Women athletes have come a long way since the early days of sports, when they were overshadowed by their male counterparts. There is still inequality when it comes to how much athletes earn, male sports superstars still earn a lot more than women that are dominating their sports. Take tennis for instance: Serena Williams has been dominating the WTA circuit for years and has earned almost 29 million dollars in 2016 between prize money and advertising revenue, while Novak Djokovic, the best male tennis player in recent years, has brought home 56 million dollars last year.
Highest earning female athletes
Serena Williams was the highest-paid female athlete in 2016, while fellow tennis player Maria Sharapova was second in this ranking with 22 million dollars earned, mostly from advertising and other lucrative enterprises. A special story is that of Ronda Rousey, now a global superstar in MMA and UFC fights. She was the first American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in judo, it happened at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. But that didn't give her too much money and glory, she started earning large sums only after entering the ring in MMA and UFC, earning 14 million dollars in 2016.
Iconic racing driver Danica Patrick earned 13.9 million dollars in 2016 and she is still the only woman to win an IndyCar Series race. Polish tennis player Agnieszka Radwanska has earned 10.2 million dollars last year, and half of that was from prize money that she has worked hard for in WTA tournaments. Another tennis player, Caroline Wozniacki, is sixth in the ranking of the highest earning female athletes in 2016. But, compared to Radwanska, she earned most of her money from advertising deals, just 1 million out of the 8 million she earned was from prize money.
Garbine Muguruza, Ana Ivanovic, Victoria Azarenka and Eugenie Bouchard, all tennis players, complete the top ten ranking of highest earning female athletes in 2016. In fact, Ronda Rousey and Danica Patrick are the only female athletes outside tennis to make that top ten. It is quite clear that tennis is ahead of other sports when it comes to fair payment of the women athletes.
Women athletes with most Facebook fans
In today's internet-driven society, the number of Facebook likes is an indicator of how popular a public figure is. Tennis players dominate this ranking as well, with Maria Sharapova's official page boasting over 15 million likes. She won't be playing professional tennis for a while though as she is still suspended after testing positive for meld onium, a substance that is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Ronda Rousey is a rising star on Facebook, her official page has gone past 11 million likes and it might soon become more popular than Sharapova's. The third place in this ranking is quite a surprise as it goes to an athlete most of the Western world might have never heard about: Saina Nehwal from India. Nehwal is a badminton player and her Facebook page has nearly 8 million likes. She is the first Indian badminton player to have won an Olympic medal and she was the number one ranked player in the world for a while but is currently ranked ninth.
Some might add the top female wrestlers in this ranking, the likes of Nikki Bella or her sister Brie Bella, but American-style wrestling might be closer to acting than sports. Serena Williams, probably the most successful female athlete at the moment, has just over 5 million fans on Facebook. Her career track record is simply amazing, with 23 Grand Slam titles and the honor of being the only tennis player in history (man or woman!) to have won singles titles at least six times in three of the four Grand Slam tournaments. She has been dominating the WTA circuit for more than a decade and will probably continue to do so if she really wants that.
A very popular figure in Asia, South Korean figure skater Yuna Kim has nearly three million fans on Facebook. She has won an amazing number of medals at continental and world competitions, including the Olympic gold medal at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. The most popular soccer player among women is Alex Morgan, the star of the United States of America national team, with over three million fans on the social network. She has won both an Olympic Gold medal and a World Cup title with the national team.
Big names from the past
The early years of the twentieth century have seen some amazing women athletes performing on the world stage, but unfortunately for them, there were no global media back then and no internet either. Take Babe Didrickson Zaharias for instance, a young American woman that won three medals in three different events at the 1932 Olympic games: gold in both the 80-meter hurdles and javelin throw and silver in the high jump. Such a performance would make the headlines all over the world these days. Moreover, she was also a successful golf player and also achieved All-American status in basketball!
Across the ocean, in the United Kingdom, young Lottie Dod was writing history in tennis, becoming the youngest ever tournament winner at Wimbledon at the age of just 15. She went on to win the prestigious tournament four more times but she also played field hockey for the England national team and also won an Olympic medal in archery.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee was the most iconic female athlete of her generation, winning six Olympic medals. Two of those medals were gold and were won in Heptathlon, the discipline that rewards the most complete athletes across seven different events. Sports Illustrated voted her the greatest female athlete of the 20th century. Jackie Joyner-Kersee is 54 years old today, involved in philanthropy efforts and also in the Board of Directors for USA Track & Field. She does not have a Facebook page but she would have less fans than Maria Sharapova anyway. She is still one of the most famous athletes to have become successful despite suffering of severe asthma.
Becoming popular as a woman athlete these days is not necessarily dependant on the athletic performances, global media and the social networks can bless even mediocre athletes with popularity. But women in sports still deserve a lot of credit for their efforts, especially because they are still earning a lot less than their male counterparts.
Sources:
"Who is the All Time Greatest Female Athlete?", TopEndSports
'The World's Highest-Paid Female Athletes 2016', Forbes
'32 most popular female athletes on Facebook', SportsChatter
