record of sponsors, together with Red Bull, Therabody, Louis Vuitton, Mengniu Dairy, and JD.com. As a shopper of the influential company IMG, she additionally fashions.
Tennis moguls
2 Serena Williams SPORT: TENNIS | NATIONALITY: U.S. | AGE: 41 | ON-FIELD: $0.3 mil • OFF-FIELD: $41 mil
Williams harassed that she was “not retired” and that the chance that she’s going to play tennis once more was “extremely high” at a TechCrunch convention two months after a first-person essay in Vogue appeared to counsel that she was quitting. Even if the break from the sport is simply momentary, she has taken use of the chance by reserving a lot of profitable talking engagements. She additionally has a enterprise capital agency that invests in greater than 70 companies and a brand new enterprise she cofounded to supply topical ache reduction medicines, so she has a lot to maintain her busy. Additionally, she appeared in the current film Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery.
1 Naomi Osaka SPORT: TENNIS | NATIONALITY: JAPAN | AGE: 25 | ON-FIELD: $1.1 mil • OFF-FIELD: $50 mil
Injury-related setbacks plagued Osaka for a lot of the 12 months, and the staff misplaced an enormous sponsor when FTX filed for chapter in November, simply eight months after the partnership had been introduced. Only six athletes on Forbes’ record of the 2022 biggest athletes earned extra money off the sector than she did ($50 million), however she nonetheless has among the finest sponsorship portfolios in sports activities. With the cofounding of a skin-care enterprise, a manufacturing agency, a expertise company, and, beginning of this month, an funding in a pickleball staff, Osaka additionally maintains a busy schedule as an entrepreneur.
