Author: Evelyn Haaman

Recording the number of basketball fans has filled arenas to watch the Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese Recruit Seasons. Simone Biles captivated the world at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Coco Gauff made the history of women’s tennis.

All this was part of a central year for women in sport, financially and culturally, and after a constant increase in popularity and scope in recent years, the female game is more precious than ever.

“(Clark) has just moved the needle of the World Women’s Movement in Sports,” said Jennie Finch, the big and the Olympic gold medalist. “And what a shiver is to be able to see her go up.”

Consulting company Deloitte said in November 2023 that female sports would generate more than a billion dollars in world income this year for the first time, which, according to the company, increased by around 300% compared to its last estimate in 2021. Major factors.

In July, the WNBA signed a historic 11 -year -old media rights agreement with Disney, Amazon Prime and NBC worth around $ 200 million – a leap to around 60 million dollars currently. The players hope that higher wages and a greater share of income could be on the horizon while parity, the power of the stars and the competition in the WNBA continue to grow.

The WNBA has experienced its most watched regular season in 24 years and the best attendance in 22 seasons, and Commissioner Cathy Engelbert declared in a recent address of the state of the league that players get much more marketing offers, transforming them into household names. This includes the Las Vegas star A’ja Wilson, who has experienced one of the most dominant seasons in the history of the WNBA, and Clark, which has set numerous recus records.

The decisive match 5 of the WNBA final between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx pulled an average of 2.2 million viewers, culminating at 3.3 million, which made it the most watched WNBA match in 25 years.

“We have gained popularity, in the media rights, all these things,” said Amira Rose Davis, sport historian and assistant professor at the University of Texas in Austin.

“This period is rapid acceleration,” continued Davis. “Where all this growth seems to pass to overdrive, where transactions become larger, where visibility extends.”

Clark, the Vivel Indiana goalkeeper became a phenomenon when she played in Iowa, capitalized on a foundation placed by stars of hoops such as Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker and Wilson, and turbocharged the Visibility of women’s basketball.

Ticket sales for Indiana fever matches increased by 182% in 2024 compared to the previous season. The fever also broke the attendance record of 13,398 established by Liberty in 1998 with approximately 16,084 tickets sold per game. And the games showing Clark and its rival on the Reese field of the Chicago Sky have prompted debates on social networks on basketball, race and culture.

“Something I have always tried to do with me was to climb and raise the match,” said Finch, now advisor to the Softball of Athletes Unlimited. “And that’s what (Clark) does and his teammates. And just to be able to watch her do it and how much she humbly does it, and the impact not only of domestic female basketball, but female athletics in the world. It’s a dream.

While many indicate the WNBA as a plan to succeed in female sports, the achievements in 2024 went far beyond a league or an athlete.

Gauff, the 20 -year -old tennis superstar, was the best -paid female athlete in the world this year with $ 30.4 million in income, according to the Sporto ranking. Gauff could not defend his title of open in 2023, but ended his 2024 season with a WTA final title and a check for $ 4.8 million – the biggest payment of all time For a female tennis event, by Sportico.

The Olympic Games approached the complete gender parity for the first time among the more than 11,000 men and women who contributed to Paris this summer.

More than 34 million people on all NBC platforms in the United States have seen Biles exorcise demons from its surprising release of Tokyo Games three years earlier. The 27 -year -old woman shared a message of resilience and redemption when she added four gold medals to her CV. Almost everything she did in Paris made the headlines – an applause on social media trolls, a revelation on her mental health, a moment of triumph. His tiktok showing the gold medals of the United States team of team competition has more than 139 million views.

“It has become a symbol,” said Davis. “Whether you want to symbolize it as persevering or talk about mental health or refusal, the policy of refusal. Or (that) you wanted to symbolize it as an abandonment – to be everything you deplore in the country. Anyway, the two projections have even higher it. »»

And while Gauff and Biles skyrocketed, the leagues of other women have taken advantage of this visibility.

The Professional Women’s Hockey League brought 392,259 fans during its inaugural regular season, underlined by a record for female hockey of 21,105 at the NHL Canadiens Maison for a Montreal-Toronto confrontation. The league has also concluded sponsorship agreements with Scotiaban, Air Canada and Hyundai.

The strong first season of the PWHL showed its organizers and players that there is an appetite for female sports, so much so that there is hope to go from six to eight teams in 2025.

“For many of us who have been in the game for so long, it is emotional to think about the origin of the game, from where we have arrived,” said Jayna Hefford, vice-president of hockey operations in the League . “We spend a lot of time reading research and all these things that suggest time is now and that the Fandom is there. And being able to experience this and feeling it in real time was quite special. »»

Keith Stein and Justine Siegal also want to capitalize on the female sports landscape.

Siegal, a former baseball player and coach, has teamed up with Stein, lawyer and businessman, to create the female baseball league, which announced last month his intention to launch in 2026 as a circuit Six teams for players. It will be the first professional league for women since the Professional Baseball League for All-American girls dissolved in 1954.

“Leagues like WNBA and the Women’s Football League (National) have made a lot of big efforts,” said Stein. “And they are partly responsible as long as we have at this time when women’s sport is a phenomenon.

“I think there are, in some respects, much more momentum behind the development of women’s sports leagues than for men.”

Keely Hodgkinson was crowned sports personality of the BBC of the year during a award ceremony in Salford on Tuesday evening, at the end of an astonishing year which saw her become the 800m Olympic champion in Paris.

Hodgkinson clearly stormed the final to finally win a world gold medal, having won money at Tokyo Games three years earlier and won the money at the world athletics championships twice.

The Spoty Prize caps 12 months for the 22 -year -old woman from the Grand Manchester, during which she also successfully defended her European title and set a new British record of 1 min 54.61 second, making her sixth The fastest woman in history.

After being announced the winner by Sir Chris Hoy, Hodgkinson said on stage: “This year was absolutely incredible for me.

“I realized everything I started to do on the outdoor track, which is rare, so I am very grateful to be in this position. Thank you to everyone who voted at home – I hope you all loved looking at Paris as much as I loved participating.

Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows won the year’s prize for the year after guiding the athlete towards glory, and Hodgkinson said: “I am actually more excited to make my trainer honest because I would not be Not where I am without him and his of the advice that I have since the age of 17. »»

Hodgkinson came out at the top of a public vote in a limited list of six athletes which contained the Paralympic champion in series Lady Sarah Storey, Real Madrid and the star of England Jude Bellingham, the record test of England, Joe Root, the gold medalist of the Olympic triathlon Alex Yee and the adolescent rooms and the rooms adolescence of the Olympic triathlon Alex Yee and the adolescence rooms and the teenage fairs, the Olympic triathlon Alex Yee and the adolescence rooms and the adolescent rooms, the triathlon Olympic Sensation Luke Littleler, which has already been presented with the prize of the sporting personality of the year.

Littler became the youngest player to reach the World Darts Championship final at the age of 16 and 347 days, and also won the finals of the Premier League Darts, the Grand Slam and the World Series of Darts.

He also finished second in the main prize, while a root with the Lanc eyes received the third trophy from his teammate in England Harry Brook, in the morning after the end of his victorious series in New Zealand.

The legend of cycling Mark Cavendish won the prize for life for life after winning a record victory of the 35th Tour de France and withdrawing from the sport.

Accepting the gong of his family and the good friend Bradley Wiggins, Cavendish joked: “I am not very good at speaking in public, that is why I make a bike to live. Or I did it.

“I have always been a sports fan, and sport has this incredible ability to inspire. Whether you want to compete, play, stay in shape, you can do what you want with sport. It is good that we celebrate it with Spoty, we are such a strong nation in the world of sport, and to celebrate that each year is very special.

“He is such a massive man, it’s so charming. THANKS.”

The other prizes announced on Tuesday included the best sportsman abroad, won by the Swedish Vaulter Mondo Duplantis, and the team of the year, which went to the champions of the Warriors Rugby League.

Geneva (AP) – The seven candidates who present themselves to the president of the International Olympic Committee saw their manifests published on Thursday, and one of an offer to take only half of the term of eight years and to stand in 2029.

Sebastian Coe, the world president of athletics who was 68 years old this year, is committed to joining “a transformer change in the next four years”, then re -election before the scheduled date.

Coe was one of several candidates offering to give back to the members of the IOC – which elects their president at a meeting from March 18 to 21 near the site of the former Olympia in Greece – a decisive choice in the selection of future host cities.

Under the practical presidency of Thomas Bach, who reaches his 12 -year limit in power next year, the members are now simply on rubber a single host candidate who worked with the IOC administration.

Two members of the board of directors of the Bach-Chaired IOC, Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. and Prince Feisal Al Hussein, joined Coe to promise to allow members to have a more important role in the Olympic organization. They also promise to raise the retirement age for members aged 70 to 75.

Members must be invited to join the CIO exclusive club and the current 111 include European and Middle East royalty, international sports corps, current and current Olympic athletes, politicians, diplomats, industrialists and a Oscar -winning actress.

Only IOC members can be presidential candidates and other contenders are the member of the board of directors Kirsty Coventry and three other presidents of sports governance organizations: Johan Eliasch of Skiing, David Lapparti de Cyclisme and Morinari Watanabe de Gymnastics.

Manifest outings are one of the two Set events in a mainly opaque campaign with strict rules to limit self-promotion and engagement with voters. The candidates will present themselves to the voters, but will not answer questions at a meeting of January 30 at the IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The IOC did not have a president and only nine men who lead him in a 130 -year story. Eight of these presidents came from Europe and one of the United States.

Coventry, the 41 -year -old sports minister from Zimbabawe, is only the second candidate to present herself to CIO leaders and is widely considered as Bach’s favorite choice to pursue his policies.

Coventry and Coe are twice Olympic champions in swimming and track, respectively. Coe also directed the organization of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

COE has upset the Establishment of the IOC – including some voters – this year by initiating global athletics to pay $ 50,000 in prices at gold medalists in athletics at the Paris Olympic Games. Sport will also pay silver and bronze medalists at the Los Angeles 2028 summer games.

Although he does not specify the price, Prince Feisal called for the Olympic athletes to be “properly appreciated” while Samaranch proposed to let the athletes use images of their performance on social networks. This would relax the strict CIO rules on the ability of Olympic athletes to promote.

The challenges that the IOC is confronted with the selection of a host for the 2036 Olympic Games, with India and Qatar in the mixture, and seeking to move the summer games of its established place from July-August in the modern sports calendar.

The next IOC president must also address the impact of climate change on the global sports calendar, gender problems in sports, when and how to bring Russia fully to the Olympic Games and sign a new American broadcasting agreement. The long-standing agreement of the NBC partner expires after the Brisbane Olympic Games of 2032 and was a foundation of Olympic income, which was $ 7.6 billion in the 2021-24 Olympic cycle.

The presidency of the IOC was limited to 12 years of anti-corruption reforms adopted after the auction scandal of Salt Lake City broke out in 1999. The first mandate is eight years and the presidents can request a second and last mandate of four years.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games