As women’s sports surge in popularity, professional leagues are increasingly touting the value of female athletes. New professional leagues like SailGP are launching with the advantage of building from the ground up, with gender diversity as part of their DNA.
Noncontact and noncollision sports are leading the way. Formula 1′s F1 Academy has created a pipeline for women into motorsports, with a goal of increasing female participation and representation on and off the racetrack. At the same time, it’s drawing a more diverse fanbase. Roughly 41% of F1 fans now are female, with women aged 16 to 24 years old making up the fastest-growing fan group, according to Nielsen Sports.
Professional male and female athletes are already competing alongside and against each other in the United Pickleball Association’s unified league, the Global Mixed Gender Basketball league and in SailGP, the international sailing league co-founded by Oracle founder Larry Ellison and champion yachtsman Russell Coutts.
Founded in 2018, the upstart sailing league involves 12 international teams racing on high-speed, 50-foot Catamarans, known as F50s. At speeds of more than 60 mph, SailGP is gaining a reputation as a sort of Formula 1 on the water.
“The whole goal is to train athletes to be capable of racing on an F50, which is one of the more complex boats in the world – maybe the most difficult boat to race in the world right now,” said Coutts, who is also SailGP’s chief executive officer.
