| (Photo: Jeff Pachoud/AFP/Getty)
To close out our final Feist issue of 2024, we're doing something a little different and counting down the 20 biggest moments this year.
It was a groundbreaking, record-setting year in women's sports—and next year's going to be even bigger—so it was hard to pick just 20 stories. But we tried! We scoured all the results, the best photos, the top stories—and here's what we've picked.
What was your favorite moment in women's sports this year? What did we miss?
20. Alison Jackson wins Paris-Roubaix. Not only did she become the first North American to win the famed classic, but the sprint finish after Jackson encouraged the breakaway to work together exemplified a new kind of women's racing on the cobbles. And, then she did a dance. The uninhibited joy was part of what made the moment one of our favorites of the year!
19. The X Games added women's a best trick event and brought back women's skateboard vert. And in the vert, 13-year-old Arisa Trew became the first female skateboarder to land a 720. It was a big year for X Games tricks. In the winter event, Megan Oldham nailed the first triple cork in women's skiing. Even more women's ski and snowboard events are being added next year.
18. Post-partum elite runners took center stage—set records and showed what's possible for mom-athletes. Faith Kipyegon set three world records this year after taking a break to give birth to her daughter in 2018. She was inspired by 100m Olympic champ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price's return to the track. And at the New York Marathon, new moms Kellyn Taylor and Molly Huddle were featured in the New York Times before finishing 8th and 9th. Moms were everywhere this year and were kicking ass everywhere!
17. The LPGA paid out record prize money—including $2 million to Amy Yang for winning the Tour Championship. Next year, the championship will pay out $4 million to the winner! (But even with the record prize payouts, it's still hard to make ends meet for many of the women.)
16. Lotte Kopecky capped her stunningly successful cycling season by winning the women's road race at the UCI World Champs. (It was her third rainbow jersey in Glasgow, after taking two titles on the track.) She was also second at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and took the points contest, won three of the biggest one-day races on the calendar, and won the national title in the time trial and road race. No wonder there's a Lotte Effect: 4x as many youth girl cyclists registering in Belgium.
15. Katie Ledecky surpassed Michael Phelps' record with 16 individual swimming world titles. That included a sixth world championship in the 800m. And it took a world record to beat her in the 400m. But Ledecky will have some stiff competition at the Paris Olympics next year.
14. New pro women's volleyball and hockey leagues launched. After two groups reached an agreement, the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) will have its first games in January with six teams. League One Volleyball raised $35 million in fundraising and will launch after the Olympics, while the Pro Volleyball Federation signed its first recruits this fall.
13. Volleyball also set a world record for attendance at a women's sporting event with 92,003 fans coming to a college match staged at the football stadium between Nebraska and Omaha.
12. Spain's World Cup winning team launched a 'Me Too' movement in the country. After the Spanish soccer president kissed a player on the mouth during the trophy ceremony (following years of indignities), enough was enough. The kiss sparked a player boycott, an investigation, and eventually the president banned and coach resigning. "Se acabó!" ("It's over!")
11. The UCI learned at its own peril how much people want to watch women's cycling. After opting not to air the Gravel World Championship, riders and fans protested. Kasia Niewiadoma won, just holding off the chasers after a breakaway from 20K out.
10. Beth Potter won the dramatic Paris Test Event triathlon (one year out from the Olympics)—and followed it with the world title a month later. The double wins earned the 2016 Olympic runner her spot on Team GB's Olympic triathlon team. Making the switch from running to tri was no small feat, though, for someone who didn't own a bike seven years ago.
9. At a dramatic Track & Field World Championship, Sha'Carri Richardson was the star—finally winning her 100m world title after a ban for smoking pot in the days after her mom died. "She's not back, she's better."
8. Tigst Assefa destroyed the marathon world record by two minutes, running 2:11:53 in Berlin. Women's running is getting so fast that Sifan Hassan's 2:13:44 to win Chicago just a few weeks later was only the second fastest time in history.
7. 9.92 million people tuned in the for the NCAA women's basketball final—a showdown between superstars at LSU and Iowa. Angel Reese led the Tigers to their win, prompting a national discussion about trash talking in women's sports. (We're for it!)
6. 19-year-old Coco Gauff won the U.S. Open, becoming the first American since 2017 and the highest paid female athlete of the year. Plus, her Tiktoks captured the world's imagination.
5. The first-ever all-women's Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii was a record-setting day. British star Lucy Charles-Barclay won in a course record of 8:24:31—after she'd been second four times perviously. And there were a number of records behind her. Over 2,000 women finished (a record 97.2% finish rate!) and everyone made the swim cut-off for the first time ever. A record 16 professional women broke nine hours for the 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike, and marathon run. And more amateur women broke 12 hours than had ever even previously competed in the world championship before last year.
4. Simone Biles returned to international gymnastics and won a record sixth individual world title—ten years after her first. She also premiered another new first-ever vault, now named after her.
3. Millions of fans tuned in for the record-setting women's World Cup this summer. The legendary U.S. team was knocked out dramatically. Jamaica made a heart-tuggingly unexpected run—even with having to fundraise their way to the tournament. Morocco field the first hijabi players. Australia drew massive home crowds for its exciting quarterfinal match. And Spain topped England in the final!
2. Demi Vollering emerged from the fog on the top of the Tourmalet to win an iconic Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. It was a dramatic way to win the record-breaking Tour, as Vollering beat out teammate Lotte Kopecky and legend Annemiek van Vleuten. No wonder 4.3 million people tuned in for the epic stage. The victory gave her the yellow jersey, which she held by winning the Time Trial in Stage 8 to secure the win.
1. Courtney Dauwalter's summer, though, can't be matched. In June, she won Western States, breaking the course record by over an hour. Three weeks later she set another course record at Hardrock 100. Then, she capped it off with a win at UTMB. That's three historic 100-mile races! Three wins! And, we loved to see the huge crowds chasing her around the mountains. All Hail Queen Courtney! |
