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Presented by:
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$570 million
— The projected size of the Canadian women's sports market by 2030, according to a report from Canadian Women & Sport — which also found that the value of pro women's sports in Canada has doubled in the last two years.
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Three big stories to know this week in women's sports
1. The biggest marathon in history 🏃♀️ 🏃♀️ 🏃♀️ 🏃♀️ 🏃♀️
It's official: The New York Marathon this past weekend had 59,226 finishers — making it the biggest 26.2-mile race ever. Can the boom keep going and going forever? Is it a running boom or a bucket list boom? Or not really a boom at all? Debated hotly on this week's podcast episode.
Of those finishers, 27,156 were women and 143 were non-binary runners. 132 countries were represented. For the second year in a row, 203 women ran under three hours. And the women's course record was broken.
Who won?
🥇 Hellen Obiri became the first woman to go sub-2:20 on the New York course — running 2:19:51 to beat out Sharon Lokedi by 16 seconds
🥇 All of the top three women went under the old course record
🥇 In 4th place, Fiona O'Keeffe ran an American course record in her return to the marathon after winning the Olympic Trials on debut but then dropping out of the Paris marathon with an injury
🥇 Susannah Scaroni won her third New York Marathon title in the wheelchair race
🥇 And Annie Rodenfels won her third Dash to the Finish Line 5K to kick-off marathon weekend
🎉 MORE FUN WATCHING OR RUNNING? Some of the best spectator signs along the course
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(Photo: New York Road Runners)
2. Better than a movie: India comes from behind to win first Cricket World Cup 🏏
On Sunday, the India women's cricket team won their first ever World Cup. At home in India. To record crowds. After coming from behind and beating the defending champs to get there, when no one thought they could do it.
😭 I'M NOT CRYING, YOU'RE CRYING: Watch the historic moment
How did they get there?
With a record $13.8 million prize purse this tournament, the win will change the face of the sport in India — where it's estimated nearly 90% of the world's one billion cricket fans live. But it's worth keeping in mind that, while the women's national team has made the finals before and come close, it wasn't even until 2017 that they were paid a contract and it wasn't until three years ago that a pro women's league was formed there.
💜 WORTH A READ: These women win every day, you just didn't notice before
3. The WNBA negotiation deadline comes and goes
The night before the current collective bargaining agreement was set to expire last week, the WNBA and the Players Association agreed to a 30-day extension while they continue to debate a new contract.
But are they any closer to an actual agreement?
The league has and is offering (large) salary increases: a supermax salary of $850,000 and a veteran minimum around $300,000
The players, though, have made it clear they don't simply want the same structure with bigger numbers; they want a fundamentally differently kind of deal that includes a percentage of revenue
Players argue that all other major sports leagues offer a portion of revenue (in various forms of compensation) and the players are the labor upon which the skyrocketing value of the league is built. The league, however, argues that they want that value to keep going up — and so they need to attract more and new investors (in order to expand to more and new teams) and to do that they need to offer a higher return on the investment. The ownership structure of the WNBA — in which 42% of the league is owned by the NBA — also
complicates investment returns.
For the most part, fans are on the players' side. And other leagues are on the players' side. At least for now!
Which gets at one of the fundamental tensions as women's sports grow: Can female athletes and women's leagues make more and more money without alienating their fans? How? At what point does a (historically) socially conscious fan base turn against a (fundamentally) capitalist enterprise? Can that model be built?
Or as we put it on the podcast: If a large portion of your fandom doesn't believe billionaires should exist, then is it even possible to create billionaire athletes and league owners off those fans? Listen to the full episode 🎧
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Tip of the week
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Melatonin has been in the news this week because of a medical review suggesting long-term use for those with insomnia is linked to higher rates of heart failure. But it's important to understand that the review is simply recognizing a link: ie. people with insomnia, who then take melatonin regularly, may also have other factors that put them at risk of heart failure.
What is melatonin? It's a hormone that your brain secretes to regulate your sleep cycle. Since the mid-90s, when it became available as a supplement, people have taking it to help their sleep. Evidence is mixed, but it remains popular.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine doesn’t recommend melatonin for chronic insomnia. And more is not necessarily better. Some evidence suggests it can also be helpful with jetlag, especially traveling eastbound and crossing several timezones. But, it can cause side effects like daytime drowsiness (more extreme for some
people than others), headaches, nausea, dizziness, and intense dreams.
If you try melatonin, start with 300 μg, and work up to 5 mg as needed. Plus, quality matters: Many gummies are mislabeled — look for USP/NSF verification.
The highlight reel
- 🥇 Last week marked 100 days to the start of the Olympics on Feb. 6 (with the Paralympics following on March 6). That means qualification events are in full swing! And the international governing body for skiing and snowboarding announced last week it would not allow Russian or Belarusian athletes to compete even under a neutral flag.
- Skiing and snowboarding will also begin implementing genetic sex testing policies, similar to track and field. 🎧 Need more background on why the h*ll sports are bringing back sex testing? We covered it on The Feist podcast earlier this year.
- For the first time in the Olympics, 💪 women will be able to compete in doubles luge and on the large hill in ski jumping and will finally get to race the longest
cross-country ski event, the 50km.
- Mone Chiba 🇯🇵 won the Skate Canada Grand Prix event. ⛸️
- 🎾 Elena Rybakina became the first player to lock down her semis spot in the WTA Tour Finals. The eight best players in the world are divided into groups for the $15.5 million WTA finals tournament in Saudi Arabia, and they play three round robin matches to qualify for the semis and then the finals on Sunday.
- 🏄♀️ Sierra Kerr became the first female surfer to land a backflip.
- 🏐 Jordan Thompson was crowned the AU Pro Volleyball champion, after four weeks of play in which teams switch around each week as players rack up stats.
- 🏃♀️ Chloe McNiven set a Guinness world record for the fastest 50km while pushing a stroller (in 4 hours, 50 minutes).
- ⚽ 14-year-old Willa Pearson became the youngest player in A-league history, the pro soccer league in Australia.
- ⚽ After a massive final day of regular season, the NWSL playoffs are set and begin Nov. 7.
- And the USWNT ⚽ beat New Zealand 6-0 in a friendly.
- 🤸♀️ The Trampoline Gymnastics World Championships start today in Spain, with all the Paris Olympic medalists competing.
- 🏊♀️ 🚴♀️ 🏃♀️ The Ironman 70.3 World Championships, also known as the half-Ironman, with a number of defending world champs racing, go off on Saturday morning (also in Spain).
Your Feisty recommendations
🎧 What to listen to: "Can 'good' billionaires exist in women's sports?"
📺 What to watch: 70-year-old Roshni Devi Sangwan took up weightlifting to help with her arthritis; now she can lift 100kg
👑 What inspired us: Forbes' list of the most powerful women in sports for 2025
💜 What we loved: Pro runner Jess McClain is just one of many female athletes opening up recently about going through egg retrieval
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