Women’s sports are reaching larger audiences than ever with much of the momentum coming from the athletes themselves. Across basketball, track, gymnastics, soccer, and several other sports, a group of competitors are raising the level of competition while also expanding what influence in sports can look like.
Some like Simons Biles are rewriting record books and redefining the limits of their events, while others are launching leagues, shaping endorsement markets, and building platforms that bring new fans into their sports. Many are simultaneously doing all of the above.
These athletes are capturing the moment. Through their performances and the impact they’ve built around their careers, these women are helping drive sports forward. These are the 20 Most Influential Female Athletes Right Now.
20.Cameron Brink
Age: 24
Sport: Basketball
Cameron Brink entered the WNBA with a reputation built during a standout career at Stanford. She helped lead the Cardinal to the 2021 NCAA championship as a fearsome rim protector, finishing as the school’s all-time leader in blocks. By the time the Los Angeles Sparks selected her with the No. 2 pick in the 2024 draft, Brink arrived with the expectation that she could help define the league’s next wave of stars.
Even after a torn ACL cut her rookie season short, Brink has stayed omnipresent around the league. During her recovery she has appeared at fashion events, partnered with major brands, and launched a podcast with Sydel Curry-Lee where the two talk openly about life in the WNBA, from rookie adjustments to the realities of travel, media attention, and building a career.
She’s also not shy about speaking out about what she thinks needs to change in the league. Brink has acknowledged the privilege that certain players receive while advocating for a WNBA where teammates with different identities, personalities, and styles all feel equally embraced. By addressing those realities directly, she has become one of the younger voices moving the league forward.
19.Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone
Age: 26
Sport: Track and Field
There are fast 400-meter hurdlers, and then there’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. In an event where progress usually comes in tiny fractions of a second, she’s been resetting the standard entirely, repeatedly breaking her own world record and becoming the first woman to run under 52 seconds, then 51, and eventually 50.5. At this point, the world record is up for grabs every time she races.
McLaughlin-Levrone has won four Olympic gold medals across the 400-meter hurdles and the 4×400 relay, but what keeps her influence growing is that she keeps pushing into new territory: in 2025 she stepped into the flat 400 meters and won the world title while setting an American record—because apparently dominating one event wasn’t enough.
Now at 26, McLaughlin-Levrone is entering a new phase as she looks ahead to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. She recently shared that she and her husband, Andre Levrone, are expecting their first child later this year. McLaughlin-Levrone also partnered with her father, former collegiate sprinter Willie McLaughlin, to launch On Track with HCM at the end of January, a campaign raising awareness about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the genetic heart condition that led to his transplant. With these latest endeavors, on top of her dominant performances on the track, she is proving that greatness in sports isn’t just about the records you break, but the example you set along the way.
18.Hilary Knight
Age: 36
Sport: Women’s Hockey
Hilary Knight has been a fixture in American women’s hockey for nearly two decades. The longtime Team USA captain has collected five Olympic medals, including gold in 2018 and again in 2026, along with more than 10 IIHF Women’s World Championship titles while becoming one of the most prolific scorers ever to wear the U.S. sweater. Even at 36, Knight is still showing up in the sport’s biggest games.
She delivered another one of those moments at the 2026 Winter Olympics, scoring the late goal that tied the gold-medal final against Canada that the U.S. would eventually win in overtime.
Knight was also a key voice in the movement pushing for a stable professional league, and later became one of the foundational stars of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, first captaining Boston before joining the expansion Seattle franchise. Between her leadership, longevity, and a knack for delivering unforgettable moments, Knight remains one of the clearest reasons women’s hockey continues to grow.
17.Eileen Gu
Age: 22
Sport: Freestyle Skiing
Eileen Gu competes in three of freestyle skiing’s most demanding events—halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air—and the fact that she can dominate all of them is a big reason she has become one of the sport’s most recognizable figures. She first captured global attention at the 2022 Winter Olympics, where she won two gold medals and a silver as a teenager, becoming the first freestyle skier to take home three medals at a single Games. For many fans, that was the moment Gu went from rising talent to the athlete everyone was suddenly paying attention to.
But she easily proved that performance wasn’t a one-time Olympic run at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Gu defended her halfpipe gold and added silver medals in both big air and slopestyle, making her the most decorated freestyle skier in Olympic history. Because most skiers focus on just one of those events, Gu competing across all three (and consistently landing on the podium) has, in many ways, pushed the sport forward, setting a new standard for how versatile top freestyle athletes can be.
Born and raised in California, Eileen Gu chose as a teenager to compete for China, the country where her mother grew up, which is a decision that quickly made her one of the most recognizable young athletes in the country and introduced millions of new viewers to freestyle skiing. As her Olympic success brought new attention to the sport, Gu’s life started unfolding in ways that don’t usually happen for winter athletes. One week she’s competing on the World Cup circuit, the next she’s walking in fashion shows or appearing in global campaigns, all while balancing coursework at Stanford University. The result is a career that feels bigger than the sport itself, turning a freestyle skier into one of the most recognizable young athletes on the global stage.
16.Flau’jae Johnson
Age: 22
Sport: Basketball
For Flau’jae Johnson, basketball and music have always developed side by side. The LSU guard arrived in Baton Rouge as part of the team that won the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball championship and quickly became known not only for her play on the court but for the rap career she was building at the same time. Practices, games, studio sessions, and performances often exist in the same week, and that overlap has helped grow her audience in both directions, with basketball fans discovering her music.
That dual path is rooted in family history. Johnson is the daughter of Savannah rapper Camoflauge, who was killed before she was born; she has often said that writing and recording are ways of staying connected to the legacy he left behind. The influence runs through much of her output, including a Puma sneaker collaboration announced in early March that incorporates camouflage details inspired by her father’s moniker.
As NIL opportunities have expanded, Johnson has turned that combination of sports, music, and personal storytelling into one of the most distinctive profiles in college athletics. She has partnered with major brands while continuing to stay closely connected to her hometown of Savannah, hosting school supply drives and meeting young fans who recognize her from highlight clips, music videos, or both. In the process, Johnson has become one of the clearest examples of how modern college athletes are simultaneosly building careers across multiple platforms.
15.Sha’Carri Richardson
Age: 25
Sport: Track and Field
Few athletes command a camera the way Sha’Carri Richardson does. With her bright hair, signature long nails, and unapologetic confidence, she turns the 100 meters into track and field's biggest event every time she lines up on the starting blocks.
Her rise happened fast (pun-intended). Richardson burst onto the national stage in 2019 as a freshman at LSU, running 10.75 to win the NCAA title and break the collegiate record. A marijuana suspension kept her out of the Tokyo Olympics, but the comeback that followed became one of the most talked-about storylines in the sport’s history. She delivered at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, storming to gold in the 100 meters with a 10.65 finish, then carried that momentum into the Paris Olympics, where she won silver in the event and anchored Team USA to gold in the 4×100 relay.
Richardson’s personality, style, and raw talent have helped bring new attention to women’s sprinting, drawing fans who might not otherwise be following the sport and turning major races into viral moments online. She’s also beginning to shape what the sport’s future could look like as a founding advisor-owner of Athlos, the all-women track meet created to give female athletes a bigger stage and a competition outside the Olympic cycle.
14.Ronda Rousey
Age: 39
Sport: Mixed Martial Arts
Ronda Rousey entered mixed martial arts before the UFC even had a place for women to fight. A bronze medalist in judo at the 2008 Olympics, she began competing in MMA in the early 2010s and quickly built a reputation as one of the sport’s most dangerous fighters. When the UFC signed her in 2012, it launched a women’s bantamweight division around her, with Rousey debuting as the inaugural champion and quickly turning the weight class into one of the promotion’s biggest draws.
Inside the cage, Rousey worked fast. She defended her title six times and became known for finishing opponents with her signature armbar, sometimes ending bouts in seconds, turning her fights into must-watch events and helped introduce millions of fans to women’s MMA for the first time.
Rousey isn’t just known for her fighting, though. At the height of her UFC run, she became one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, appearing in major Hollywood films (Furious 7; The Expendables 3), hosting Saturday Night Live, and later crossing over to WWE, where she quickly became one of the company’s biggest attractions and won multiple championships. Now, nearly a decade after stepping away from MMA competition, she’s returning to the cage for a long-awaited fight with Gina Carano in May 2026, a matchup fans have debated for years and a reminder that Rousey’s impact on women’s combat sports still hasn’t faded—if anything, it’s reignited.
13.Chloe Kim
Age: 25
Sport: Snowboarding
Chloe Kim has been the standard in women’s halfpipe since the 2018 Winter Olympics, when she casually landed back-to-back 1080s on her way to gold at just 17 years old. Since then, she’s earned another Olympic gold in 2022, a silver at the 2026 Games in Milan, and a trophy case full of X Games and world championship medals—basically turning every major contest into a reminder that the bar she set as a teenager still hasn’t come down.
What makes Kim’s influence stand out isn’t just the medals, it’s how much the sport had to catch up to her. Before she arrived, tricks like double corks and 1080 combinations were rare in women’s halfpipe. After she made them look routine, everyone else had to build runs around that same level of difficulty just to stay competitive, pushing the entire field of snowboarding.
Kim has also been very honest about what it takes to be on top. She stepped away from competition for a period to focus on her mental health and attend Princeton before eventually returning to the tour, speaking openly about the pressure that followed becoming an Olympic champion as a teenager. In a sport built around fearless performances, Kim has shown exactly what that looks like in practice, continuing to push the limits of women’s snowboarding while competing under the weight of global expectations.
12.Sabrina Ionescu
Age: 28
Sport: Basketball
The New York Liberty’s starting point guard has become one of the most recognizable players in the WNBA even before she led the team to the 2024 WNBA Championship. Long before arriving in Brooklyn, Ionescu was already a phenomenon at the University of Oregon, where she rewrote the record books and became the only player in NCAA history to reach 2,000 points, 1,000 assists, and 1,000 rebounds. When the Liberty selected her with the No. 1 overall pick in 2020, the expectation was that she could change the trajectory of the franchise.
In many ways, she has. Ionescu has become the engine of New York’s offense. Her record-breaking performance in the WNBA All-Star three-point contest became one of the most widely shared highlights in league history. And when she stepped into a three-point shootout with Stephen Curry during NBA All-Star Weekend, it placed a WNBA player directly in the center of one of basketball’s biggest stages. Even her signature Nike sneaker has crossed leagues, worn by players throughout the WNBA and increasingly across the NBA.
Over the years, Ionescu has grown into something bigger than a franchise point guard. She’s appeared at the Met Gala, starred in a Super Bowl commercial, and regularly draws crowds of young fans overseas during international tours, all of which makes Ionescu one of the faces of the WNBA’s current era.
11.Claressa Shields
Age: 31
Sport: Boxing
Claressa Shields has never been shy about saying she’s the “GWOAT” boxer in the world. Over the past decade, she’s made a very convincing case. She first broke through at the 2012 London Olympics, becoming the first American woman to win a gold medal in boxing. She followed with another gold in Rio before turning professional and quickly taking over multiple divisions.
Shields has spent her career chasing bigger and bigger challenges, and collecting titles along the way. She became the first fighter in the four-belt era, male or female, to become an undisputed champion in two weight classes, unifying all four major belts at both 154 and 160 pounds while also winning titles at 168. She continued pushing into new divisions, eventually becoming the first undisputed women’s heavyweight champion in 2025. Few fighters in the sport, regardless of gender, have put together a run that dominant.
For years, though, Shields was accomplishing this without the kind of spotlight that typically follows champions. That has started to change as her fights draw larger crowds and bigger broadcasts. In 2025 she signed an $8 million multi-fight deal, one of the largest contracts ever for a female boxer, and began headlining arenas that once reserved their biggest nights for men’s bouts. Along with her willingness to take on bigger divisions and bigger stages, Shields has pushed women’s boxing into a much more prominent place.
10.Trinity Rodman
Age: 23
Sport: Soccer
Trinity Rodman has been a headliner in the NWSL from the moment she arrived. Drafted by the Washington Spirit in 2021 as the youngest player ever selected, she quickly became one of the young stars helping define the league’s new era, bringing a fearless, high-speed style to the wing and helping lead Washington to a championship during her rookie season.
Since then, Rodman has continued to deliver in the moments that matter most. Her pace and creativity have made her one of the most dangerous attacking players in both the NWSL, and on the international stage. Rodman scored three goals at the 2024 Paris Olympics and delivered an extra-time winner in the knockout rounds as the USWNT secured gold.
Rodman has been rewarded for her play. Her three-year contract extension with Washington, reportedly worth more than $2 million per year, made her the highest-paid player in NWSL history, a sign of how much the league now values its young stars. Combined with a constant stream of national advertising campaigns and endorsement deals, she is driving where women’s soccer goes next.
9.Naomi Osaka
Age: 28
Sport: Tennis
Naomi Osaka’s rise to the top of tennis changed the sport’s cultural conversation almost overnight. In 2018 she defeated Serena Williams to win the US Open, becoming the first Japanese player to capture a Grand Slam singles title and suddenly turning the soft-spoken 20-year-old into a global star. She backed up the breakthrough with three more major titles and the world No. 1 ranking, pairing one of the tour’s most explosive serves with a calm, almost unbothered presence in the biggest moments.
What set Osaka apart, though, was the way she used that spotlight. During her 2020 US Open title run she walked onto the court wearing masks honoring Black victims of racial violence, turning each match into a quiet but powerful statement. That same summer she withdrew from the Western & Southern Open to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a decision that helped push the tournament to pause play and brought tennis into a broader conversation about social justice.
Since then, Osaka has continued to expand what a modern tennis star can look like. She stepped away from the tour to speak openly about mental health and the pressures of media obligations, later becoming a mother in 2023 before returning to competition. During that time she also built a business portfolio that includes launching her own media company, investing in women’s sports teams, and becoming a major presence in global advertising. But her biggest contribution may be how she opened the door for athletes across sports to speak honestly about mental health and the stressul realities of life in the spotlight.
8.Paige Bueckers
Age: 24
Sport: Basketball
Paige Bueckers has been shaping the direction of women’s basketball since she was a teenager, when highlight clips from her high school games started circulating online and introduced a new generation of fans to the sport. By the time she arrived at UConn, people were already following her career closely, and over the next few seasons she confirmed why, helping lead the Huskies to a national championship in 2025 while establishing herself as one of the defining college players of her era.
Bueckers was one of the first athletes to demonstrate how valuable women’s college basketball players could be to major brands, signing sponsorship deals, joining the Unrivaled team as an equity partner, and becoming one of the first NIL athletes to receive her own Nike player-edition shoe. She also has always made a point of bringing teammates into brand partnerships, using her platform to create opportunities for others on the team rather than keeping them to herself.
By the way, all of that happened before she even entered the WNBA. When the Dallas Wings selected her No. 1 overall in the 2025 draft, Bueckers quickly showed why the hype had been so loud for so long, earning Rookie of the Year honors and setting the WNBA rookie scoring record with a 44-point performance. As women’s basketball grows in popularity, Bueckers has emerged as one of the young players expected to lead the league’s next chapter.
7.Alysa Liu
Age: 20
Sport: Figure Skating
By the time the 2026 Winter Olympics ended in Milan, Alysa Liu had become one of the defining stars of the Games. The reigning world champion left Italy with two gold medals, including the women’s singles title, the first won by an American in 24 years. Her performances stood out not just for their technical difficulty, but for the sense of joy she brought to the ice. Liu skated with a kind of ease that felt striking in a sport often defined by intense pressure, razor-thin scoring margins, and the expectation of near-perfection, turning each program into a moment audiences wanted to watch again and again.
The current version of Liu is different from the prodigy who first burst onto the scene. As a teenager she rose quickly through the sport, landing triple axels, winning national titles, and reaching the Olympics before most athletes have finished high school. But after the 2022 season, burned out by years of intense training and expectations, Liu stepped away from skating at just 16. When she returned 2 years later, it was with a different mindset. She spoke openly about burnout, body image, and the pressure placed on young skaters, and she approached competition with a focus on enjoyment rather than obligation.
The result has been one of the most distinctive comebacks in recent Olympic memory. Liu now balances elite competition with studying psychology at UCLA and approaches the sport with a more expressive style that reflects her magnetic personality. Liu’s journey has truly resonated with fans who see something rare in her success: a champion who stepped away, figured out what she wanted from the sport, and came back on her own terms.
6.Angel Reese
Age: 23
Sport: Basketball
Angel Reese has never been interested in blending in. From LSU to the WNBA, the Chicago Sky forward built her reputation on playing loud, celebrating louder, and making sure the moment belongs to her. The production backs it up. Reese led the WNBA in rebounds per game in both 2024 and 2025, set the league’s single-season rebounding record as a rookie, and became one of the fastest players ever to reach 500 points and 500 rebounds. Her rookie double-double streak turned rebounding into one of the most appreciated stats in the league and helped make Sky games some of the most intense environments in the W.
That same personality is a big part of why Reese has become such a central figure in women’s basketball. The “Bayou Barbie” persona she built at LSU followed her into the pros (now evolving into “Chi Barbie”), where she quickly became one of the league’s most recognizable faces. Whether she’s battling in the paint, talking to the crowd, or posting after a big performance, Reese brings an energy that turns every game into something fans want to watch.
She’s also one of the fastest-growing brands in women’s sports. Reese became the first female athlete to have a McDonald’s meal named after her, debuted her Angel Reese 1 signature sneaker with Reebok, and stepped into the fashion world with a Vogue cover and a walk in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. At a moment when women’s basketball is reaching a wider audience than ever, Reese understands exactly how to meet that attention—and run with it.
5.A’ja Wilson
Age: 29
Sport: Basketball
A’ja Wilson has spent the past few seasons doing something pretty rare in professional sports: winning almost everything. The Las Vegas Aces star led the franchise to three championships in four years and delivered one of the most complete individual seasons the league has ever seen, stacking multiple regular season MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP honors.
Wilson’s mix of scoring, defense, and leadership has turned Las Vegas into the team to beat. Along the way she became the fastest player in league history to reach 5,000 career points and joined a short list of athletes across basketball history to win four MVP awards before turning 30.
Wilson’s growing star power is also showing up across the business and culture of the sport. When Nike released her signature sneaker, the A’One, last year, it sold out within minutes. She’s also used her platform to speak openly about issues like player salaries and the league’s next collective bargaining agreement. As the WNBA enters a pivotal period of growth, Wilson has become one of the players helping guide where the league goes next.
4.Coco Gauff
Age: 22
Sport: Tennis
Coco Gauff has been in the spotlight for so long that it’s easy to forget how young she still is. At just 15, she walked onto Centre Court at Wimbledon, beat Venus Williams, and instantly became one of the most talked-about teenagers in sports. Over the next few years, Gauff grew into one of the defining players of her generation, capturing the 2023 US Open, 2025 French Open, climbing to No. 2 in singles, and even reaching No. 1 in doubles.
Those wins confirmed what the tennis world had suspected from the start: Gauff wasn’t just a prodigy with potential, she was a player built for the sport’s biggest stages. Her US Open title in New York showed how naturally she could carry the energy of a home crowd, while her French Open win proved she could master the nuances of clay.
At the same time, Gauff has become one of the most thoughtful voices in tennis. She speaks openly about mental health, the pressure of growing up in the spotlight, and conversations around race and equality in sports. She also isn’t shy to weigh in on American politics. For a generation of young fans watching her career unfold in real time, Gauff has become something greater than a tennis champion.
3.Caitlin Clark
Age: 24
Sport: Basketball
Caitlin Clark has become the kind of player people plan their night around watching. After a record-breaking college career at Iowa, the Indiana Fever guard entered the WNBA with more hype than any rookie in league history and immediately proved it was warranted. Clark averaged 19.2 points and a league-leading 8.4 assists as a rookie, won Rookie of the Year, made the All-WNBA First Team, broke the league’s single-season assist record, and recorded the first triple-double ever by a rookie. She also piloted Indiana back to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.
But her real influence shows up in what happens around her games. Clark’s deep range, lightning pace, and highlight-worthy passes have made Fever games must-watch events. Attendance spikes whenever Indiana comes to town, and national broadcasts featuring Clark have posted some of the strongest ratings in WNBA history. Even in a injury-shortened 2025 season, where she played just 13 games, Clark still led All-Star fan voting with more than 1.2 million votes.
Clark’s presence is starting to reshape the business side of women’s basketball as well. Nike made her a signature athlete, and her first shoe, set to drop in 2026 as part of a reported eight-year, $28 million deal, was considered the richest sponsorship contract for a women’s basketball player. Her arrival has also coincided with a massive financial surge for the league. The WNBA recently signed a new media rights agreement worth roughly $2.2 billion over 11 years, while franchise valuations across the league have climbed rapidly as viewership and ticket demand spike around Fever games. The attention she draws even has its own nickname—the “Caitlin Clark Effect”—and it’s easy to see why: she’s changing how fans watch, how sponsors invest, and how the league views its stars, all while posting elite performances night after night.
2.Simone Biles
Age: 29
Sport: Gymnastics
Few athletes (if any) have altered their sport the way Simone Biles has. The most decorated gymnast in history, with 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals, Biles has operated at a level so far beyond the field that judges adjusted the rulebook just to keep up. Her return to Olympic gold in the all-around at the Paris Games made her the first woman in more than half a century to win two nonconsecutive Olympic all-around titles, reaffirming that the standard in gymnastics is still the one she created.
Part of Biles’ influence is technical: multiple skills across vault, beam, and floor carry her name, including the Yurchenko double pike, a vault so difficult that only a handful of athletes in the world even attempt it. The Code of Points has repeatedly been revised to account for the level of difficulty she introduced. In practical terms, the ceiling of women’s gymnastics moved higher because Biles pushed it there.
But Biles changed the sport in another way, too. During the Tokyo Olympics, when she withdrew from several finals after experiencing the twisties, she sparked a global conversation about mental health, athlete safety, and the pressure placed on elite competitors. What initially drew criticism quickly became a turning point in how athletes talk about burnout and vulnerability at the highest level of sport. Since then, Biles has returned to competition while continuing to speak openly about therapy, recovery, and accountability in the wake of the Larry Nassar abuse scandal.
1.Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart
Ages: 29 & 31
Sport: Basketball
Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart have never waited for women’s basketball to catch up to them. Already Olympic gold medalists, WNBA champions, and two of the most decorated players in the game, the former UConn teammates recently turned their attention to fixing a problem: the WNBA offseason. In 2023, they began building Unrivaled, a player-led winter league designed to give top athletes a high-level option to compete—and earn real money—without leaving the United States.
When the league debuted in 2025, it immediately challenged the old model. Unrivaled launched with a condensed winter season with average salaries around $220,000, approximately $100,000 more than the average WNBA salary. Unrivaled also offered something rare in professional sports: equity stakes for the players. By its second season, which wrapped on March 4, the league had already expanded its roster of teams, packed arenas for showcase games, and attracted major brand and broadcast partners eager to tap into the growing audience around women’s basketball.
As tensions around the WNBA’s next collective bargaining agreement have grown, Unrivaled has also taken on a larger meaning. The league created a rare source of leverage for players by proving there is another way for top athletes to compete and earn during the offseason. Collier, in particular, has become one of the most visible voices in that fight. As vice president of the WNBPA, she drew national attention in September 2025 for using her exit press conference to blast commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s stewardship as “the worst leadership in the world,” criticizing the league’s handling of officiating, compensation, and its treatment of star players. Together, Stewart and Collier have shifted the balance of power in women’s basketball.