2024 Olympics Predictably Showcase The Growth Of Women’s Sport Beyond Caitlin Clark

In recent years, the surge in viewership and fandom surrounding women’s sports has been nothing short of remarkable and was predicted to continue into the 2024 Olympic Games. While a great deal of attention has been given to the “Caitlin Clark effect” on domestic viewership of women’s sport, her absence from the 2024 Games highlights an important truth: the growth in women’s sports viewership and fandom has not only continued to grow each year, this growth has remained consistent.

As a result, crediting overall women’s sport viewership and fandom increases to one player (and one sport) is a disservice to all of the incredible and entertaining women athletes across the U.S. and abroad. These claims discredit and foolishly overlook the dominance of athletes such as Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, Sunisa Lee, Sha’Carri Richardson, Mallory Swanson, and A’ja Wilson; while simultaneously making the mistake of forgetting the team dominance of U.S. women’s soccer and basketball. Therefore, the viewership numbers for the 2024 Games are not at all surprising, and there were plenty of women athletes to get excited about, even if Caitlin Clark did not make the cut.

Women’s Olympic Viewership

Although women’s basketball has been garnering a great deal of increased attention domestically over the past few years, the Olympic Games provide an opportunity to celebrate thousands of talented women athletes across a variety of sports, and the viewership numbers show that folks took advantage. Here are the key viewership figures for the 2024 Games:

• 35 million viewers tuned in across NBC networks on August 3rd to watch Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky and Sha’Carri Richardson win medals.
• 4.2 million viewers watched U.S. Women’s Soccer vs. Germany (July 28), and 3.0 million viewers tuned in for U.S. Women’s Soccer vs. Japan (August 3).
• 32 million viewers watched Simone Biles and Suni Lee take home gold and bronze medals in the gymnastics all-around.
• 34.7 million tuned in to watch the U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team win gold.
• The gold medal game in women’s soccer between the U.S. and Brazil averaged 9 million viewers – the highest viewership for a women’s soccer gold medal game since 2004.
• Viewership peaked at 10.9 million for the gold medal women’s basketball match between the U.S. and France.

These viewership numbers coming out of the 2024 Games provide justification for the advocates who have long championed the steady rise in fandom as rationale for increased investment in broadcasting and overall funding of women’s sport, despite facing outdated views that downplay the role of consistent marketing and promotion in that growth trajectory. As a result, the 2024 Olympics should silence any remaining skeptics, proving that the momentum behind women’s sports isn’t just a trend, but a powerful and consistent force. As Klarna and TOGETHXR have so perfectly coined it, this is a movement, not just a moment.

U.S. Women’s Dominance

For Team USA, it was the women athletes who dominated the podium and medal counts, brining in 26 of Team USA’s 40 gold medals and 57% of Team USA’s 126 total medals in Paris. The 26 gold medals accounted for the the most by a women’s team for a single Olympic Games. Their dominance in performance was on full display as the women of Team USA claimed gold in soccer, swimming, gymnastics, track and field, rugby, and basketball.

In swimming, Katie Ledecky made history in Paris, earning her 14th Olympic medal and becoming the most decorated American woman in Olympic history. Ledecky now has nine golds, second only to Michael Phelps. Ledecky also broke her own Olympic record in the 1500m freestyle and became the first woman to win four golds in the 400m freestyle. Joining her in setting records, Regan Smith, Lilly King, Gretchen Walsh, and Torri Huske set a new world record in the 4x100m medley relay, with Smith also earning silver in the 200m butterfly.

In team dominance, women’s soccer secured their fifth Olympic gold medal with a 1-0 win over Brazil and women’s basketball remained undefeated in Olympic play (61-0) when they defeated France and claimed their 8th consecutive gold medal. For women’s gymnastics, the team claimed their fourth gold medal and Simone Biles made history as the most decorated Olympic gymnast. Women’s Rugby had a historic run as they earned a bronze medal in a win over Australia, the programs first ever Olympic medal. In track and field, the U.S. women won gold in both the 4×100 and 4×400 relays.