From Iga Swiatek To Eileen Gu: A Look At The Highest-Paid Female Athletes of 2023
December 21, 2023
2,807
45
1
1.64%
Search the Record
IndexedEvery word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
Forbes Episodes Around December 21, 2023
See what was published immediately before and after this episode.
8:20Now PlayingFrom Iga Swiatek To Eileen Gu: A Look At The Highest-Paid Female Athletes of 2023
Chapters
YouTube Description
as posted by the channelIga Świątek, Eileen Gu and Coco Gauff are the top earners for the past 12 months as tennis players continue to dominate the annual pay ranking. With Serena Williams retired and Naomi Osaka sidelined for the year as she recovered from injuries and then childbirth, the list of the world’s highest-paid female athletes has a new No. 1: 22-year-old Polish tennis star Iga Świątek, who made an estimated $23.9 million in 2023 (before taxes and agents’ fees). Since Forbes introduced the ranking in 2008, Maria Sharapova is the only other woman to have claimed the crown, reigning for eight straight years until Williams took over in 2016.
Świątek’s monster year included the women’s singles title at the French Open, and four new endorsement deals, but it’s also no coincidence that she—like Osaka, Williams and Sharapova before her—plays tennis. Twelve of the world’s 20 highest-paid female athletes, and nine of the top 10, come from the sport, which offers sizable prize money and ample marketing opportunities for female athletes.
Golf and soccer each have two athletes represented in this year’s top 20, with badminton, basketball, gymnastics and freestyle skiing rounding out the list with one athlete apiece.
Combined, the 20 top-earning women made an estimated $226 million in 2023. That is a 13% drop from 2022’s $258 million, but the decline can be attributed almost entirely to the loss of Williams (who hauled in $41.3 million on last year’s list) and Osaka’s tumble to $15 million (from $51.1 million in 2022) amid her long layoff.
Forbes SportsMoney Reporter Justin Birnbaum, joins 'Forbes Talks' to list the highest paid female athletes.
Read the full story on Forbes
Subscribe to FORBES
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
Stay Connected
Forbes newsletters
Forbes on Facebook
Forbes Video on Twitter
Forbes Video on Instagram
More From Forbes
Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.
Guests & Subjects Covered
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.