Women Athletes Doesn't Make It To Highest Paid Athletes In The World

Women athletes fail to find a spot in the Forbes Top 100 World’s Highest Paid Athletes. The highest paid athlete list is topped by American Boxing Champion Floyd Mayweather with net earnings of $285 million, which comprised of $275 million in salary and winnings, and another $10 million in endorsements. 

Followed by Mayweather are world’s two best footballers in Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. Messi occupied the second spot with $111 million earnings in total; with $84 million coming in from salary and winnings and $27 million from endorsements. 

Ronaldo dropped to the third position from the pole position last year while his earnings has improved significantly. His earnings improved to $108 million from $93 million last year. Quite a significant amount of his earnings has come from endorsements, earning him $47 million.Indian captain Virat Kohli is the only Indian featuring in the list, with his ranking improving six places to 83rd this year. His earnings for the year are $24 million. He is reported to have earned $4 million through salary and $20 million through endorsements.

The top-100 athletes hail from a total of 22 countries and compete across 11 sporting disciplines. Mixed martial arts superstar Conor McGregor and Brazilian footballer Neymar complete the top-5 list placed 4th and 5th respectively.

Others on the list are American basketball player LeBron James (6), Tennis star Roger Federer (7), golfer Tiger Woods (16), tennis maestro Rafael Nadal (20) and golfer Rory McIlroy (26).

Pay parity has been a much talked about issue now in every aspect. Sports has been no different. Women are paid very less salaries and a minimal endorsement fee compared to their male counterparts. 

Recently, Indian women cricketer Mithali Raj was awarded a mearge $250 as Woman of the match award, which translates to roughly Rs 16,760. Women athletes work equally hard and their pay is too less for the work they put in. 

All we can wish for is that authorities take note of the existing pay parity and reward women athletes equally for their hard work. Let’s hope to see women athletes in Forbes’ highest paid athletes next year.