5 Sports—Other Than Basketball—Where Women Are Thriving And Excelling

Women’s professional sports has a growing fan base, and while basketball has always been a major draw for U.S. sports lovers, other sports are also seeing big accomplishments and history-making moments. NBC Chicago reported that, across several different sports competitions in the Paris Olympics this year, 57% of Team USA’s medals were won by women.

Also, according to Axios, three new professional U.S. women’s sports leagues for hockey, volleyball, and professional soccer launched this year.

As popularity continues to grow, let’s take a look into diverse sports where women athletes are thriving and making history:

Gymnast Simone Biles has five gymnastics skills named after her. Biles pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics due to suffering a case of “the twisties.” This mental block can throw off their air awareness. Her decision to step away from gymnastics allowed her to focus on improving her mental health and regain confidence in her skills.

Her public struggles with her mental health also caused USA Gymnastics (USAG) to take a deeper look at how they’ve neglected the mental health of their athletes over time. According to Front Office Sports, USAG started offering eight mental health visits to athletes on an annual basis, and plans to expand that number as this program continues. This year’s US team also featured the oldest group of women competing at the Olympics, including other reigning stars such as Jordan Chiles and Suni Lee. According to NPR, the average age of Team USA increased from 16 in 1992 to 22 in 2004.

Katie Ledecky currently holds the record for the most decorated Olympian woman in US history with 14 medals total. Ledecky lives with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), an autoimmune disorder that can cause one to feel faint, dizzy, or exhausted. She doesn’t let this disorder hold her back. She stands out as the second swimmer to win four consecutive gold medals in the 800m freestyle.

President Biden also awarded the athlete with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in May of this year. Along with her Olympic performance, reports stated in Live Strong show that the gap between men and women swimmer has decreased. The American Red Cross Association reported that 43% of folks taking swimming lessons in 2024 are women.

Ilona Maher, center for Team USA Women’s Rugby Sevens, helped lead her team to win bronze at this year’s Olympic games, the first Olympic medal for the team. In 2018, the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association (NIRA) named her Most Outstanding Player and she made her Olympic debut in the 2020 Tokyo games. Off the field, she uses her social media platforms to show women that you can still be feminine as an athlete.

She told CBS Mornings, “There has always been a divide, with people believing that if you play sports or are an athlete, you can’t be feminine. I feel like I can be a beast, play this very physical and aggressive sport, and still keep my femininity while doing it.” Rugby has also seen an increase in involvement since the sport’s 2021 Women’s Rugby World Cup. According to World Rugby, the global women playing population increased from seven to two million percent. There has also been a 53.2% jump in the number of women participants in the sport.

The US Women’s fencing team has helped increase the sport’s popularity. The team brought home gold in the group foil competition at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Lee Kiefer has helped bring more eyes to the sport as the only US fencer with three Olympic gold medals.

Lauren Scruggs, 21 year old Harvard Student and Queens, NY native, also made history as the first Black American to win an individual medal after taking home silver at this year’s Olympic games. According to The New York Times report, fencing can cost a family up to six figures when you count the cost of coaches, equipment, and competition fees. This leads to the income and racial disparity within the sport.

She told Reuters that coming from a low-income household pushed her to work harder than her peers. She credits her grit and desire to be an example for young girls that look like her athletic success. “To have this accomplishment is a huge deal for me, because when I was younger I only had a few people to look up to in the sport, so to be someone that little kids now can look up to is very special to me.”

U.S. Soccer’s current Female Player of the Year and the back line anchor for US women’s national soccer team, Naomi Girma has been coined one of the best defenders in the world. She made her worldwide debut as a starter in the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

She didn’t go through the soccer club route and spent her formative years playing for fun. In an interview with USA Today, Girma says, “Once I got introduced to (the higher levels), I had that background of just playing with joy and freedom and I think that really helped me do that in the bigger moments.” She and her team won gold in this year’s Paris Olympic games. Women’s soccer has seen an increase in interest, according to Nielson. The National Women’s soccer league had a 17% increase in interest between this year and last year, and interest in the England’s Women Super League jumped by 52%.