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Is Alexis Ohanian the unsung hero behind the rise of women's sports? What do you think?

Serena Williams‘ husband, Alexis Ohanian has always been very vocal about supporting women in sports. He is often seen speaking for equality in the world of sports. Ohanian has also heavily invested in Angel City FC and ATHLOS NYC to motivate the next-gen female athletes towards the sports. Recently, Aryna Sabalenka’s fitness coach Jason Stacy was spotted donning a yellow T-shirt with Alexis Ohanian’s famous caption, “Everyone watches women’s sports.” Echoing the same message?

In May this year, Ohanian posted a clip of renowned soccer star Alexia Putellas and captioned the post,”Everyone watches women’s sports.” Then, in the same month, he shared a clip of Caitlin Clark on his X page with the same caption. So, that’s how it started, and we can now strongly conclude that both of them have joined hands to become strong advocates for women’s sports.

Ohanian’s journey from tech entrepreneurship to becoming an advocate for women’s sports highlights his visionary mindset and dedication to creating more opportunities for rising stars in women’s sports. It is quite interesting to see Sabalenka’s coach channeling the same message during her SF match at the US Open, and fans are happy to see Aryna Sabalenka‘s team taking this stand.

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Previously, we heard Sabalenka say, “I’m not someone who watches too much tennis. I prefer to watch men’s tennis rather than women’s tennis. I feel like there is more logic, and it’s more interesting to watch.” The Belarusian star raised quite a few eyebrows with her comments on women’s tennis. Later on, she then explained, “I didn’t mean to disparage women’s tennis.

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Sabalenka has moved into the finals of the US Open yet again! She was defeated by Coco Gauff in the final last year, and she will face yet another American, Jessica Pegula, this time. We saw a massive jump in the viewership numbers in last year’s US Open women’s singles final. Are we going to expect a similar thing this year as well? Well, we’ll have to wait a bit to get this answer, but this shows us how sports lovers are getting more interested in women’s sports nowadays.

Coco Gauff’s title triumph against Aryna Sabalenka in the 2023 US Open broke all the records

What’s your perspective on:

Is Alexis Ohanian the unsung hero behind the rise of women's sports? What do you think?

Have an interesting take?

The rise of women’s sports can be attributed to the emergence of female athletes as role models, and brand ambassadors. According to a report published by Mintel, women sports fans in America are more passionate than general sports fans. Women’s sports are expected to become even bigger with time. As per a report published by Deloitte, in 2024 for the first time, women’s elite sports will generate a revenue that surpasses $1 Billion (a 300% increase on the industry’s evaluation in 2021).

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Now, we know viewership plays a crucial role in generating revenues in the sports world. Talking about viewership, players like Gauff, Caitlin Clark, and several others have played an enormous role in contributing to these numbers. For example, last year’s US Open final between Gauff’s and Sabalenka drew in 3.4 million viewers while, according to Nielsen’s report, the men’s singles final could only draw 2.3 million viewers. It was in fact the most-viewed woman’s final of any tennis major that has been ever broadcasted by ESPN. A straight jump of 92% from the 2022 US Open finals.

Not only that, it was also the third-most watched program across all of cable but the men’s final was placed at the ninth spot in those statistics. This shows us the rapid rise in women’s support. These tiny bits of messages from Alexis Ohanian in the past and Aryna Sabalenka’s team in the SF of the 2024 US Open may do more wonders in the final this year.