She is the only basketball representative at the top of this ranking. According to data from Sportico for its annual ranking, Caitlin Clark will be the 10th highest-earning female athlete this year, with $11.1 million in earnings. This amount is, for example, what Alex Sarr will receive in salary at the end of his rookie year.
The most interesting thing in the case of the Fever star is to analyze the sources of income. In this case, his salary received in the WNBA represents a tiny part of the overall amount. Caitlin Clark earned the base salary – $76,535 – for her rookie year.
This contract also includes performance bonuses which brought his on-field income to approximately $100,000. The largest bonus being $10,300 for her selection in the WNBA best five, when she was the first rookie since Candace Parker in 2008 to be selected.
A huge contract with Nike
We remain far from the 11 million dollars mentioned above… The rest of the sum obviously comes from contracts concluded with brands exploiting its image. According to the specialized site, Caitlin Clark has signed more than a dozen NIL contracts in Iowa. Several of these brands, including Nike, Gatorade, State Farm and Panini, continued their partnership with the now-turned-professional player.
Nike is the most important sponsorship deal for her. In April, the brand signed the future WNBA Rookie of the Year to an eight-year contract worth an average of more than $3 million per year.
The distribution of her income is, more or less, the same as gymnastics legend Simone Biles, ranked just ahead of her in the rankings. We find similar proportions among freestyle skier Eileen Gu, who earned twice as much and ranks second behind tennis player Coco Gauff, far ahead of everyone else with more than 30 million dollars.
More generally, the 15 highest-paid sportswomen will earn around $221 million in 2024, an increase of 27% compared to last year.
