I’m a big fan of lists. I write a “to do” list just about every day, including things I know I’m going to do, like shower; things hope I’m going to do, like go to the gym; and things I have to do, which mostly revolve around work but also tend to center on the dog and, occasionally, my family. I also find myself making lists while waiting, whether at doctor’s offices, school pickup lines, or in boring meetings that need to end — using the time to name the greatest bands that begin with the letter “M,” figure out the top 10 movies that made me cry, or rank Taylor Swift’s entire oeuvre on the basis of literary value.
This, then, is my favorite time of year, as we drown in all of the New Years’ lists — what was good, what was bad, what will be good, what will be bad. And no list is more impressive from where I’m sitting than thinking about 2024 through the lens of women in sport. So here it goes: my top five for 2024:
Number 5: This list is likely going to include a lot of women’s basketball, so we might as well start with the fact that some 18.9 million people — the most ever — watched the Iowa versus South Carolina NCAA Division I championship game, which further secured the legend of USC Coach Dawn Staley and sent Caitlin Clark off to be the number one pick in the WNBA draft.
Number 4: The Paris Olympics proclaimed it would be the first to feature an equal number of male and female athletes, and while it didn’t quite do that, there was no denying the amount of space that women took up — especially the American women — on the Olympic stage. Indeed, if the U.S. women had entered as a country, they’d have ranked third overall for medal haul, with stars like Ilona Maher, who brought rugby to center stage (some 66,000 people were in the seats for the opener at Stade de France!) and showed the world that elite athletes come in all shapes and sizes; the entirety of the women’s gymnastics (more on Simone later) and track and field teams (Gabby and Sydney, I’m especially looking at you); and, of course, Katie Ledecky, Katie Ledecky, and Katie Ledecky — now the most decorated U.S. female Olympian.
Number 3: While the U.S. women brought home gold from the Olympic pitch in France, the legend that is Marta, Brazil’s 38-year-old force of nature, won her first ever NWSL title with the Orlando Pride, a 1-0 victory over the Washington Spirit in front of the league’s first sold out crowd. Add to that the million plus people tuning in from home? It was the most viewed match in league history.
Number 2: Remember when I said I was going to talk about women’s basketball a lot? Well the WNBA is a big reason why, as it put on its most watched season ever — some 54 million unique viewers. The Indiana Fever, now home to Caitlin Clark, had the highest single-team home attendance ever at 340,715 fans, and some 154 games across the league sold out — a 242% increase from the 2023 season. The league’s stars needed no last names -- Angel, Stewie, Sabrina, and A’ja, to name only a few -- and the W’s finals didn’t disappoint, with the thrilling 5-game series giving the NY Liberty — otherwise known as my NY Liberty — its first championship title before millions of viewers.
And — drumroll please — my Number 1: The discussions, arguments, and debates over Sportsperson/Athlete of the Year, with some saying Clark, whose impact on women’s basketball is almost immeasurable (except we have data, I just don’t want to bore you with more numbers), and others — including, I think, me — saying Simone Biles, whose don’t-call-it-a-comeback performance in Paris solidified her GOAT status for all time. Both women did things no one had ever done before; both women made a historic mark on sport writ large.
At the end of the day, lists are, of course, just a snapshot in time. But each of these moments contributed to a different kind of culture surrounding women’s sports, one in which we didn’t have to beg to get the bartender to put on a women’s game, people thought my Liberty shirt was cool, when anyone talked about “watching the game tonight” they might very well have meant a game played by women, and no one — at least near me — was insisting that they, personally, could win a game of H-O-R-S-E against a WNBA player. So welcome, 2025 — I can’t wait to see what kinds of awesome you bring.
Amy Bass is professor of sport studies and chair of the division of social science and communication at Manhattanville University. Bass is the author of ONE GOAL: A COACH, A TEAM, AND THE GAME THAT BROUGHT A DIVDED TOWN TOGETHER, among other titles. In 2012, she won an Emmy for her work with NBC Olympic Sports on the London Olympic Games.
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