2023 was a exceptional yr for ladies’s sports activities. From momentous occassions on the sphere to huge stides off it, the yr introduced with it huge highs and lows for ladies within the sports activities ecosystem. With a Deloitte examine predicting that in 2024, for the primary time ever, girls’s elite sports activities will generate a income that surpasses one billion {dollars} — 300% increased than their 2021 prediction, the way forward for the ladies’s vertical appears headed upwards.
As we gear up for 2024, right here’s a glance again at among the most vital developments in girls’s sports activities from 2023.
– Australia beat South Africa to win the Ladies’s T20 World Cup: Meg Lanning-led Australia received its sixth and third consecutive title after beating the host South Africa within the remaining by 19 runs. It could be the final ICC title Lanning, probably the most embellished in world cricket, would elevate with this Australian facet on condition that she shocked the world with a shock retirement announcement in November.
– India wins inaugural Ladies’s U-19 T20 World Cup: India received its maiden ICC title in girls’s cricket as a bunch of sprightly and proficient youngsters lifted the inaugural U-19 World Cup with an emphatic seven-wicket victory over England. The Shafali Verma-led India U-19 squad managed to do what their seniors couldn’t do by clearing the ultimate hurdle in a worldwide occasion. India first bundled out England for 68 in 17.1 overs after which returned to knock off the paltry goal in 14 overs to elevate the coveted trophy.
– Coco Gauff wins US Open: Gauff profitable the US Open represented the primary time an American teenager had received the occasion in over 20 years, with the final being when tennis legend Serena Williams took the title in 1999. The historic match broke every kind of information with 3.4 million individuals watching on broadcaster ESPN, over one million greater than the lads’s remaining, the place Novak Djokovic took his twenty fourth Grand Slam singles title and set a contemporary Grand Slam file, which drew 2.3 million viewers.
– Spain beat England to win maiden FIFA Ladies’s World Cup, Rubiales fiasco unfolds: Spain beat England 1-0 to grow to be newest nation to win the coveted international event. Nonetheless, the main focus shifted fully from the Las Rojas’ momentous achievement when Spanish Federation chief Luis Rubiales forcibly kissed Jenni Hermoso on the lips. The episode snowballed into a bigger investigation into his conduct. This got here after allegations of psychological harassment levelled in opposition to coach Jorge Vilda. Vilda was sacked and Rubiales was ultimately banned from all football-related actions for 3 years by FIFA. 1,977,824 followers watched the showcase in individual, making it probably the most attended event within the historical past of the Ladies’s World Cup, topping the earlier better of 1,353,506 set in Canada in 2015. When Australia performed England within the semifinals in Sydney, it was in entrance of a sold-out house crowd of 75,784 followers.’
– Sarina Wiegman speaks for the Spanish girls’s group at UEFA awards: Months earlier than any concrete investigation or motion was initiated in opposition to Rubiales, England girls’s soccer group head coach Sarina Wiegman received the UEFA Ladies’s Coach of the Yr award and devoted her award to the World Cup-winning Spanish girls’s nationwide soccer group at The Grimaldi Discussion board within the Principality of Monaco. “Everyone knows the problems across the Spanish group, and it actually hurts me as a coach, as a mom of two daughters, as a spouse and as a human being,” Wiegman mentioned after receiving her award. “This group deserves to be celebrated and deserves to be listened to, and I’m going to present them once more a giant applause and I hope you’ll be part of me,” mentioned Wiegman addressing the viewers on the Grimaldi Discussion board.
– NCAA recreation turns into most attended recreation ever – Drawing over 92,000 followers, five-time NCAA girls’s volleyball champions Nebraska dominated Omaha 3-0 in entrance of what has been described as the biggest crowd to ever witness a girls’s sporting occasion in historical past. The world file broke the earlier variety of 91,648 that was set in Spain in 2022, when FC Barcelona performed Wolfsburg in a Champions League match. It additionally shattered the earlier attendance file in america that had not been contested since 1999 when Crew USA and Folks’s Republic of China went head-to-head on the Ladies’s World Cup in Pasadena, California.
– Switch of the yr – Hayes to USWNT: The U.S. Soccer Federation introduced the appointed of Emma Hayes because the tenth full-time head coach in U.S. Ladies’s Nationwide Crew historical past. Hayes, 47, the long-time head coach for Chelsea FC, probably the most profitable girls’s groups in Europe, began her teaching profession in america on the daybreak of the millennium and greater than 20 years later will take the helm of the USWNT. An announcement from U.S. Soccer says Hayes will grow to be the very best paid girls’s soccer coach on the planet.
– Ladies’s Soccer in England will get a brand new physique: Ladies’s soccer in England shall be run by an unbiased group fairly than the Soccer Affiliation from subsequent yr in a transfer aimed toward setting new requirements within the recreation. Golf equipment within the Ladies’s Tremendous League and the second-tier Ladies’s Championship will function beneath NewCo, whose first chief government shall be Nikki Doucet — a former funding banker and Nike government.
– Sheetal Devi’s rise to the highest: Armless archer Sheetal Devi made headlines in October when she shot her technique to three medals on the Asian Para Video games. The 16-year-old, who hails from Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir, was born with phocomelia, a dysfunction inflicting underdeveloped limbs. With out arms, she discovered to make use of a bow and arrow utilizing her ft and began coaching full-time in archery solely two years in the past. Movies of her mounting the bow and utilizing her proper foot and mouth to regular the tools earlier than taking pictures good 10s went viral. From celebrities to the political brass, reward flooded in for the resilience and expertise of the younger lady, who ultimately went on to complete the yr because the No. 1 archer in open compound.
– Simone Biles returns to competiting: Simone Biles introduced her comeback in June, then went on to win her eighth particular person all-around on the U.S. Championships in August earlier than a sweeping return to the world stage in Antwerp in October, claiming a sixth World Championship title within the all-around, whereas including group, flooring train and stability beam golds, too. She now has 30 world medals in whole – 23 of them gold – and seems to be shifting full steam forward towards the Olympic Summer time Video games Paris 2024.
– Wrestlers tackle Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh: The most important controversy of the yr within the Indian context, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has had a risky 2023. In January, the WFI chief, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, was alleged to have sexually harassed a number of girls wrestlers, together with a minor, sparking protests by a number of main wrestlers within the nation. The checklist included Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya, who gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi demanding Singh’s resignation and the dissolution of the WFI. Contemporary WFI elections had been held in December which noticed Brij Bushan-backed candidate Sanjay Singh elected as the brand new president. The protests continued; Sakshi introduced her retirement whereas Bajrang returned his Padma Shri Award.
– India girls rule pink ball cricket: The Indian girls’s cricket performed Check cricket after greater than 800 days, taking over England and Australia in fast succession. It marked Harmanpreet Kaur’s debut as Check captain. India beat England by 347 runs, its first victory in opposition to the opponent within the format on house soil and the most important win within the historical past of the ladies’s recreation when it comes to runs. India adopted that up with an eight-wicket win over Australia.
– Uncapped gamers dominate WPL season 2 public sale: Uncapped Indian gamers Kashvee Gautam and Vrinda Dinesh laughed their technique to the financial institution on the public sale for the second season of the Ladies’s Premier League walked away with prime honours on the WPL public sale in Mumbai, attracting bids of INR 2 crore (Gujarat Giants) and INR 1.3 crore (UP Warriorz) respectively.
– Cricket makes it to the Olympics: Cricket was part of the 1900 Olympics in Paris with solely two groups – one from Nice Britain and one from France – competing for medals. On this yr’s Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC), cricket was formaly accepted into the Olympic roster alongside baseball-softball, flag soccer, lacrosse and squash and shall be performed within the 2028 Los Angeles Summer time Video games.
– LA’s ‘Ace’ legacy: The Las Vegas Aces received its second consecutive WNBA title after beating the New York Liberty 70-69 in Sport 4 of the Finals. A’ja Wilson produced 24 factors and 16 rebounds to assist the Aces recuperate from a 12-point deficit in Brooklyn and grow to be the primary group in additional than 20 years to repeat as champions.