The most watched women's sports event *ever*

"Well, it's off to Colorado. I hope the U.S. Ski Team uniform still fits."

- Lindsey Vonn, 40, is coming out of retirement and making her return to competitive racing

Three big stories to know this week in women's sports

1. Katie Taylor-Amanda Serrano fight is most watched women's sporting event ever 🥊

Netflix is reporting that 50 million households tuned in for the women's headliner to the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson boxing event on Friday night — and that will likely make the Taylor-Serrano match-up the most watched women's sports event in history!

While the Youtuber v. the retired heavyweight world champ was the much hyped title draw of the night, that fight itself ended up being...well, a bit of a dud.

Thank goodness for the women's thrilling and intense match that went first and saved the night 🤜🤛

Katie Taylor v. Amanda Serrano

New York-based Serrano 🇵🇷 stepped up three weight classes to fight junior welterweight champ Taylor 🇮🇪 for a much-anticipated second time. And, for a second time, a controversial unanimous judges' decision gave the title to Taylor.

Serrano, who is a world champion in *seven weight classes* and appeared to land more punches, was bloodied from a bad cut above the eye in Round 4 and criticized Taylor for head-butting. The crowd had strong feelings as the belt was awarded in the ring.

"This is an amazing moment again for women's boxing, and we put on a show. We put on a performance again for everybody, and just thank God for another amazing night." - Katie Taylor

They may now face-off again for a third time next year...

2. Seven marathons on seven continents in seven days

(Photo: The Great World Race)

The Great World Race takes a small group of athletes from a marathon in Antartica to S. Africa to Australia to Istanbul to Cartagena to Miami. And while it's not new — and runners have done combinations of world tours before — this year a fast group of women have been racing it together, including Jenny Simpson, who got the invite and booked a ticket to fly two days later.

Marathon #1: Starting in Antartica, Ashely Paulson ran a freezing marathon in 3:18:02

Marathon #2: In Cape Town, the top five women decided to all run together and finish holding hands in 3:15:51

Marathon #3: The first four women again all finished together in 3:02:54 — with Simpson 10 minutes behind them

Marathon #4: Hillary Kupish ran a 3:05:44 in Istanbul, with the next two women (Ashley Paulson and Peloton instructor Becs Gentry together two minutes behind her)

Marathon #5: Ashley Paulson (2:57:11) and Hillary Kupish (2:58:46) both went sub-3.

The group is finishing up in Cartagena, Colombia right now before heading to Miami tomorrow — you can follow along on Instagram or on Twitch 🏃‍♀️

3. What can be done about the fitness gap — ie. the 'free time gap?'

Women, in general, report working out or exercising less frequently than men. Women also consistently report less "free time" than men. Are these things related? You betcha!

The New York Times this week dove into the gender exercise gap — with one wide-ranging analysis of 400,000 Americans finding that only 33% of women met the standard for weekly aerobic exercise and only 20% did strength workouts. For men, 43% met the standards.

Even on fitness-focused apps, like Strava, women spend less time cycling, for example, than men. And they're 23% less likely to record workouts in pre-dawn hours than men.

A number of reasons have been put forward for why this gap persists:

Women tend to feel less safe and experience higher levels of harassment than men while working out
Women also more frequently report exercising for weight loss or physical gains, whereas men more regularly report enjoying it or finding pleasure in the workouts (which makes it more fun!)
Girls are also less likely than boys to have access to sports at a young age and to drop out at higher rates — which set them up as adults to have less familiarity with adult leagues, equipment, and other athletes
But the biggest barrier is definitely time: Women still report significantly higher amounts of time spent on household labor and childcare, and report less free time for working out

Tip of the week

A recently published study of 1,000 runners in the 2022 Boston Marathon found that 42% of female runners and 18% of male runners had self-reported indicators of low-energy availability. AND (!) runners with markers of low-energy availability had significantly worse outcomes — even when compared to runners of similar BMI, sex, experience, and training.

Runners who chronically underfueled had slower times and required medical attention twice as often — with 22% of those encounters resulting in dropping out.

Underfueling, researchers found, was often unintentional. And there was no significant BMI difference between those runners who were underfueled and those who were not.

LAST CHANCE: Every time of year is a good time of year to get strong. But now is a great time. Our 16-week Strong training course includes building up to compound movements, demo videos, and how to fuel strength training — sign up by Thursday, the next cohort starts Dec. 5

The highlight reel

⛷️ Mikaela Shiffrin won her 98th career World Cup — extending her record. She could hit the 100th milestone on home turf in Killington, Vermont at the end of the month.
⚽ After attendance records were set in the NWSL quarter-finals, another 19,000 and 14,000 attended the two semi-final games — just three years after the Washington Spirit attracted only 5,000 to their semis. 😮 To get to this year's finals: The Spirit beat defending champs Gotham FC in penalty kicks and the Orlando Pride topped Kansas City with some brilliance from Marta.
- WATCH: The championship finals on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS
There were also seven NWSL players who received the Iron Women award for playing every single minute of the season. ⚽ ⚽ ⚽ ⚽
🥇 Taylor Knibb won the first T100 Grand Finale and the overall series world championship for the 100km distance — after winning all four races she raced this season.
🏃‍♀️ Lauren Gregorywon the USATF 10K trail championship.
A $2.5 million grant is going to USA Cycling to help fund its women's high-performance efforts.
🚵‍♀️ Last year, Gracey Hemstreet became the first woman to ride a full line at Red Bull Hardline during the Tasmania event. This year, there are nine women announced for the 2025 line-up.
Caitlin Clark played in the LPGA Pro-Am at THE ANNIKA — where Nelly Korda won the pro event , making her 7th LPGA Tour win of the year. ⛳
Great Britain and Slovakia (who knocked the Americans out) are currently playing in the semi-finals of the Billie Jean King Cup. 🎾
🏀 The most sought-after pick in this year's WNBA draft is UConn's Paige Bueckers — and the Dallas Wings have now won the lottery for the No. 1 pick...
The Canada women's sevens rugby team beat both the U.S. and the PR7 All-Stars in an All-Star Tournament this weekend.
The Grand Slam Track league, which will feature six groups of male and female racers each doing two events, announced its four locations for 2025: Jamaica, Miami, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.
7,000 people ran the Every Woman's Marathon — and 40% of them were reportedly new runners. What do women want in a marathon? 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♀️
And just for fun: Red Bull OCR athlete Ida Mathilde Steensg took on 11 obstacles in 300 meters.

Your Feisty recommendations

What to watch: The Young Woman and the Sea — the story of the first woman to swim the English Channel

What to read: 'Four women runners brutally killed in Kenya: 'It's no longer safe for any athlete''

What to listen to: The 200th episode of our popular Hit Play, Not Pause podcast

What we'd love to see: Rumors keep flying about Ilona Maher on the Bachelorette 💜