Forbes magazine declares Iga Swiatek richest female athlete of 2023

Iga Swiatek (Si Robi, Wikimedia Commons)

According to Brett Knight and Jason Birnbaum of Forbes Magazine on Thursday, reigning French Open women’s singles champion Iga Swiatek of Warsaw, Poland was the highest paid female athlete in the world in 2023. Swiatek’s total earnings were $23.9 million.

The first ranked women’s tennis player in the world made $9.9 million on the court and $14 million in endorsements. In addition to winning the fourth grand slam singles title of her career, Swiatek won the Qatar Open, Stuttgart Grand Prix, Poland Open, China Open, and WTA Finals in Cancun, Mexico. Meanwhile off the court, Swiatek had endorsement contracts with Visa, On Shoes, Oshee Sports Drink, and Infosys Information Technology Company.

Tennis players actually dominated the top 10. The only non-tennis player on the top 10 list was Chinese halfpipe skier Eileen Gu at number two. The other eight tennis players ranked inside the top 10 were reigning United States Open champion Coco Gauff of Delray Beach, Florida (number three at $21.7 million), Emma Raducanu of Great Britain (number four at $15.2 million), Naomi Osaka of Japan (number five at $15 million), reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus (number six at $14.7 million), Jessica Pegula of Buffalo, New York (number seven at $12.5 million), Venus Williams of Lynwood, California (number eight at $12.2 million), Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan (number nine at $9.5 million) and Leylah Annie Fernandez of Canada (number 10 at $8.8 million).

The majority of revenue Raducanu, Osaka and Williams made this past year were from endorsements. Raducanu and Williams actually made only $200,000 each while playing tennis, while all of Osaka’s income came from endorsements, as she did not play at all due to her pregnancy.