How women's sport soared in 2023: World Championships, record crowds and huge viewership in the big year | News News

England footballers, cricketers and netballers ultimately missed out on winning the World Cup in 2023, but they came very close to achieving that goal in another hugely successful year for women's sport.

Mary Earps saved a 69th-minute penalty against Jenni Hermoso in the World Cup final – whereupon she uttered an understandable expletive – that kept England in the game against Spain.

Earps ensured England were only 1-0 down with 21 minutes to go in normal time; The Lionesses' hopes of securing their European Championship success from last year are still very much intact.

Mary Earps saved a penalty in England's World Cup final against Spain

However, the goalkeeper's stop ultimately didn't matter much as Spain secured their first World Cup title with captain Olga Carmona's first-half goal, denying England the same success.

However, jubilation soon turned to dismay when Spanish Football Federation president Luis Rubiales planted an unsolicited kiss on Hermoso's lips before the trophy presentation, sparking international outrage.

The unsavory incident – which resulted in all 23 members of Spain's World Cup winning squad, as well as a further 58 players, no longer appearing for La Roja while Rubiales remained on site – highlighted that, despite all the progress made in women's sport there, there is still a lot to be done do to eradicate sexism and achieve equality.

Luis Rubiales was widely criticized for kissing Jenni Hermoso at the World Cup

Joey Barton's comments about female experts showed the same thing.

Earps also fought on this front, supporting fans in their petition to have a replica of their England World Cup goalkeeper jersey made by Nike available for sale.

The sportswear giant caved and produced the jerseys, which sold out almost as quickly as it took Earps to scream “damn” after her penalty kick against Spain.

Jamaica lights up the World Cup while Europe makes a splash at the Solheim Cup

While off-field indiscretions marred the World Cup, they should not mar the magnificent spectacle.

The largest tournament in the competition's history – featuring 32 teams for the first time – features plenty of exciting storylines, including Morocco's passage to the round of 16 and Jamaica also needing a crowdfunding site to finance its trip to the Antipodes.

Jamaica reached the knockout stages of the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand

Viewers were captivated by the games – the ` reported a peak audience of 12 million viewers for the final between England and Spain – while the average number of in-person viewers was 30,911, compared with 21,756 in France at the 2019 World Cup tournament , which was won by the USA .

The U.S. was eliminated in the round of 16 in 2023, losing to Sweden on penalties, ending its hopes of a third straight World Cup title, and American golfers were also desperate at the record-breaking Solheim Cup in Spain as Team Europe retained their trophy with a thrilling 14:14 draw.

This year's Solheim Cup was the most-watched edition on Sky Sports with a peak audience of 734,000 watching Sunday's singles matches, where home favorite Carlota Ciganda converted the winning putt from tap-in range and ended her week with a flawless 4: 0 balance ended.

Europe had recovered from a 4-0 deficit after the opening morning foursome, with highlights from the week in Andalusia including Emily Kristine Pedersen's hole-in-one and Caroline Hedwall's four birdies and an eagle over her final six holes on Sunday to secure a decisive point against Ally Ewing.

Ireland's Leona Maguire also made a splash with three points out of five, while Europe made a splash in the truest sense of the word as they celebrated their title win with a dip in the pool.

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Team Europe celebrated winning the Solheim Cup title by jumping into a swimming pool in Spain

Team Europe celebrated winning the Solheim Cup title by jumping into a swimming pool in Spain

We have never figured out how England's netballers and cricketers were able to celebrate success of this magnitude, with the former being beaten by Australia after reaching their first World Cup final and the latter being eliminated in the semi-final of their World Cup by hosts South Africa.

The Vitality Roses remained unbeaten at the Netball World Cup until the final, defeating Malawi, Scotland and Barbados in the first pool stage, Tonga, Fiji and Australia in the second and New Zealand in the semi-finals.

England's league victory against Australia was the Diamonds' first victory at a World Cup, but this could not be repeated in the final as the team lost 61:45 to the now twelve-time champions.

Money is flowing into women's cricket but “sexism and misogyny” remain

England cricketers had little time to reflect on their World Cup semi-final exit in February as a group of their players soon flew to India to take part in the first and lucrative Women's Premier League, the female counterpart to the long-established Indian Premier League Men.

The competition is changing the landscape of women's football and boasting unprecedented royal sums: England's Nat Sciver-Brunt was bought by Mumbai Indians for £320,000 and India's Smriti Mandhana was bought by Royal Challengers Bangalore for a whopping £340,000.

Nat Sciver-Brunt scored back-to-back Ashes hundreds for England this summer

After leading Mumbai to glory, Sciver-Brunt was hoping to help England win the Women's Ashes in multiple formats for the first time since 2014. She gave her best, with a Test fifty and two consecutive ODI hundreds, but the Southern Stars retained the trophy by an 8-8 draw.

After drubbing 12-4 in the last two Ashes series, it still represented real progress for England, who beat Australia in both the T20 and ODI legs, proving that their opponents were not the unbeatable force that they were In recent years when vacuuming, Word Cup and Ashes often seemed to win.

Figures released by the England and Wales Cricket Board show that a total of 110,000 fans attended the Women's Ashes and that 5.3 million watched live on television – but we were also starkly reminded that despite fan engagement booming, there is still progress to be made.

A report by the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) concluded that the sport in England and Wales was “a routine riddled with sexism and misogyny”.

Gradual steps have been taken to equalize playing fees for men and women in England in international cricket now after the ICEC report found that women received 25 percent of men's fees for white-ball games and 15 percent for Tests.

The Australian netball world champion has settled the salary dispute with his governing body

Financial issues are nothing new in women's sport, with the pay dispute between Netball Australia and the Australian Netball Players Association only just resolved. Former captain Kathryn Harby-Williams said some Australian players were forced to sleep in cars during the standoff.

There is no hiding the fact that further progress is needed, but we should also celebrate what has been achieved in women's sport in 2023.

We saw a record crowd of 58,498 for a women's rugby match when England hosted France at Twickenham, and a record crowd for a women's sporting event when over 92,000 watched the University of Nebraska's volleyball match against Omaha.

We saw Katie Taylor avenge her boxing loss to Chantelle Cameron and perhaps set up a trilogy. We saw Simone Biles become the most decorated gymnast of all time. We saw Coco Gauff fulfill her promise and become Grand Slam tennis champion for the first time.

The road for women's sport has not been smooth and the road ahead will have more bumps in the road, but it continues to grow exponentially.

And if you don't believe that, Mary Earps has two words for you.