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Sports Illustrated Top Paid Athletes Lists

The Sports Illustrated magazine has for many years been publishing lists of top paid sports men and women. Since 2004, they have published the Fortunate 50, the top paid sports people from the USA, and the International 20, which includes only those outside of the USA.



Sports Illustrated do not publish a list combining these two, which would be a list of the world's top paid sports people - maybe because Forbes Magazine already publish a similar list of the World's Best Paid Athletes. It is a simple process to compare the earnings of the top athletes in the Fortunate 50 and the International 20, to create the World Top Paid List, which I have done. See the SI World's Best Paid Sports People. The Sports Illustrated lists differ from the Forbes lists in that SI only include athletes currently active in their sports.

* the top paid internationals list for 2004 is estimated based on unofficial figures found online.

Top Paid Athlete for Each Year

Here are the top earners in the world of sports for each year that Sports Illustrated magazine has published athlete earnings. Tiger Woods was on the top of the list for every year, until 2012! For the top 10 paid athletes from each year, click on the year number. For top paid athletes from earlier years see the similar Forbes Lists.

There appears to be no list published for 2015 :(

Year Name Sport earnings ($ million)
2014 Floyd Mayweather Boxing 105.0
2013 Floyd Mayweather Boxing 90.0
2012 Floyd Mayweather Boxing 85.0
2011 Tiger Woods Golf 62.3
2010 Tiger Woods Golf 90.5
2009 Tiger Woods Golf 99.7
2008 Tiger Woods Golf 127.9
2007 Tiger Woods Golf 111.9
2006 Tiger Woods Golf 97.6
2005 Tiger Woods Golf 86.4
2004 Tiger Woods Golf 76.7


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Lists Extra

Football/Soccer is clearly the world's most popular sport, and has the most popular athletes, but which sport has the fittest players (but not necessarily the greatest athlete). These players do not always earn the most. The best of the best have made it to our 7 Sporting Wonders Lists.

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