The World's Most Famous Women in Sports
ESPN has been calculating the world's most popular ('famous') athletes since 2016. For 2016-2019, we have taken the women from this list and ranked them each year, and in 2019 ESPN published a full ist of the top 100 females. See the top 10 most popular females for 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019. No list was published in 2020.
Who Are The Most Famous Female Athletes?
The most famous athletes are determined using a formula which accounts for online searches, endorsement earnings and social media followers.
Here are the winners of the first four years that the list has been created.
- 2019 — Serena Williams (Tennis)
- 2018 — Serena Williams (Tennis)
- 2017 — Ronda Rousey (MMA)
- 2016 — Maria Sharapova (Tennis)
Related Pages
- Discussion about the world's most popular athletes
- About ESPN World Fame 100 and list of winners
- Lists of most popular sports
- The world's Highest paid female athletes
- Greatest Female Athletes of All Time
- Women in Sport
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