The money for female sports stars is increasing on and off the field, but even for Coco Gauff, Simone Biles and Caitlin Clark, it’s not enough to rank among the elite earners.
It might have been hard to imagine Coco Gauff one-upping her successes of 2023, a year in which she earned $6.7 million in prize money and an estimated $15 million from endorsements and claimed her first Grand Slam title in an emotional victory over Aryna Sabalenka at the U.S. Open.
Yet that’s exactly what the 21-year-old American tennis phenom did in 2024, besting her previous prize money high by collecting $9.4 million and boosting her earnings off the court to $25 million with the additions of hair-care brand Carol’s Daughter, Fanatics and Naked Juice to a sponsor group that now contains 11 partners.
Gauff’s estimated total of $34.4 million last year represents one of the best financial stretches for a female athlete ever measured by Forbes, which has tracked athlete earnings since 1990. (Only Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams have posted higher totals in a calendar year, peaking at $57.3 million and $45.9 million, respectively, in 2021.)
Read the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2025/05/15/why-no-women-are-among-the-worlds-50-highest-paid-athletes-in-2025/
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