Women are leading the way in sports more than ever before. They have broken barriers, made history, and proven how powerful they can be when allowed to play at their full potential. Below is just some of this momentous progress that has taken place recently:
One of the first notable instances that women took charge was during the 2021 Women’s World Swimming championships held in Istanbul, Turkey on March 11th-March 16th. The event drew massive crowds with over 100 million viewers across 191 countries tuning in to watch American swimmer Alyssa Yamamoto break her own record by five seconds for consecutive lengths during backstroke swimming. She would go on to win the gold medal with a score of 7:52.
It was also in 2021 that three women’s teams made their professional debuts. The first came from Mexico when Liga MX Femenil became the first ever women’s soccer league to pay its players, offering salaries ranging from $600-2000 per month. Soon after, Major League Baseball began paying female players which caused an influx of talent including Hailey Decker who was selected by the St Louis Cardinals who initially only recruited men for their team. Lastly, Gracie Gold joined China Women’s Volleyball Association as their highest paid player earning $8000 for just two months of training and competition.
Currently, the US Women’s National Ice Hockey team is in the middle of their first ever season playing for pay after striking a deal with USA Hockey to earn $70,000-72,000 per year including production bonuses. The team also recently won gold during the 2019 IIHF Women’s World Championships held in Espoo, Finland bringing home America’s first gold medal since 1992.
Also notable was when women dominated at the 2020 Summer Olympics held in Tokyo which saw the most female athletes participating than any other Olympic games before it. Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova made history by becoming only the fourth woman to score a Grand Slam as an individual sport athlete and Japan’s own Yuka Fujimori became the first woman to win a Grand Slam as an individual sport athlete.
Last, but not least, was when American star Carli Lloyd received her 100th international goal during a match against Chile—the second US player and fourth overall to score 100 goals in international play. She is also the all-time premier scoring leader and first on the list of internationally capped players with 352 matches under her belt.
