2023 was a exceptional yr for girls’s sports activities. From momentous occassions on the sector to large stides off it, the yr introduced with it large highs and lows for girls within the sports activities ecosystem. With a Deloitte research predicting that in 2024, for the primary time ever, girls’s elite sports activities will generate a income that surpasses one billion {dollars} — 300% increased than their 2021 prediction, the way forward for the ladies’s vertical appears headed upwards.

As we gear up for 2024, right here’s a glance again at a number of the most vital developments in girls’s sports activities from 2023.

– Australia beat South Africa to win the Women’s T20 World Cup: Meg Lanning-led Australia received its sixth and third consecutive title after beating the host South Africa within the closing by 19 runs. It can be the final ICC title Lanning, probably the most embellished in world cricket, would carry with this Australian aspect provided that she surprised the world with a shock retirement announcement in November.

– India wins inaugural Women’s U-19 T20 World Cup: India received its maiden ICC title in girls’s cricket as a bunch of sprightly and proficient youngsters lifted the inaugural U-19 World Cup with an emphatic seven-wicket victory over England. The Shafali Verma-led India U-19 squad managed to do what their seniors couldn’t do by clearing the ultimate hurdle in a world occasion. India first bundled out England for 68 in 17.1 overs after which returned to knock off the paltry goal in 14 overs to carry the coveted trophy.

– Coco Gauff wins US Open: Gauff profitable the US Open represented the primary time an American teenager had received the occasion in over twenty years, with the final being when tennis legend Serena Williams took the title in 1999. The historic match broke every kind of data with 3.4 million individuals watching on broadcaster ESPN, over 1,000,000 greater than the boys’s closing, the place Novak Djokovic took his twenty fourth Grand Slam singles title and set a contemporary Grand Slam file, which drew 2.3 million viewers.

– Spain beat England to win maiden FIFA Women’s World Cup, Rubiales fiasco unfolds: Spain beat England 1-0 to grow to be newest nation to win the coveted world match. However, the main focus shifted utterly from the Las Rojas’ momentous achievement when Spanish Federation chief Luis Rubiales forcibly kissed Jenni Hermoso on the lips. The episode snowballed into a bigger investigation into his conduct. This got here after allegations of psychological harassment levelled towards coach Jorge Vilda. Vilda was sacked and Rubiales was ultimately banned from all football-related actions for 3 years by FIFA. 1,977,824 followers watched the showcase in individual, making it probably the most attended match within the historical past of the Women’s World Cup, topping the earlier better of 1,353,506 set in Canada in 2015. When Australia performed England within the semifinals in Sydney, it was in entrance of a sold-out house crowd of 75,784 followers.’

– Sarina Wiegman speaks for the Spanish girls’s crew at UEFA awards: Months earlier than any concrete investigation or motion was initiated towards Rubiales, England girls’s soccer crew head coach Sarina Wiegman received the UEFA Women’s Coach of the Year award and devoted her award to the World Cup-winning Spanish girls’s nationwide soccer crew at The Grimaldi Forum within the Principality of Monaco. “We all know the issues around the Spanish team, and it really hurts me as a coach, as a mother of two daughters, as a wife and as a human being,” Wiegman mentioned after receiving her award. “This team deserves to be celebrated and deserves to be listened to, and I am going to give them again a big applause and I hope you would join me,” mentioned Wiegman addressing the viewers on the Grimaldi Forum.

– NCAA sport turns into most attended sport ever – Drawing over 92,000 followers, five-time NCAA girls’s volleyball champions Nebraska dominated Omaha 3-0 in entrance of what has been described as the biggest crowd to ever witness a girls’s sporting occasion in historical past. The world file broke the earlier variety of 91,648 that was set in Spain in 2022, when FC Barcelona performed Wolfsburg in a Champions League match. It additionally shattered the earlier attendance file within the United States that had not been contested since 1999 when Team USA and People’s Republic of China went head-to-head on the Women’s World Cup in Pasadena, California.

– Transfer of the yr – Hayes to USWNT: The U.S. Soccer Federation introduced the appointed of Emma Hayes because the tenth full-time head coach in U.S. Women’s National Team historical past. Hayes, 47, the long-time head coach for Chelsea FC, one of the profitable girls’s groups in Europe, began her teaching profession within the United States on the daybreak of the millennium and greater than twenty years later will take the helm of the USWNT. A press release from U.S. Soccer says Hayes will grow to be the best paid girls’s soccer coach on the earth. 

– Women’s Football in England will get a brand new physique: Women’s soccer in England might be run by an impartial group somewhat than the Football Association from subsequent yr in a transfer geared toward setting new requirements within the sport. Clubs within the Women’s Super League and the second-tier Women’s Championship will function below NewCo, whose first chief govt might be Nikki Doucet — a former funding banker and Nike govt.

– Sheetal Devi’s rise to the highest: Armless archer Sheetal Devi made headlines in October when she shot her technique to three medals on the Asian Para Games. The 16-year-old, who hails from Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir, was born with phocomelia, a dysfunction inflicting underdeveloped limbs. Without arms, she discovered to make use of a bow and arrow utilizing her ft and began coaching full-time in archery solely two years in the past. Videos of her mounting the bow and utilizing her proper foot and mouth to regular the tools earlier than capturing excellent 10s went viral. From celebrities to the political brass, reward flooded in for the resilience and expertise of the younger lady, who ultimately went on to complete the yr because the No. 1 archer in open compound.

– Simone Biles returns to competiting: Simone Biles introduced her comeback in June, then went on to win her eighth particular person all-around on the U.S. Championships in August earlier than a sweeping return to the world stage in Antwerp in October, claiming a sixth World Championship title within the all-around, whereas including crew, flooring train and steadiness beam golds, too. She now has 30 world medals in whole – 23 of them gold – and seems to be transferring full steam forward towards the Olympic Summer Games Paris 2024.

– Wrestlers tackle Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh: The greatest controversy of the yr within the Indian context, the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has had a risky 2023. In January, the WFI chief, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, was alleged to have sexually harassed a number of girls wrestlers, together with a minor, sparking protests by a number of main wrestlers within the nation. The checklist included Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya, who gathered at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi demanding Singh’s resignation and the dissolution of the WFI. Fresh WFI elections have been held in December which noticed Brij Bushan-backed candidate Sanjay Singh elected as the brand new president. The protests continued; Sakshi introduced her retirement whereas Bajrang returned his Padma Shri Award.

– India girls rule pink ball cricket: The Indian girls’s cricket performed Test cricket after greater than 800 days, taking up England and Australia in fast succession. It marked Harmanpreet Kaur’s debut as Test captain. India beat England by 347 runs, its first victory towards the opponent within the format on house soil and the most important win within the historical past of the ladies’s sport when it comes to runs. India adopted that up with an eight-wicket win over Australia.

– Uncapped gamers dominate WPL season 2 public sale: Uncapped Indian gamers Kashvee Gautam and Vrinda Dinesh laughed their technique to the financial institution on the public sale for the second season of the Women’s Premier League walked away with prime honours on the WPL public sale in Mumbai, attracting bids of INR 2 crore (Gujarat Giants) and INR 1.3 crore (UP Warriorz) respectively.

– Cricket makes it to the Olympics: Cricket was part of the 1900 Olympics in Paris with solely two groups – one from Great Britain and one from France – competing for medals. In this yr’s International Olympic Committee (IOC), cricket was formaly accepted into the Olympic roster alongside baseball-softball, flag soccer, lacrosse and squash and might be performed within the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Games.

– LA’s ‘Ace’ legacy: The Las Vegas Aces received its second consecutive WNBA title after beating the New York Liberty 70-69 in Game 4 of the Finals. A’ja Wilson produced 24 factors and 16 rebounds to assist the Aces recuperate from a 12-point deficit in Brooklyn and grow to be the primary crew in additional than twenty years to repeat as champions.