Who do you think are the Most Popular Female Athletes in the world?
They are the best at their sport, be it basketball, volleyball or swimming. These athletes are famous for simply being one of the best females in their sport.
They are world and Olympic champions and record breakers. They are global activists as well who inspire people all over the world to work harder and become better at whatever they do.
Quick View
| S.No. | Name of Athlete | Sports |
| 1. | Serena Williams | Tennis |
| 2. | Maria Sharapova | Tennis |
| 3. | Lindsey Vonn | Ski |
| 4. | Simone Biles | Gymnastics |
| 5. | Alex Morgan | Soccer |
| 6. | Billie Jean King | Tennis |
| 7. | Danica Patrick | Car Race |
| 8. | Ronda Rousey | Martial arts and Wrestling |
| 9. | Jackie Joyner Kersee | Track and field |
| 10. | Caroline Wozniacki | Tennis |
| 11. | Mildred Ella Didrikson | Golf, Basketball, Track, and field |
| 12. | Katie Ledecky | Swimming |
| 13. | Keri Walsh Jennings | Beach Volleyball |
13 Most Popular Female Athletes In The World
Iinformation and detials are collected from trusted sites such as espn, and Wikipedia.
13. Kerri Walsh Jennings
Kerri Lee Walsh Jennings is an American professional beach volleyball player. She started playing volleyball in high school and led her team to the state championships.
Later, she joined Stanford University on a volleyball scholarship, where her school’s team won 90% of the matches they participated.
She later won three golds and one bronze medal in the Olympics and has 133 victories in major tournaments.
Walsh and her teammate Misty Treanor won 3 golds at the Olympics and are known as “the greatest beach volleyball team of all time.”
Kerri has won around $2,542,635 in prizes as of December, 2023.
12. Katie Ledecky
Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky is an American swimmer. She made her debut at the 2012 London Olympic games as a 15-year-old, where she won the gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle.
Ledecky has won female world swimmer of the year the most, which is 5 times.
Considered one of the best female swimmers, Katie has won 7 Olympic gold medals and 15 world championship gold medals.
She has won a total of 38 medals in major international competitions and has broken two world records.
11. Mildred Ella Didrikson
Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias was an American athlete who excelled in golf, basketball, baseball, and track and field.
She was also known as “babe,” which was a nickname she got from her mother.
In her early years, she dropped out of high school to play basketball. Besides her athletic qualities, she was an excellent seamstress.
She made her own clothes on many occasions, including her golfing events. She was also a singer and an exceptional harmonica player.
Mildred set four world records in the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics by winning two gold medals and one silver medal for track and field.
She also won a grand slam in golf in 1950, which was her best year.
She was named the 10th greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN and the 9th greatest athlete of the 20th century by the associated press.
Mildred retired in 1956, the year of her death.
10. Caroline Wozniacki
Next up, we have a professional Danish tennis player. Born in Odense, Denmark, Wozniacki made her debut on the ITF Junior Circuit in October 2003 at the age of 13.
The athlete achieved her top ranking for the first time on 11 October 2010, becoming the first woman from a Scandinavian country to hold the top position.
The athlete has won 30 WTA singles titles and two double titles in her career. Caroline has won prize money for a total of $35,233,415.
She announced her retirement at the age of 29 in January 2020 due to an autoimmune disease called rheumatoid arthritis.
9. Jackie Joyner Kersee
Jackie Joyner Kersee is a track and field athlete, considered one of the greatest athletes in the heptathlon and long jump.
She started track and field during high school in the 1980s.
The American athlete competed in the 1984 summer Olympics in Los Angeles and won a silver medal in the heptathlon as one of her early achievements.
She won three Olympic gold medals, one silver, and a bronze medal.
She also won nine gold medals in various international championships, including world championships in her career.
The athlete retired at the age of 38 in February 2001.
8. Ronda Rousey
Ronda Jean Rousey is an American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist.
She became the 1st American woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo winning bronze at the 2008 summer Olympics.
In 2004, Ronda won a gold medal at the world junior judo championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Later, she went to win a total of 12 martial arts titles, and in 2018, she made a debut in WWE by appearing for the royal rumble.
She won the Raw women’s championship at Summerslam at 34 before her retirement in 2019.
7. Danica Patrick
Danica Sue Patrick is a professional racing driver. Born in Wisconsin, USA, she dropped out of high school in 1998 to move to England to advocate her racing career.
She debuted at the season-opening race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, starting ninth and sustaining a crash that led to her being hospitalized for a mild concussion.
Later, Patrick won her first race at the 2008 Indy Japan 300 and became the first woman to win an IndyCar Series event.
She has competed in 191 races over the span of 7 years.
Danica has one of the biggest endorsement portfolios in sports with 15 personal sponsors, including Chevrolet and Coca–Cola, and a salary of $7.2 million.
6. Billie Jean King
Next up, we have the oldest athlete on our list. The right-handed tennis player was born in Long Beach, California.
Billie started playing professionally around 1972. She has won 39 grand slam titles in more than 20 years of her career.
King was an advocate for gender equality. She also co-founded the Women’s tennis association and the women’s sports foundation.
Regarded by many as one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, Billie was induced in the tennis hall of fame in 1987. She has won 127 career titles (67 during the open era).
The American athlete won total prize money of $1,966,487 before her retirement in 1983.
5. Alex Morgan
Next up, we have Alex Morgan Carrasco on our list. She is an American professional soccer player born in San Dimas, California, USA.
Morgan made her debut playing professionally for California Golden Bears from 2007 to 2010. She currently plays for Orlando Pride as Jersey number 13.
She started playing club football at 14, where she won the Coast Soccer League under 16 championship.
She became the first Californian player to be drafted in the first round of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS).
The striker has scored 111 goals for her national team and her career total is 131 goals in league games.
4. Simone Biles
Simone Arianne Biles is an American gymnast who tried gymnastics at the age of 6.
Born in a less privileged family, she went in and out of foster care until six.
At 14, Biles started her career at the 2011 American classic in Houston, where she placed third all-around and first on the vault and Balance team.
Biles later won 27 gold medals for Team USA and 5 silver and bronze each as of August 2021.
Simone is the gymnast with the most world medals (25) and the female gymnast with the most World- all-around titles (5).
She has broken many records and continues to shock the world with her exceptional talent.
3. Lindsey Vonn
Lindsey Caroline Vonn is an American former alpine ski racer born in st. Paul, Minnesota.
She is one of the only two female skiers to win four world cup overall championships.
She was taught to ski by her grandfather at a very young age of 2.
In the late 1990s, Lindsay and her family were required to move to Colorado, where she went for her training.
She later made her world cup debut at age 16 on November 18, 2000, in Utah in Park City.
Later from the years 2008 to 2010, she won the world cup for three consecutive years, which was one of the many records she was about to break.
She played in the Olympics four times and won three times (one gold, two bronze)
The player from the club Vail SSC went to win 82 golds, 35 silver, and 20 bronze titles in total before her retirement in February 2019 at the age of 34.
2. Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova is a Russian tennis player born in Nyagan, Russia. She was born in a family with a tight budget, even though she was phenomenal at playing tennis from a very early age.
Her father had to borrow money to go to the United States for his daughter’s training.
Since 1994, she has been living in the States.
She was the youngest girl ever to reach the Australian Open Junior Championship final at 14 years and nine months in the States.
In 2004, she won Wimbledon championships which started her rise to fame. She has won 5 grand slam titles and 14 WTA premier, 16 WTA tours in her career, and one Olympic silver medal.
Maria retired at the age of 32 in 2020 due to recurring tendon damage in her right shoulder and inflammation in her forearms.
She had a net worth of $195 as of the year she retired.
1. Serena Williams
Serena Williams is a tennis player from the United States of America, born in Saginaw, MI, USA, and is 39 years old.
She is a right-handed who has won 23 grand slam titles which is the most by any player in the open era.
Williams started playing tennis at the age of 4. Her father home-schooled her and trained her and her sister, Venus, who plays with her in doubles.
By the time she was 10, she was ranked number one among under-10 players in Florida.
She started playing professionally at the age of 14 and lost her first match in 1995.
However, later in 2000, her hard work paid off as she is ranked top ten for two consecutive years and won multiple championships.
Since then, the athlete has won 4 golds in the summer Olympics, 5 WTA tour championships, 23 WTA 1000, and 20 WTA tours.
She has won a total of 98 major tennis tournaments and has inspired millions not to give up.
Williams was the highest-paid female athlete in 2016, earning almost $29 million prize money and endorsements.
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