That's a W for Women's Sports in 2024
We’re already on our feet cheering.
With National Women & Girls in Sports Day hitting the field this Wednesday, a first-of-its-kind WNBA-NBA competition coming to the paint ten days later, attendance at women’s events reaching record-breaking levels, and the Women’s Sports Foundation turning 50 this spring, 2024 is proving to be game-changing for girls watching sports.
Oh, and there’s a football game on Sunday promising even more rockstar action.
What exactly are girls seeing and why does it matter?
Girls are seeing a groundswell of mentor moments in the form of players, coaches, general managers, and leagues who are working toward their future in sports. Envisioning their place on podiums. Hearing the roar of a crowd that will cheer for their future play.
Because mentor moments matter, particularly in sports. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation 94% of women in the C-suite played sports, and high school girls’ sport participation has grown 12X since 1972. Yet, girls are still quitting their sport at twice the rate of boys by age 14.
Is there a solution?
We think so. Être’s early research told us that 63% of girls would be less likely to quit their sport if they had a mentor, and 77% said a sports mentor would give them more confidence about any future career they chose. Wait, there’s more. We’re releasing new stats for 2024 later this month, and they drive this point across the plate even more.
In anticipation of those numbers and with an eye toward keeping girls in their cleats, here are 10 recent women’s sport milestones girls won’t want to miss:
National Women and Girls in Sports Day is coming on Feb 7; started in 1987 in the US to recognize women’s sports, the day connects “premiere organizations and elite women athletes” to spotlight women and girls in sports.
Two days ago, USC's Juju Watkins set the USC single-game scoring record by dropping an NCAAW season-high 51 points against Stanford. According to ESPN this makes Watkins the first Division 1 player in the last 25 years to score that many points against an AP Top 10 team.
New York Liberty legend Sabrina Ionescue broke the all-time 3-point record this summer when she made 25 out of 27 threes; in response, Golden State Warriors’ Steph Curry and Ionescu will face off in a first-ever NBA-WNBA 3-point challenge during All-Star weekend on Feb 17. What does Curry say about the upcoming contest? “It’s the coolest thing ever.”
The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) just named Saroya Tinker (retired professional hockey player and featured in The Epic Mentor Guide) Manager of DEI Initiatives & Community Engagement.
This happened after Boston’s newest PWHL team announced Danielle Marmer as their General Manager; prior to this appointment Marmer was a player development and scouting assistant for the Bruins – the first woman to have an on-ice position with the Boston team.
Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer set an all-time record for most coaching wins in the history of college basketball – wait for it – men’s or women’s. Yep, that means she beat the former Duke men’s coach Mike Krzyzewski.
Chloe Kim just became the first woman to land 1260 in snowboard halfpipe (that’s 3 and a half times around in the air), winning her 7th career X Games title and tying Kelly Clark for the most wins in the event’s history. Btw, she’s 22.
Four days ago, Australian No 1 Arina Rodionova made tennis history by becoming the oldest woman (at 34) to break into the world’s top 100 rankings.
Five-time NCAA volleyball champions Nebraska Huskers set a new record as 92,003 fans filled Memorial Stadium – the largest crowd ever to watch a women’s sporting event.
Speaking of goal-setting attendance, last season the NWSL had 8 out of 12 soccer teams set regular-season attendance records, the last NCAA Women’s Final Four semifinals were the 2 most-viewed college basketball games ever on ESPN+ (men’s or women’s), and the US Open had more people view the women’s tennis final than the men’s.
According to research from Wasserman – The Collective, women’s sports have experienced coverage growth annually across broadcasts, streaming, social media and digital publications to reach an average share of 15% of sports media coverage in 2022, and they predict a further rise to nearly 20% by 2025.
Among those watching are girls – and this weekend they’ll be watching with sports fans who couldn’t be happier. Noting a dramatic uptick in their daughters’ interest in football, dads are thanking record-breaking Grammy winner Taylor Swift in posts going viral. Is Swift’s stadium attendance boosting NFL ratings and retail sales too? Yep – to the tune of 130M viewers projected and $300M to date.
To every role model encouraging today’s girls to run faster, throw harder, jump higher, or dream bigger – you have our thanks. The stands are shaking with our collective cheering.
Looking forward,
Illana
ÊXTRAS: Three more pro-tips you won’t want to miss during Super Bowl week: Être mentor Dr. Jen Welter’s Day in the Life football experience for women and girls (she’s the 1st female coach in the NFL and featured in Être: Girls, Who Do You Want To Be?); winning commercials that will encourage girls to stay in their sports; and new fashion from Kristin Juszczyk after she inked her first NFL licensing deal.
