A list of the world’s highest-paid athletes has been released from sports industry news site Sportico, and there isn’t one woman in the top 100.
Dominated by male players from football, the NBA, NFL, golf and boxing, the leading 100 names earned an estimated $6.2 billion in total income last year. The figure includes $4.8 billion in salary and prize money plus $1.4 billion in endorsements.
Maintaining his spot at the top of the list of highest-paid athletes for a second straight year was star footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, with a total income of $260 million in 2024. Ronaldo plays on a lucrative contract for the Saudi Arabian football team Al-Nassr.
Ronaldo’s earnings can be broken down into $215 million in wages, while $45 million came from endorsements.
The top-earning female athlete was US tennis champion Coco Gauff, who earned $30.4 million, having won the doubles title at the French Open as well as the singles championship at the end-of-season WTA Finals.
Gauff’s income was well short of the total income of the male player who came in at number 100, Minnesota Vikings quarterback Daniel Jones, who earned $37.5 million.
Some other notable female athletes missing from the list include Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles, World Champion tennis star Serena Williams and basketball phenomenon Caitlin Clark, credited with helping popularise the women’s game.
Coming in second on the Sportico list was NBA superstar Steph Curry, who earned an estimated $153.8 million, and Britain’s Tyson Fury came in third, with a reported $147 million in earnings.
In fourth place was Inter Miami’s Argentia captain Lionel Messi at $135m and Los Angeles Lakers forward Lebron James at $133.2 million.
According to Sportico, the top 100 list includes athletes from eight sports and 27 countries.
While women’s sport has made huge strides, the lack of women in the top 100 highest earners for 2024 highlights the barriers that continue to persist.
A global sports salary survey by Sporting Intelligence in 2017 showed that, among elite athletes, women earn on average only onw per cent of what men earn, and prize money for women’s sport continues to lag behind men’s.
The average monthly salary for female footballers in Argentina’s Primera División is USD $225, while the men’s national team, winners of the 2022 World Cup, took home USD $42 million. A recent study by FIFPRO, the global professional footballers’ union, found that 29 per cent of women players who responded had not received any payments from their national teams for World Cup qualifying tournaments.