Top 15 Highest Paid Female Athletes of All time

Yuna Kim, arguably the most famous name in figure skating, is the first woman to have won every Grand Slam competition. She is the first female skater to have ever won each of the four main international competitions—the Grand Prix Final, the Four Continents Championships, the World Championships, and the Olympic Games. Yuuna is one of South Korea's most well-known athletes and media icons. She is frequently referred to as Queen Yuna by various media around the world because of her many accomplishments and popularity.

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— Olympic Khel (@OlympicKhel) June 27, 2022

She has also been included in the business magazine's 30 Under 30 and Philanthropy lists. She made a stunning performance at the Winter Olympics in 2010, setting world records in the Free Skate and Short Program. The regular top-ranked athlete surely earned a place among the wealthiest female athletes as she promoted companies like Samsung and Korean Airlines. Even though figure skating is not the female sport with the highest pay, Yuna is included on this list.

Ronda Rousey is a well-known name in the MMA world and the first female fighter to be named into the UFC Hall of Fame. Rousey earned a fortune from acting in several successful films, including Furious 7, Expendables 3, and others. She attracted a sizable fan base due to her success as an Olympian and a WWE celebrity. Numerous companies flocked to her and offered to sponsor her.

Rousey started her mixed martial arts (MMA) career with King of the Cage in 2011. She was the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in judo by winning bronze at the 2008 Summer Olympics. She was selected as the greatest female athlete of all time in a 2015 ESPN fan survey, and Fox Sports called her "one of the defining athletes of the 21st century."Rousey, one of the wealthiest female athletes of the present, is an ambassador for companies like Reebok and Monster Headphones, among others. While there are many male fighters in MMA, women are not compensated well in this sport.

Stacy Lewis held the top spot in the Women's World Golf Rankings for four weeks in 2013. In June 2014, she recaptured it after winning the ShopRite LPGA Classic, keeping it for an additional 21 weeks. She routinely appears on lists of the richest female athletes in the world at age 35. Lewis, who ranked number 41 on the 2015 Golf Digest 50 All-Encompassing Money List, was the highest-earning female.

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Lewis achieved her first victory in three years on September 3, 2017, when she won the Cambia Portland Classic. Lewis dedicated her earnings before the competition to helping Hurricane Harvey victims. Together with her prize money and a matching gift from her primary sponsor, KPMG, this came to $390,000. Lewis won her first championship in nearly three years in 2020 when she prevailed in a playoff at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Ladies Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club in East Lothian, Scotland. Apart from prize money earnings, major endorsements from Fila and KPMG pump up her fortune living. 

Danica Patrick, a renowned open-wheel racer, is one of the wealthiest female athletes in the world. She has previously made several appearances on the list of highest-paid female athletes. Throughout her career, she was sponsored by Coca-Cola, Chevrolet, and Nationwide. She retired from professional racing after 2018. Auto racing can overtake tennis to become the highest-paid female sport since many women have grown ambitious in the wake of Danica's legendary career.

Patrick debuted in the 2012 season of the Sprint Cup Series (now known as the NASCAR Cup Series). She set the quickest qualifying lap for the 2013 Daytona 500, becoming the first female to capture a Cup Series pole position, and came in seventh. She began contributing to The Players' Tribune as a featured writer in 2014 after being drawn to its founder and former shortstop Derek Jeter's idea of empowering athletes to create their material.

American professional basketball player Candace Parker plays for the Chicago Sky in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The Los Angeles Sparks chose her with the first overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft. She earns an average of AUD 7.9 million years, largely as a result of sponsorship deals.  

Parker derives the majority of her money from endorsement deals with companies like Adidas, Band-Aid, Capital One, and CarMax. Parker received long-term endorsement contracts with Adidas and Gatorade after being selected in the WNBA Draft. Candace Parker committed to a two-year, $385,000 deal with the Chicago Sky, with $385,000 of that sum guaranteed and an average annual salary of $192,500. Parker will have a cap hit of $195,000 and a base salary of $195,000 in 2022.

Alex Morgan is a living soccer legend who has helped her teams win at the club, national, and international levels. She competes in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the top level of women's professional soccer in the United States, as a striker and captain for San Diego Wave FC as well as for the American women's national team. Alex has a sizable following base due to her assistance in the US National Team's two FIFA Women's World Cup victories in 2015 and 2019.

Morgan is without a doubt one of the top earners in the NWSL (National Women's Soccer League), where the maximum annual wage is $46,200 (£36K). Numerous sponsors have emerged to assist her journey to the 2023 FIFA. , Chobani and Mondelez International.Her success has been associated with well-known companies like Coca-Cola, AT&T, Panasonic, Nike, and Volkswagen.

Nelly Korda, a professional golfer, is ranked no. 1 in the Women's World Golf Rankings Korda finished as the top-ranked female golfer and took home the Olympic gold medal in the women's golf competition at the 2020 Summer Games. Because of her multiple sponsorship deals, Morgan was named by Time as the highest-paid female soccer player in the United States in 2015.

The first women's soccer players to be featured on the FIFA video game cover in 2015 were Morgan, Christine Sinclair of Canada, and Steph Catley of Australia. On the covers of FIFA 16 that were sold in the US, Morgan and Lionel Messi were also featured. She was recognized as one of Time's 2019 list of the 100 Most Influential People. Morgan has secured endorsement contracts with several companies, including Nike, Panasonic, AT&T, Chobani, McDonald's, P&G, Mondelez International, and Coca-Cola.

Ashleigh Barty was the second tennis player from Australia to be ranked No. 1 in the world in the singles category by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). She had a career-high ranking of No. 5 and was a top-10 doubles player. Barty is the current Wimbledon and Australian Open singles champion as well as a three-time Grand Slam singles champion. The gender wage discrepancy was made evident after her victory at the Western & Southern Open in August, where she earned AUD 353,775 while men's champion Alexander Zverev received AUD 907,726.

She is sponsored by companies like Edgewell Personal Care, Fila Holdings Corp., Head, Jaguar, Marriott International, and Uber Eats. Along with endorsements from companies like FILA, Head, and Rado, she just inked a sponsorship agreement with Marriott Bonvoy.

The star shuttler PV (Pusarla Venkata) Sindhu is not only the highest-paid female athlete in India but also the highest-paid player in women's badminton. She is the second individual Indian athlete to win two straight medals in the Olympics and the first and only to win the badminton world championship. In April 2017, she reached a peak in her career-high global rating of no. 2. Sindhu made the Forbes list of Highest-Paid Female Athletes in 2018, 2019, and 2021 with earnings of US$8.5 million, $5.5 million, and $7.2 million, respectively.

She has endorsement agreements with companies like JBL, Bridgestone Tyres, Gatorade, Moov, Myntra, Flipkart, Nokia, and Panasonic, as well as with several other brands. Sindhu and Chinese sportswear company Li Ning agreed to a four-year, US$6.6 million sponsorship agreement in February 2019. Her agreement is one of the biggest in badminton.

Jin Young Ko, the top female golfer in the world, won the HSBC Women's World Championship in Singapore in March 2022. The number-one-ranked golfer, who was named the LPGA's player of the year last year, had won five of her 13 LPGA Tour championships. Ko previously took home the prize in 2019, a year after winning rookie of the year. She has been the LPGA tour's highest money earner for the past three years.

Ko finished the 2019 season as the official money leader ($2,773,894), the winner of the Vare Trophy for the lowest scoring average (69.06), and the LPGA Player of the Year. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic, she only participated in four tournaments in 2020, yet she ended the season as the top-ranked player in the world after winning the LPGA official money title ($1,667,925). Ko once again took home both the LPGA Player of the Year award and the official money title in 2021. She counts on significant sponsorships from businesses in her native South Korea, including Rejuran skincare goods, LG Electronics, Korean Air, and Jeju SamDaSoo mineral water.

Garbiñe Muguruza has continued to achieve success, appearing once more on the list of top-paid female athletes. The tennis player from Spain and Venezuela is most known for her aggressive serving style and groundstrokes. Muguruza advanced to the third spot in the women's tennis rankings in 2021 by winning three events. The Spanish star's sponsor payments increased significantly as a result, moving from Jaguar and Nivea to Adidas and Babolat, leaving her with an AUD 10.8 million yearly salary.

Additionally, Muguruza has had success in doubles, taking home five titles, placing second at the 2015 WTA Finals, and making it all the way to the 2014 French Open quarterfinals. Since 2012, Muguruza has been an Adidas spokesperson for clothing, accessories, and athletic wear. In June 2014 and December 2014, she was selected as the ambassador for BBVA bank and Mazda Spain, respectively. Along with these brands, she also endorses Rolex, Evian, Jaguar Cars, Nivea, Beats Electronics, and Maui Jim. She was ranked as the 14th most marketable athlete by SportsPro in June 2016.

The first gymnast to be among the highest-paid female athletes in the world in at least a decade is Simone Biles. She is regarded as one of the best and most powerful gymnasts in history. Biles won gold medals as an individual in the all-around, vault, and floor events; bronze on the balancing beam; and gold as a member of the American team. She is the sixth woman to take home the gold in the individual all-around competition at the World and Olympic Championships.

In August 2021, she teamed up with Autograph to start releasing NFTs, and in October she joined mental-health firm Cerebral as "chief impact officer." She confirmed her endorsement by Nike on Twitter in November 2015. In 2016, Biles inked agreements to become a spokesman for Beats By Dr. Dre and to work with Spieth America to develop a line of gymnastics equipment. Biles announced her leave from Nike for a new clothing sponsorship with the Gap's Athleta brand in April 2021.

Venus Williams is a former No. 1 singles and doubles tennis player who has won seven Grand Slam singles titles, including five at Wimbledon and two at the US Open. She is largely recognized as one of the greatest athletes to ever play the game. She became the first African American woman to hold the No. 1 singles position in the Open Era on February 25, 2002. Williams is the active player with the second-most singles titles with 49 WTA Tour victories, behind only her sister Serena. In addition, she and her sister Serena are the only two active players to have advanced to all four major singles finals.

Williams led the season prize money two times (in 2001 and 2017), and as of March 2022, she was second only to Serena in total career prize money victories with nearly US$42 million. Venus Williams signed a $40 million, five-year contract with Reebok in 2000, making it the largest endorsement agreement ever for a female athlete. Endorsement: Wilson, Tide, Kraft, Electronic Arts, Ralph Lauren, and Lacoste.

Serena Williams, a living icon, is ranked as the second-highest-paid female athlete. The tennis star has more than a dozen corporate sponsors, and her $94 million in career winnings is twice what any other female athlete has ever earned. Through her company, Serena Ventures, which revealed in March 2022 had raised an initial fund of $111 million. Williams has invested in more than 60 firms. Williams earned about $29 million in 2016, making her the highest-paid female athlete in the world. With $27 million in prize money and endorsements, she replicated this record in 2017 when she was the only female on Forbes' list of the 100 highest-paid athletes.

we're PUMPED UP!!!!!@serenawilliams | #RothesayInternational pic.twitter.com/RZnvzo0ajK

— wta (@WTA) June 21, 2022

Williams has received more prize money from the WTA Tour than any other female tennis player, totaling US $94,518,971. She makes about $8 million a year from her tennis career. She is showered with endorsement offers as she is one of the most marketable players. She is sponsored by companies like Nike, Wilson, Gatorade, Delta Air Lines, Aston Martin, Pepsi, Beats by Dr. Dre, JP Morgan Chase, Audemars Piguet, Bumble, Upper Deck, IBM, and Intel.

Naomi Osaka stands at the top of the list of highest-paid female athletes with earnings of $57.3 million, undoubtedly a female athlete's calendar-year record. She is the first Asian player to hold the top singles ranking, according to the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) rankings. With Osaka ranking seventh among all athletes in terms of endorsement income in 2020, she is one of the most marketable athletes in the world. In terms of yearly earnings, she was also the highest-paid female athlete in history at the time.

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— Estadão Esportes (@EstadaoEsporte) June 22, 2022

One of the world's most marketable athletes, Osaka came in second among female athletes behind Serena Williams, who made $25 million, with an estimated $16 million in sponsorship revenue alone in 2019. Yonex has been the sponsor of Osaka's tennis racquets for the past ten years. Nike offers her clothing support. She is an ambassador for the Japanese watch and vehicle companies Nissan Motor and Citizen. Osaka, who is currently the highest-paid female athlete in the world, has earned $60 million in endorsements and prize money despite her frequent absences from the competition.