New Year, More Women's Sport

Happy New Year, all! I hope everyone had a restful festive period and are feeling ready to go for 2024. The relentless rain isn’t really helping, but the weekend is here, and hopefully this afternoon’s newsletter can make you feel even more excited for the coming year. 

With Deloitte predicting that women’s sport will generate more than £1 billion in revenue in 2024, it’s going to be an exciting 12 months. So I thought I’d put together a guide for women’s sport in 2024, touching on some of the biggest storylines which should unfold over the next year.

Football

When is it not a big year for women’s football? Aside from finding out who’s taking this season’s Women’s Super League and Champions League titles, there will also be a battle for an Olympic gold medal at Paris 2024. No Team GB, of course, but the USWNT, Brazil, Colombia, defending champions Canada and hosts France have already booked a place at the tournament. There are seven spots still up for grabs, two of which will be earned through the culmination of the UEFA Women’s Nations League.  

The first edition of the Women’s Gold Cup will run from February 20 to March 10, while qualifying for Euro 2025 begins in April. But sadly no Arnold Clark Cup this year, boo.

Off the pitch, we’ll find out where the 2027 Women’s World Cup will be hosted, while Emma Hayes will take up her new role as USWNT head coach in time for the Olympics. We should also discover more details about NewCo, the independent organisation which will run the Women’s Super League and Championship from next season. In general, expect more record attendances, more record transfers, and some big change in women’s football in 2024. 

Tennis

Women’s tennis remains as wide open as ever, and I love it. We saw different winners for each of the four Grand Slams in 2023, and I’m expecting something similar to happen this year. 

Iga Świątek, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina will be in contention for every tournament they enter, but I’d love for Ons Jabeur to finally win a Grand Slam after losing the three major finals she’s been in so far. 

Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu are looking good after returning from pregnancy and injury respectively, and I’m really rooting for both to do well this season. I’d also recommend keeping an eye on the 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva, who was very impressive last season and is well capable of pulling off an upset or two.

And, of course, there will also be tennis and wheelchair tournaments at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Which brings us to…

Olympics and Paralympics

The three-year gap between Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 – the former was delayed by 12 months due to the pandemic – means it feels like the Olympics and Paralympics have snuck up on us. But they are indeed here, and there’s going to be some intriguing contests between female athletes in the French capital, particularly in track and field.

I think it’s fair to say that the women’s 100 metres is currently more of a tantalising prospect than the men’s race, and has been ever since the retirement of Usain Bolt. Among the contenders is Elaine Thompson-Herah, the fastest woman alive across 100m, who is on the hunt for her third successive Olympic gold medal in the distance. She will come up against five-time 100m world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and the current holder of the world title, Sha'Carri Richardson. Shericka Jackson is capable of a surprise, and Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith will hopefully have returned to form. 

Simone Biles will be competing in artistic gymnastics, three years after she withdrew from a number of events at Tokyo 2020 due to the “twisties”. The 26-year-old was in scintillating form at the World Championships last year, and looks set to add to her collection of seven Olympic medals – four of which are gold – in Paris. Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade will be hoping to challenge the dominance of Biles, but we’ll have to wait and see whether European all-around champion Jessica Gadirova will be able to compete after suffering an ACL injury in October. 

There is so much more to talk about when it comes to women’s sport at the Olympics and Paralympics, so that will definitely be a future edition of this newsletter. Watch this space. 

Rugby

The 2024 Women’s Six Nations is scheduled for March 23 to April 27, and England’s penultimate match against Ireland on April 20 will take place at Twickenham. The iconic stadium was used as a venue for last year’s competition too, drawing in a record attendance of 58,498 for England vs France. I’m confident the crowd can be even bigger this year, and maybe the aim of selling out Twickenham for the 2025 Rugby World Cup final will be achieved a year earlier than planned!

Speaking of the 2025 Rugby World Cup, the semi-finalists from the tournament in 2022 have already qualified for next year’s competition. But this year will see regional qualifying, while six places will also be up for grabs through the 2024 WXV competition. 

At a domestic level, we’ll find out the winner of the rebranded Premiership Women's Rugby league.

Cricket

There will be ample opportunity to watch international women’s cricket in England this year, no matter where you live. The team will first travel to New Zealand for T20 and ODI series in March and April, before New Zealand return the favour by playing T20 and ODI series over here in June and July. Durham, Worcester, Bristol, Southampton, Hove and Canterbury are among the locations for the matches, as well as Lords and the Oval in London. 

England will also host T20 and ODI series against Pakistan in May, with fixtures in Birmingham, Northampton, Leeds, Derby, Taunton and Chelmsford. 

Just two teams still need to qualify for the Women's T20 World Cup in Bangladesh, which will be held in September and October. So far, defending champions Australia will be joined by England, India, South Africa, New Zealand, West Indies, Pakistan and hosts Bangladesh. 

After a highly successful inaugural season of the Women’s Premier League in India, cricket fans can look forward to the next campaign this year. The Hundred is also set to return this summer.

Everything else

The world of sport is vast and I’ve inevitably forgotten something, so please do share any other women’s sports events in 2024 and I’ll be sure to promote them when they come along. But here are the last few things to keep an eye on for now. 

The 2024 Netball Nations Cup – a mini tournament between Australia, Uganda, England and New Zealand – is taking place in Leeds on January 27 and 28, while the next season of the Netball Super League gets underway on February 17.

The Solheim Cup is normally a biennial competition, but there will be an event in 2024 despite last year’s success for Europe in Andalucía. This is because organisers are shifting the tournament to even-number years, to avoid clashing with the Ryder Cup. The 2024 Solheim Cup will be held at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club in Virginia.

The Cycling World Championships are scheduled for October 16 to 20, while the third edition of the Tour de France Femmes is set to take place in between the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Winning Women

• It was great to see Naomi Osaka get off to a winning start as she returned to the WTA Tour for the first time since September 2022, having given birth to her daughter Shai in July 2023. She defeated Tamara Korpatsch in the first round of the Brisbane International, although she did then lose her second round encounter against Karolína Plíšková.

• Emma Raducanu also looked impressive after returning from an eight-month injury layoff. She also suffered a second round defeat at the ASB Classic against Elina Svitolina, but performed well during her opening round victory against Elena-Gabriela Ruse. Both Osaka and Raducanu showed signs that they could have successful seasons.

• Shoutout to the skiers and snowboarders who were providing some live women’s sports action during an otherwise quiet festive period. Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin ended her record-breaking year on a high, extending her number of World Cup wins to 93 after back-to-back victories in Lienz. 

Bits and bobs

• The inaugural season of the Professional Women's Hockey League, comprising three ice hockey teams from Canada and three from the US, got underway on January 1. It’s gone down a treat, with numerous matches selling out already. AP explains more in this behind-the-scenes look from the opening game between Toronto and New York, which saw Billie Jean King perform the ceremonial puck drop. All matches are available to watch on the PWHL YouTube channel. 

• Staying in the US, StubHub saw a 101 percent increase in league ticket sales for the NWSL over last season, while the WNBA saw a 92 percent rise. The 2023 WNBA Finals was also the highest-selling in StubHub history. And speaking of basketball, did you see Caitlin Clark’s buzzer-beating three-pointer for the Iowa Hawkeyes earlier this week? Astonishing. 

• An interesting analysis of the commercial interest in women’s sport in 2023 from Emma John here, while Rebecca Sowden has listed the top 10 women’s sports campaigns from last year. 

• More than Equal, which aims to find and develop the first female F1 world champion, has opened applications for its driver development programme. Young and talented female drivers, who have ambitions to compete at an elite level, can apply through the More than Equal website. Registration is also open for Formula E’s FIA Girls On Track, an immersive behind the scenes day for 12-18 year old girls interested in a motorsport career. 

• I think most of the UK went darts crazy over the festive period as 16-year-old Luke Littler reached the World Championship final. Well, I certainly did. So I absolutely loved the below video of 85-year-old Maureen winning her family Boxing Day darts tournament. 

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