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(Photo: Crossfit Games)
The best women's sports moments of 2025 💫
Since we'll be taking the next two weeks off for the holidays, we wanted to finish this year in style with a special edition of The Feist: Counting down our top 16 picks for the best women's sports moments of 2025.
From race wins to records to record-setting wins, we couldn't celebrate every single world champion of the year, but these 16 moments stood out in a year of amazing moments. ⭐
🎧 LISTEN: We countdown the moments and give our from-the-ground reasons on the year's last Feist podcast episode
💪 #16: Tia-Clair Toomey wins her 8th Crossfit Games title
Toomey continued her reign as the Queen of CrossFit — taking a record 8th CrossFit Games "fittest woman on Earth" title (her second since giving birth to her daughter in 2023). She recently announced she's expecting a second child. 📺 You can watch a day in her life on Youtube and marvel at the work it takes.
🏊♀️ #15: Summer McIntosh breaks three world records (and sets two more 2nd best times in history) in just five days
Yes, there were (many) other swimming world records this year and this meet wasn't even the world championship, but in the span of five days at the Canadian Trials 18-year-old McIntosh put down what was maybe the best swim meet performance in history with world records in the 400 free, 200 IM, and 400 IM — plus, second best all-time times in the 800 free and 200 fly.
🥇 #14: Catherine Debrunner wins five world championship titles + two Marathon Majors
The Swiss wheelchair racer won the Para Female Athlete of the Year award for her stunning 2025 season: She won the Tokyo Marathon in a course record; she won the London Marathon for the third time; she took second at the Boston Marathon. And then she won five gold medals at the world championships on the track: 100m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m.
📈 #13: New leagues, new teams, new expansion, record-setting attendance & valuations
The WNBA expanded to its first new team since 2008 (with more coming in 2026!) — and the new Valkyries went on to become the first women's sports team valued at $500 million with WNBA attendance record after record this season. Canada's first pro soccer league, the Northern Super League, celebrated its inaugural season. The NWSL announced expansion to Boston and Denver with more planned. The two new PWHL teams set attendance records for the biggest women's hockey game ever in the U.S. Women's sports aren't a moment, it's a movement.
🏀 #12: A'ja Wilson becomes the first player to win the WNBA's MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Finals MVP, and the team championship
There's a reason Wilson was just named TIME's Athlete of the Year. She's the first player to score 1,000 points in a single season; the player with the most points ever in a Finals run or post-season, the most rebounds in a post-season, most combined blocks and steals. With the league getting more competitive and more aggressive than ever, she was unstoppable in bringing her Vegas' Aces back to the championship title with a straight sweep of Phoenix in the Finals.
🎾 #11: Aryna Sabalenka is the first repeat U.S. Open winner since Serena Williams
She won her second straight U.S. Open, her second straight WTA Player of the Year award, her fourth Major, and established herself as the dominant #1. She also helped make the U.S. Open *the* place to be and buoyed tennis players to 10 of the top 15 spots in the list of highest paid female athletes of the year.
🏋️♀️ #10: Olivia Reeves just keeps breaking (her own!) weight lifting world records
Reeves broke three world records at the PanAm Championships, and then went and broke three more world records in a new weight class at the World Championship. That included a: 123kg (271lbs) snatch, a 155kg (341lbs) clean & jerk, and a 278kg total (612lbs). She also, just for fun, can squat 500lbs.
⛸️ #9: Three years ago, Alysa Liu quit figure skating; this year she returns to the sport and wins the world championship title
She was the youngest ever U.S. national champ (at 13 years old), the first woman to attempt a quad lutz at nationals (at 14), and won a bronze medal at the world championship (at 16). And then, burnt out and tired of the grind, she quit. After three years of being a "normal" college kid and prioritizing her mental health, she came back to the sport but did it her way — finding the joy in skating. And, this year, joy won 💜 She was the first American in 19 years to win the world championship and this month won the Grand Prix Final, now going into the Olympics as the favorite.
🏃♀️ #8: As part of Nike's much-hyped Breaking4 attempt, Faith Kipyegon runs the fastest mile ever
Sure, running diehards will tell you world-record-holder Kipyegon was never going to break four-minutes in the mile — she ultimately ran a 4:06, still the fastest mile ever run by a woman — but the spectacle and hype that Nike put behind the attempt (from a space-age sports bra to the science the pacer formation) brought the world and fans into the event and behind one of the best female runners in history. 📺 You can watch the whole docuseries on Amazon Prime.
🏃♀️ #7: Two years post-breaking her leg (and after failing to qualify, only earning a last-minute rolldown spot) Abby Hall wins Western States 100 in the 4th fastest time ever
There were a number of women's ultra-running records in 2025: Anne Flower broke the course record at Leadville, Katie Schide broke Courtney Dauwalter's record at Hardrock (the two will go head-to-head in 2026), there were 50-mile and 100-mile world records. But Hall's Western States win deserves a special shoutout because of everything that went into it: Two years ago, she broke her leg in a freak accident and required major surgery; the last time she ran Western States she finished over five hours slower; earlier this season she *twice* missed out on earning a Western States qualifying spot until another runner deferred her entry after getting pregnant. And, then, Hall went and won the damn thing.
🚵♀️ #6: Kate Courtney breaks the long-standing Leadville 100-mile mountain bike record
There must have been something about Leadville, Colorado this year. Eight weeks after having wrist surgery, 2018 Olympic cross-country mountain bike world champ Courtney broke the 10-year-old course record at the Leadville race — covering the 105 miles in 6:48:55. In a rising tide lifts all boats situation, second place Melisa Rollins also went under the old record — even if it took her eight tries to get there! To top it off, Courtney then went and won the marathon mountain bike world championship title.
🏉 #5: England wins the Rugby World Cup at home in England in front of record-breaking crowds
81,885 fans showed up at Twickenham Stadium for the England v. Canada rugby final. Over 444,000 tickets were sold for the tournament and over 12 million people watched on TV. These are all huge numbers for a rugby-crazy country. And then the Red Roses of England also delivered a decisive win over Canada's amazingly crowd-funded team.
🎿 #4: At 41 years old, Lindsey Vonn becomes the oldest woman ever to win a downhill ski World Cup
It just happened this past weekend, but it still has to sneak into the list of top sports moments of the year: When Vonn announced her return to professional skiing, many (many) people were skeptical that she could reach the peak again. This weekend, seven years after her last victory, she won the first downhill World Cup of the season and then took second in the second race. Between her 83 World Cup wins and Mikaela Shiffrin's stunning 104 victories, the duo are going to be tough to beat at the Olympics
🌺 #3: Race leader after race leader collapses in the final miles of the Ironman World Championship
First, we saw defending Kona champ Lucy Charles-Barclay wobble and stumble during the final marathon leg of the Ironman world championship race, and get pulled off course. Then, 3x half-Ironman world champ Taylor Knibb looked to have it locked up until she sat down and collapsed on the side of the road with less than two miles to go. Ultimately, rookie Solveig Løvseth stayed consistent all the way to the finish line to win the craziest Ironman race ever. Plus, the absolute star of the year: 80-year-old Natalie Grabow became the oldest woman to ever finish the Ironman World Championship 🎧 You can listen to our post-race show from Kona and hear from Grabow.
🚲 #2: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot finishes off a wild year with a home win at the Tour de France Femmes in front of home French crowds
When the president calls to congratulate you during your post-race victory interviews, you know the win was a really really big deal. After winning mountain bike gold at the Olympics and the one-day Paris-Roubaix classic earlier this year, Ferrand-Prévot was the first French winner of the Tour (man or woman) since 1989. And she did it in absolutely decisive fashion, riding away from the other pre-race favorites. Not bad for a girl who growing up dreamed of riding in the Tour but thought it wasn't possible because there was no women's race 👑
🏏 #1: India wins a come-from-behind one-for-the-ages Cricket World Cup in India
For a sense of how big India's first-ever Cricket World Cup win was: 185 million people watched digitally on the app and the final peaked at 21 million viewers live on broadcast. To do it, the team had to overcome a wave of criticism and misogyny in early tournament rounds, they had to come-from-behind just to make the semi-finals, then they had beat the #1 undefeated Australia team with an epic 127-run performance from Jemimah Rodrigues, and finally they had to top S. Africa in the final. The team wasn't even paid a salary until 2017. No one thought they would win this World Cup title. But they did. And it will forever change the future of women's cricket.
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