The 10 highest-paid female athletes: Naomi Osaka is No. 1 again with over $57 million in earnings The Margin

By Weston Blasi

The coronavirus pandemic did not stall the earnings of female sports stars.

The 10 highest-earning female athletes made a combined $167 million before taxes in 2021, a 23% jump from 2020 levels, according to a new annual earnings list from Forbes .

See also: Serena Williams retiring from tennis to focus on family — and her venture-capital firm

Interestingly, just one of the 10 athletes on the list made more money directly from her sport than she did “off the field.”

Here is a list of the 10 highest-paid female athletes and how they made their money. The dollar figures below were calculated by Forbes.

10. Candace Parker, $5.7 million

The star of the WNBA’s Chicago Sky, Candace Parker, benefits from a lot of endorsement deals to counteract the fact that her WNBA salary is capped at $200,000 due to league rules. Parker has deals with Adidas /zigman2/quotes/206448829/delayed XE:ADS +0.28% , Capital One /zigman2/quotes/226519535/composite COF.PRL +0.18% and CarMax /zigman2/quotes/204412041/composite KMX -0.76% .

See also: Nike accuses StockX of selling fake shoes after reps bought counterfeit sneakers on the site

Parker also works as an NBA analyst for Turner Sports.

Parker’s earnings from the past year were $200,000 on the court, and $5.5 million off the court.

9. Nelly Korda, $5.9 million

Korda, one of the LPGA’s star golfers, won her first major at the Women’s PGA Championship.

Korda benefits from several sponsorships, including Hanwha Q Cells, a manufacturer of solar cells, and UKG, a tech company focused on workforce management, according to Forbes .

Korda’s earnings from the past year were $2.4 million on the course, and $3.5 million off the course.

8. Ashleigh Barty, $6.9 million

Barty is the only athlete on this list who made more money from playing her sport than she did through other endeavors.

She was the highest-earning woman based on from tennis tournament winnings in 2021.

See also: Quarterback Tom Brady had made $475 million from the game before inking that $375 million analyst contract with Fox Sports

Barty’s earnings from the past year were $3.9 million on the court, and $3 million off the court.

7. P.V. Sindhu, $7.2 million

Perhaps not a household name in the U.S., Sindhu is a 26-year-old badminton star from India. Sindhu has medaled in each of the last two Olympics Games.

Sindhu has over 3 million followers on Instagram , and has lucrative sponsorship deals with ed-tech giant Byju’s and used-car platform Spinny, in addition to partners like Li-Ning sportswear and India’s Bank of Baroda, according to Forbes.

Sindhu’s earnings from the past year were $200,000 on the court, and $7 million off it.

/zigman2/quotes/206448829/delayed