Three women's sports stories that helped shape 2023 including Coco Gauff's US Open victory and the FIFA Women's World Cup
A world record attendance that blew the Super Bowl out of the water and Chloe Kelly's 111km/hr kick are among the highlights of an incredible year for women's sports
2023 saw many records shattered in women’s sports, including a women’s NCAA volleyball game with over 25,000 more fans than attended the 2023 Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles.
Between Coco Gauff's record-breaking viewership at the US Open, global headlines made by the FIFA Women’s World Cup, and a new world record for the highest attendance at a women’s sporting event, 2023 was a big year for women’s sports… and there are no signs of slowing down.
A Deloitte study predicts that in 2024, for the first time ever, women’s elite sports will generate a revenue that surpasses one billion dollars — 300% higher than their 2021 prediction.
Here are some of the highlights that helped shape women's sport in 2023.
Coco Gauff’s U.S. Open win
Coco Gauff's victory in the US Open represented the first time an American teenager had won the event in over two decades, with the last being when tennis legend Serena Williams took the title in 1999.
The historic match broke all kinds of records with 3.4 million people watching on broadcaster ESPN, over a million more than the men’s final, where Novak Djokovic took his 24th Grand Slam singles title and set a modern Grand Slam record, which drew 2.3 million viewers.
According to ESPN, the viewership for Gauff’s final was also up 92% from last year’s equivalent, making it the most-viewed women’s final of any tennis major broadcast on ESPN and the second-most-viewed US Open telecast on ESPN.
Gauff's win fell on the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Sexes match in 1973, marking the fifth decade of equal prize money for male and female players at the tournament. Gauff was handed the championship trophy by Billie Jean King herself and took the opportunity to say “Thank you, Billie, for fighting for this.”
Coco Gauff of the United States celebrates after defeating Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in their Women's Singles Final match on Day Thirteen of the 2023 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 09, 2023 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.
FIFA Women’s World Cup
The FIFA Women’s World Cup made global headlines as records were broken over the 64 matches in Australia and New Zealand that took place throughout July and August of 2023.
1,977,824 fans watched the showcase in person, making it the most attended tournament in the history of the Women’s World Cup, topping the previous best of 1,353,506 set in Canada in 2015. When Australia played England in the semifinals in Sydney, it was in front of a sold-out home crowd of 75,784 fans.
England’s Chloe Kelly made an already dramatic penalty shootout between the Lionesses and Nigeria even more exciting with a 111km/hour spot kick — a speed faster than any single kick recorded in the 2022-2023 men’s Premier League season.
Deloitte’s billion-dollar prediction cites this World Cup as a major turning point in the growth of women’s sports, saying “In 2024, women’s elite sports should continue to bask in the multi-faceted success of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup which generated more than US$570 million in revenue.”
Salma Paralluelo of Spain celebrates after scoring her team's second goal during the FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023 Quarter Final match between Spain and Netherlands at Wellington Regional Stadium on August 11, 2023 in Wellington, New Zealand.
The largest attended women’s sporting event…ever
Drawing over 92,000 fans, five-time NCAA women’s volleyball champions Nebraska dominated Omaha 3-0 in front of what has been described as the largest crowd to ever witness a women’s sporting event in history.
The world record broke the previous number of 91,648 that was set in Spain in 2022, when FC Barcelona played Wolfsburg in a Champions League match. It also shattered the previous attendance record in the United States that had not been contested since 1999 when Team USA and People's Republic of China went head-to-head at the Women's World Cup in Pasadena, California.
The attendance also broke that of the Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona Soccer Champions Tour match at the AT&T Stadium in July of 2023, where 82,026 spectators were in attendance, by nearly 10,000 fans.
The Huskers even received a shoutout from the legendary Magic Johnson, who wrote “I’m blown away!” on his X (formerly known as Twitter) page.
