It’s not fantastic…
Forbes has just released the list of top paid female athletes in the world for 2015.
The good news? The women are getting paid!
The bad news? Not one of the women on the list plays for a team.
The top 10 women are as follows:
10: Yani Tseng. A pro golfer who earned $6.1 million for the year.
9. Agnieszka Radwanska. A tennis player who earned $6.9 million.
8. Ana Ivanovic. A tennis player who earned $7.2 million.
7. Kim Yuna. A figure skater who earned $9 million.
6. Victoria Azarenka. A tennis player who earned $9.7 million.
5. Danica Patrick. A An auto-racing driver who earned $13 million.
4. Caroline Wozniacki. A tennis player who earned $13.7 million.
3. Serena William. A tennis player who earned $16.3 million.
2. Li Na. A tennis player who earned $18.4 million.
1. Maria Sharapova. A tennis player who earned $27.1 million.
Big money in that list. Big earnings. Sure. But let’s just have a look at the top five men:
5. Roger Federer. A tennis player who earned $67 million.
4. Lionel Messi. A football player who earned $73.8 million.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo. A football player who earned $79.6 million.
2. Manny Pacquiao. A boxer who earned $160 million.
1. Floyd Mayweather. A boxer who earned $300 million.
So number one on the women’s list earned $39.9 million less than the fifth top male – and they both play the same sport. The number one female athlete earned $272.9 million less than the top male athlete.
Related: The highest paid athlete in the world also brutalises women.
That means between June 2014 and June 2015 the top male athlete in the world banked up over $270 million more the top female athlete. This was Sharapova’s 11th year in a row as the top paid female athlete and still she earned no where near as much as the men.
What’s more, seven of the top 10 women played tennis, which is awesome for the game. But what about the other sports? What about team sports?
We want to be excited about the top paid female athletes list. But in the scheme of things it’s a little disappointing.
Top Comments
Go Aussie Diamonds - 2015 Netball World Cup winners!!
I read an article on how much each team in the ANZ Netball championship are allocated for players salaries.. something like 250k for 12 players. The players would only be able to commit full time to netball if they get external sponsorship deals on top of their salary from the club. If you look at NRL or AFL in Australia, you would see a player on his own getting that kind of money.