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(Photo: IOC)
After 2023's record-breaking year for women sports, things didn't slow down in 2024. This year showed it isn't a moment, it's a movement. There was a record number of new teams and new investment (WNBA, NWSL, Athlos) and new leagues launching (PWHL's record-breaking inaugural season, the Pro Volleyball Federation). There was a record-breaking most women's watched sporting event ever, with millions tuning in for the boxing match between Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor. And there's even more coming in 2025.
But most importantly: From the Olympics to the Final Four to epic world records, it was just really exciting sports. All year.
Which made it hard to pick our favorite women's sports performances of the year β but we did our best, scouring the weekly newsletters and results, to bring you the top 20 moments of 2024. π
What was your favorite moment in women's sports this year? What did we miss?
20. β·οΈ Mikaela Shiffrin clinched 99 World Cup downhill wins β well ahead of any other ski racer ever, man or woman. She actually surpassed the record last year with 87 victories and then just kept going. Set to hit the historic #100 in Vermont a few weeks ago, she had a crash instead. (Will 100 happen in 2025?) But not to be outdone, Lindsey Vonn is now making her return to World Cup racing at the age of 40!
19. ποΈββοΈ The LPGA again paid out record prize moneyβand will pay out even more in 2025. Although Nelly Korda didn't top that money list, her historic five-tournament win streak topped some of the most impressive performances in golf and brought in new fans.
18. πββοΈ π΄ββοΈ πββοΈ For the first time ever, this past September, the women raced for an Ironman World Championship title outside the U.S. And in a neck-and-neck battle on an exciting and tough course in Nice, France, Laura Philipp won her first world championship ahead of Kat Matthews.
17. πββοΈ There's a reason Summer McIntosh was picked as the Canadian Athlete of the Year. After breaking her own world record in the 400m IM at the Canadian Olympic Trials, she won three gold medals (200m fly, 200m IM, 400m IM) and a silver (400m free) in Paris β and then turned 18 a week later. To top off a busy year, she set three more world records at the Short Course World Championships this past weekend β only outdone by Gretchen Walsh's 11 world records at the meet!
16. π΅ββοΈ After a decade of fighting for a chance to start, female riders finally got to compete in the first-ever women's Red Bull Rampage β an epic freeride mountain bike contest, considered one of the toughest in the world. Robin Goomes topped the podium with a Barbie-themed bike and two backflips in her top-to-bottom run.
15. π₯Ύ In just 40 days, 18 hours, and 5 minutes, Tara Dower covered the whole 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail β becoming the first person (man or woman) to go under 41 days and setting the overall record for the fastest known time. π§ BONUS: You can listen to her and her crew chief on the Ironwomen podcast.
14. π² Speaking of super long impressive feats: After starting her journey in May in Chicago, Lael Wilcox rode her bike all the way around the world and ended up back in Chicago 18,125 miles and 108 days later. It set a new record for the fastest woman to bike around the world. (How does an around-the-world record work? We explained it in a newsletter edition back in September.)
13. π On the very last day of the Olympics, in a game that riveted the entire home nation and turned out epic crowds, France very nearly beat the U.S. for the basketball gold medal. Hanging on 67-66 in the final seconds, the Americans managed to win their 8th consecutive Olympic title β but it officially marked a new era!
12. β½ Another American team that long dominated and then found itself on the back foot in recent years as the international level of competition rose to the challenge: after last year's shaky World Cup, the USWNT looked like a new team again in Paris, with new coach Emma Hayes, and topped Marta's Brazilian squad for the gold in front of a sell-out crowd of 43,000. They're baaaack?!
11. πββοΈ No feat was more impressive in Paris, though, than Sifan Hassan's triple: Earning bronze medals in the 5,000m & 10,000m and then topping it all off with a gold in the marathon. It also produced the running world's photo of the year, as things got physical in the home stretch. (It was a surprising result, but certainly not as surprising as the other end of the Olympic running spectrum: St. Lucia's Julien Alfred beating the favorites in the 100m to win a first gold medal, in the rain, for the tiny island nation.)
10. ποΈββοΈ This year's Crossfit Games were marked, most notably, by the sudden and preventable death of one of the elite male competitors during the swim portion of an event on the first day. Competition was temporarily put on hold before resuming, and many athletes chose to withdraw, arguing that Crossfit was putting profits ahead of athlete safety. That included 2023 champ Laura Horvath. 6x winner Tia-Clair Toomey went on to win her 7th title β an impressive return after having a baby last year β but the tragedy has caused a rift throughout the Crossfit community.
9. π₯ In July, Cassandre Beaugrand won the Olympic triathlon gold medal on home soil in front of a wild home crowd. In October, she won the world championship title, too. It's something only one other woman has accomplished. (The only blemish on her perfect season? A crash on the men's leg of the mixed relay left the French team out of contention and set up a dramatic photo-finish sprint for the medals between Germany, the U.S., and Britain.)
8. πββοΈ At the Chicago Marathon, Ruth Chepngetich ran a 2:09:56 β becoming the first woman to run under 2:10 and breaking the previous world record by two minutes. It was a performance so impressive it broke people's brains and prompted a sport-wide debate about whether the run was "legit" or not.
7. π² π² After 200 miles of racing at the iconic Unbound Gravel it came down to a nine-woman sprint for the finish, with Rosa KlosΜer coming out on top. It was the first time a separate start was introduced for the women's elite field, changing the dynamics of the race. And they said women's racing wasn't exciting?!
6. π You didn't even know how much you cared about rugby until this summer, when the U.S. women's rugby sevens team took the first-ever bronze medal for the country with a stunning last-minute, in stoppage time, full-field run to beat Australia and Ilona Maher becoming a bonafide celebrity.
5. π Here's one chart that shows what happens when you invest in women's sports: Airing the women's NCAA Final Four and promoting its stars led almost immediately to the women's tournament surpassing the men's in terms of viewership for the first time ever. Yes, a lot of that was thanks to TIME's Athlete of the Year, Caitlin Clark, and her exciting rematch with Angel Reese. But people can't be fans of what they can't see. And the interest continued into the WNBA (the world's fastest growing brand now), with record numbers throughout the finals.
4. β°οΈ In one summer, Katie Schide won Western States with the second-fastest time ever and then took down the course record at UTMB by nearly 21 minutes. In recent years, it had seemed like no one could touch Courtney Dauwalter (who was out in Chamonix cheering Schide on) β but now we want to see them both back lining up against each other!
3. β±οΈ At the end of seven days and eight stages of racing, the Tour de France Femmes came down to four seconds. It was the closest finish in any Tour de France history (men's or women's) as crowds waited at the finish of the legendary Alpe d'Huez to see if Kasia Niewiadoma would be able to hold onto her lead. Spoiler: She did it.
2. π Until this year, no woman had ever finished the infamous Barkley Marathons. (For the first 36 years, only 15 people had ever completed it.) And then, with just over 90 seconds to spare under the 60-hour cutoff and as the world waited for updates, Jasmin Paris sprinted down the road to touch the gate and collapsed β becoming the first woman to finish (and also giving us one of the most iconic photos of the year). π§ BONUS: She talked with our Ironwomen show about making history.
1. π€ΈββοΈ It's hard to understate how impressive Simone Biles' comeback was to international competition and Olympic domination especially after her two-year break and at the age of 27. And she won three more Olympic gold medals while prioritizing her mental health and having fun β showing the world you can be the GOAT π and do it your own way! |
