Women's basketball breaks records 💥

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a lovely weekend enjoying the sunshine. It was the last weekend before the London Marathon for me – I’m feeling very excited and looking forward to a week of carbs and early nights. Best of luck to anyone else running!

It’s been another brilliant couple of weeks for women’s sport. The hype around the NCAA women’s basketball tournament over in the United States has been incredible to see, while there’s also been lots happening in football, rugby, tennis and much more! So, without further ado, let’s get into this week’s newsletter.

Winning Women

Celebrating the impressive achievements of female athletes across the world

• Recently I’ve been in absolute awe of tennis player Danielle Collins, who has won back-to-back tournaments on the WTA Tour. She extended her unbeaten run to 13 matches as she won the Miami Open and Charleston Open over the past few weeks. Collins has been really open about her struggles with endometriosis, which is one of the reasons she’ll be retiring from tennis at the end of the season.
  
  

• Nelly Korda has been even more dominant in golf, winning four tournaments in a row on the LPGA Tour. She is the first woman to do this since Mexico's Lorena Ochoa in 2008. The victories lift her season earnings to more than $1 million 🤑
  
  

• There have also been some incredible feats achieved in less conventional sports. Laura Crane became the first British woman to surf the 60ft waves of Nazare in Portugal, while France’s Anouk Garnier broke the world rope climbing record by climbing 110 metres in 18 minutes. Her location? The Eiffel Tower.

Bits and bobs

Women’s sport news and content you may have missed

• Last weekend, South Carolina Gamecocks beat Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75 to win the NCAA Division I women’s basketball championship. You may also know the tournament as March Madness, and this year’s competition absolutely smashed viewing figures out of the park. The TV audience for the final peaked at 24 million, making it the most watched women’s basketball game of all-time and the most-watched basketball game – men's or women's, college or pro – since 2019. The tournament has set up the new season of the WNBA perfectly, with NCAA stars Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese part of this week’s draft.
  
  

• More basketball news, this time closer to home. London Lions became the first British winners of a European basketball tournament after beating Besiktas 149-145 on aggregate in the EuroCup final. The scenes from the match look incredible. But many players are now set to leave due to funding cuts to the team.

• The Women’s Six Nations is well underway, so a reminder to watch ‘Abbie Ward: A Bump in the Road’ on ITVX! Switching codes, Women’s Rugby League has launched two new social channels, including the world’s first TikTok account run exclusively by players. St Helens star Emily Rudge took over the account last week, with content from more of the sport’s biggest players expected in the coming months.
  
  

• So much going on in football as always! I loved seeing the below Lionesses/Red Roses crossover ahead of the UEFA Nations League match at Wembley against Sweden. But it was sad to see Rachel Daly’s international retirement news – she will be missed!

• With Paris 2024 on the horizon, Channel 4 are set to produce a two-part documentary on Britain’s Olympic and Paralympic track and field stars, including Hannah Cockroft, Keely Hodgkinson, Morgan Lake and Funmi Oduwaiye. The documentary is set to give unique insight into the journey to the Games.
  

  
  

• Speaking of the Olympics, Powerade have put out this powerful advert featuring gymnastics star Simone Biles. The advert highlights the importance of prioritising mental and physical health, which Biles did after the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

That’s all for today’s newsletter. If you enjoyed it, please share with your networks and anyone else you think may be interested. Thank you!