Industry News
In the world of women’s professional sports, there are a lot of athletes competing in many different disciplines that are incredible at their sport. Those sports range from golf, tennis, soccer, gymnastics, skiing, and many more. Sportico just released its list of the highest-paid female athletes of 2023, with tennis star Coco Gauff topping the list with $22.7 million in total earnings. Tennis players dominated the list, with 9 out of 15 making the list of highest-paid female athletes. The remainder six female athletes on the list competed in soccer, gymnastics, golf, or skiing.
The two female athletes that made the list for winter sports should be no surprise to anyone, with Eileen Gu and Mikaela Shiffrin representing those two spots. Gu and Shiffrin have become household names throughout the world and dominate the sports they compete in. The two do not participate in the same disciplines in skiing, with Gu competing in freestyle and Shiffrin competing in alpine skiing.
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Eileen Gu led all women in snowsports, earning a total of $20 million between prize money and endorsements in 2023. The 20-year-old is a snowboarder and freestyle skier who won three freestyle skiing medals at the Lausanne 2020 Youth Olympic Games. Her success continued at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, winning two gold medals and one silver in the halfpipe, big air, and slopestyle events.
Gu earned a total of $27,000 in prizes in 2023, with most of her earnings coming in the form of endorsements from sponsors, which ranks her third overall among the highest-paid female athletes in 2023. She is a fashion model who was on the cover of Vogue Magazine, a current student enrolled at Stanford University and is also poised to be one of the big names featured at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy.
Mikaela Shiffrin has been the face of skiing for many years now, and it should be no surprise that she made the list as one of the highest-paid female athletes in 2023. She currently holds the overall record with 92 World Cup Victories in alpine skiing, and the 28-year-old shows no signs of slowing down. Shiffrin is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a seven-time world champion and has been called one of the world’s most dominant athletes by major media publications. She was also named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People and won her first EPSY for Best Athlete in Women’s Sports in 2023.
Shiffrin earned a total of $6.1 million in prize money and endorsements in 2023 with most of that coming in the form of endorsements. It is no surprise that most of these athletes generate most of their money through endorsements, and Shiffrin is no exception. She received $5 million in endorsements while gaining $1.1 million in prize money in 2023. The total of $6.1 million ranks her 13th on the list of highest-paid female athletes for 2023.
To compare, the pay disparity between paid female and male athletes is quite large and is something that has been scrutinized over. The highest-paid male athlete was the Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, who earned a total of $136 million in 2023. The 38-year-old totaled $46 million for On-Field and $90 million in Off-Field earnings, which greatly surpasses any other paid female athlete. Ronaldo has a huge fan base of 850 million followers on social media outlets, which makes him the most followed athlete on the internet. This makes him one of the most sought-after athletes for companies to sponsor him and have Ronaldo endorse their products or services. For these professional athletes, it is important to earn winnings or get that huge contract, however, it is clear that having a lot of good sponsorships is where the real money is at.
