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.
And let’s not even get started on the pay of our local female athletes…
In other sporting news this week…
The Australian women’s basketball team – the Opals – secured their spot in the Rio 2016 Olympic games. They beat the New Zealand Ferns 80-63 in Tauranga on Monday. This will be the Opals sixth straight Olympic Games. Congratulations.
There will be an all female team at the Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercars endurance race this year. It’s the first time there’s been an all women line up since 1998. It will be held in October this year. Swiss Indycar and Formula E driver Simona de Silvestro will come together with Australian racer Renee Gracie to compete. The duo will be competing in a wildcard entry. They’ll be part of the regular V8 supercars grid in Bathurst.
Football goalkeeper, Brianna Davey will be joining Melbourne City FC going in to the 2015/16 W-League season. The 20-year-old is very talented and will be joining a strong team – with Lisa De Vanna and Laura Alleway joining the team too. Davey first played in the W-League at 15 years of age and has been doing amazing things ever since. Congratulations.
What sport have you been watching or playing this week?
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.