Why None Of 2026’s 50 Highest-Paid Athletes Are Women |
Few investments have performed better in recent years than a women’s sports team. A half-decade after Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis bought the cross-town Aces for $2 million, the WNBA’s defending champions are valued at $420 million, and all of the league’s teams are worth at least $250 million. Meanwhile, NWSL teams are now worth $200 million on average, four years after the $35 million valuation in healthcare entrepreneur Michele Kang’s purchase of the Washington Spirit was thought to be an exorbitant price.
Those advances are gradually trickling down from the ownership suite to the field of play. The WNBA, for instance, more than quadrupled its salary cap this season, to $7 million under the league’s new collective bargaining agreement, from $1.5 million in 2025.
But there’s still a wide gap between the top-earning female athletes and their male counterparts.
For the third consecutive year, no woman ranks among the world’s 50 highest-paid athletes, with top-ranked men’s tennis player Jannik Sinner setting the list’s cutoff at $54.6 million in income over the past 12 months. By contrast, fellow tennis star Coco Gauff led Forbes’ most recent ranking of the world’s highest-paid female athletes with an estimated $33 million in 2025 earnings, consisting of $8 million in prize money and a $25 million haul off the court from sponsorships, appearances, exhibitions and other business endeavors.
The last woman to crack the 50 highest-paid athletes overall was Serena Williams, whose estimated $45.3 million in income for the 2023 list came almost entirely from her brand deals as she transitioned into retirement. And only three other women—all tennis stars—have qualified for the top 50 at any point since 2012: Maria Sharapova, Li Na and Naomi Osaka, whose $60 million in 2021 remains an earnings........