The women’s sports moments of 2025 – as chosen by The Athletic’s writers

It was a year of dominance for women’s sports in 2025.

You couldn’t blink without missing some display from a big-time athlete stepping up in a big-time moment: Mikaela Shiffrin bagging her 100th career win. Iga Świątek winning Wimbledon with a double bagel. A’ja Wilson, Paige Bueckers, Trinity Rodman, Lottie Woad — name a sport, and there was excellence to be found, records to be broken, trophies to be stockpiled.

And in 2025, everyone was watching. From the summer of tournaments in women’s football across Europe, South America and Africa to rinks and courts across the globe, attendance and TV ratings remain on the rise.

For the first time, the National Women’s Soccer League cracked one million viewers for its championship game, all of whom were treated to the magic of Rose Lavelle’s left foot. Try watching footage of any of the fan walks in Switzerland from Euro 2025 without a smile — an impossible challenge.

Women’s basketball has always been bigger than any single player, and from the college game to the pros, everyone capitalized on the massive boost from 2024. UConn and the Aces rose to the top once again, with plenty of drama and excitement along the way.

New leagues and competitions sparked joy. Napheesa Collier and the Lunar Owls cried, “Hootie Hoo!” at Unrivaled, Bayern Munich danced their way through the first World Sevens and new leagues in volleyball and softball joined the ecosystem, with even more ready to enter the fray in 2026.

It feels impossible to sum up another beautifully chaotic year in women’s sports, but that challenge didn’t stop us. Here, The Athletic’s writers from across the globe pick the moments that stood out for them in 2025.

And the best part? We know this list will be even harder to write in 2026.

Meg Linehan

Mikaela Shiffrin’s 100th World Cup win

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen.

Mikaela Shiffrin was supposed to reach her century of World Cup race wins at the start of the season, near her childhood home and the school that helped make her a champion in Vermont.

Instead, the races in Killington in November 2024 nearly ended her career. A violent crash sent her tumbling across the snow. She suffered a puncture wound in her abdomen; whatever caused it nearly tore through her colon.

Shiffrin spent the next nine weeks recovering physically, before returning to the slopes in February, fit in her body but a shadow of her former self, unable even to make it down a giant slalom hill.

She arrived in Sestriere, Italy, with low expectations, but after the first run, she had a lead of just under a 10th of a second. That meant she had to go hard or go home in the second run.

Of course, she went hard, and secured that unprecedented 100th victory.

“The mountain ahead of me is steep and long,” Shiffrin said during a news conference after the race. “I just have to take this day and be grateful for it. Because it’s a small moment in the middle of many tough moments that makes me feel like maybe I can be good again.”

Maybe? Shiffrin started the 2025-26 season winning four consecutive slalom races. Now she has 105 wins — and counting.

Matthew Futterman

‘The final Paige in the book of Bueckers’

UConn star Paige Bueckers earned the storybook ending to her collegiate career as the Huskies demolished UCLA and South Carolina in the 2025 Final Four to win their 12th title in program history. ESPN’s Ryan Ruocco had been sitting on the final call of “the book of Bueckers”, as the UConn guard had been destined for stardom for years.

Bueckers was the top recruit in a loaded 2020 high school class (one that included Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Cameron Brink in its top five) and immediately fulfilled that promise by winning national player of the year honors as a freshman. Her debut season ultimately ended in disappointment in the national semifinals, as the Huskies’ title drought extended to five years, and the real struggle was yet to come. Over the next three seasons, Bueckers was betrayed by her own body with multiple leg injuries and her teammates’ inability to stay healthy, causing her to delay her entrance into the WNBA and play a fifth and final year at UConn.

The payoff came in 2025. With a healthy Azzi Fudd and freshman phenom Sarah Strong by her side, Bueckers led the Huskies to the promised land as UConn won its first championship in nine years.

After four Final Fours and three All-American seasons, Bueckers cried on coach Geno Auriemma’s shoulder as she exited her last game with victory in hand, adding the ultimate item to her historic college resume. Eight days later, Bueckers was the obvious No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft, en route to being named an All-Star, all-WNBA and rookie of the year.

Sabreena Merchant

The first all-female boxing card at Madison Square Garden

While Turki Al-Sheikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, continues to ignore its existence, women’s boxing plants its feet and keeps on punching, producing historic moments such as the night of July 11 this year, when one of the greatest female fighters of all time, Katie Taylor defended her undisputed junior welterweight title against Amanda Serrano inside Madison Square Garden.

The entire night was a showcase of women’s boxing, with the trilogy fight between Taylor and Serrano headlining the first all-female boxing card to be held at the Garden, featuring three undisputed and two unified title fights. It all took place in front of a sellout crowd of 19,721, split between Irish and Puerto Rican fans, with millions more watching the Netflix-streamed show (nearly six million globally tuned in from opening to closing bell).

The main event went Taylor’s way via majority decision after a tight 10-round battle, giving the Irishwoman a three-fight sweep over the unified featherweight world champion, though this was undoubtedly the most convincing win of the three. Despite the single-sided outcome, their trilogy will go down in history as one of the most significant battles in women’s boxing history, showing the sport deserves its place in the brightest of spotlights.

Sarah Shephard

England’s Euro 2025 comeback 

England were heading home. Within 25 minutes, they were 2-0 down against Sweden in soccer’s European Championship quarterfinals. They had dug themselves a deep hole and it seemed there was no way back. All Sweden had to do was hold on for 11 minutes…

But then up popped Lucy Bronze at the back post. Still at 2-1, Sweden could nick it. Then came England’s saviour, 19-year-old Michelle Agyemang, levelling the game at 2-2.

A collision, bloody nose, cramp and Bronze strapping her own leg added to the drama of extra time before a topsy-turvy penalty shootout that went to sudden death. Hannah Hampton should be credited for saving two spot kicks but I have never seen someone strut up to the spot, whip off a bandage and dispatch their penalty with such ruthlessness as Bronze did. She later revealed she had been playing with a broken bone in her leg.

The Lionesses should have been down and out. Through sheer grit, they rose again on their way to becoming European champions. Again.

Charlotte Harpur

A’ja Wilson’s WNBA finals magic

On an October Friday night in Phoenix, A’ja Wilson strutted around the underbelly of Mortgage Matchup Center, rattling a pink tambourine. The Las Vegas Aces had won their third title in four seasons and Wilson, the league’s first four-time MVP, was basking in the victory, parading around the stadium. She was heard as loudly as her play was impactful.

There was little drama entering that evening’s contest in large part because of what Wilson did two nights earlier. With 0.3 seconds remaining in Game 3 of Las Vegas’ WNBA Finals matchup with the Phoenix Mercury, and Las Vegas leading the series 2-0, Wilson sank the biggest shot of her career. She drove left from the elbow, spun away from the rim to create space, and elevated for a short jumper over the outstretched arms of Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas.

For the briefest of seconds, the ball rattled around the rim. Then it fell, giving Las Vegas a two-point lead and a decisive advantage in the series. They would close it out 48 hours later.

The shot was the moment of an, at times, underwhelming finals (in part because of Las Vegas’ dominance), and a defining moment for Wilson. The play call had been simple: put the ball in the MVP’s hands. The memory of what happened will last for years to come.

Ben Pickman 

Two new teams in the PWHL — and more to come

The PWHL welcomed two new teams in Vancouver and Seattle — the league’s first wave of expansion after two seasons of early success and rapid growth — and brought on seismic change.

Rosters were torn apart, with superstars Hilary Knight and Sarah Nurse on the move due to the league’s player dispersion process. Each team lost four players from its 2024-25 roster through the expansion draft and exclusive signing window, which was designed to ensure the PWHL’s newest teams could compete on day one.

While there have been some growing pains early in the 2025-26 season, Seattle and Vancouver have two of the most talented rosters in the PWHL. They’re also already two of the league’s most successful teams from a business perspective.

In its first-ever game on Nov. 21, the Vancouver Goldeneyes sold out the Pacific Coliseum (14,958) and drew the largest crowd of any game played at a regular PWHL home venue. One week later, the Seattle Torrent beat that record with 16,014 at Climate Pledge Arena, which also set a record for attendance at a professional women’s hockey game in the United States.

According to the league, Seattle had the most single-day jersey sales in PWHL history when the team’s inaugural jerseys went on sale Oct. 21. Vancouver was right on its heels, and has sold the most season tickets league-wide. Seattle, the league said, is third, behind Toronto.

And more change is soon to come in 2026.

The league could add between two and four teams by next season, according to executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer, who went public with the plans when addressing Ottawa city council last month and doubled down on those plans in an interview with CNBC.

“We are expanding again, it’s either two to four teams,” she said. “If I were a betting woman, I’d say it’d be four teams. And then I think we’ll hold at 12 for a bit.”

Hailey Salvian

Treating triumph and disaster both the same 

All sporting events produce joy and misery on some level. And then there is the 2025 Wimbledon women’s singles final.

On one side of the net, Iga Świątek cemented her status as the greatest player of her era with a dominant 6-0, 6-0 win, capturing the most important title in tennis — and the one that she least expected to win.

After the most difficult period of her career, her status as the best since Serena Williams became inarguable.

It doesn’t get more perfect than that.

On the other side of the net was Amanda Anisimova. A year prior, she had been outside the top 300 and had failed to qualify for Wimbledon. Now she’d made the final — and froze, on the most hallowed stage in tennis, in front of millions of people around the world.

Anisimova’s mother rarely attends her matches out of superstition. She’d flown across the Atlantic for this one. Ugh.

But then, Anisimova, who lost her father to a sudden heart attack at 17, gave a tearful speech that was sad and rousing all at once, a tribute to her mother for her love and loyalty that announced her to the world as a sports star in her lowest tennis moment.

And seven weeks later, at the U.S. Open, Anisimova found Świątek across the net again — and managed to exorcize the ghosts of the grass with a win.

Matt Futterman

Trinity Rodman scores on her NWSL return

As the primary story of the NWSL offseason, Trinity Rodman is the free agent figuring out if she can stay with the Washington Spirit and get paid what she’s worth. Remembering her emotional return to the field in August is the perfect reminder of why so much of the conversation revolves around her.

After months recovering from a lingering back injury, Rodman returned to the pitch at Audi Field, but was not fit enough to start. Instead, 15 minutes was all she needed to score a game-winning goal over the Portland Thorns, immediately bursting into tears as she was swarmed by her teammates in celebration.

Rodman is the shooting star of the NWSL, and now the flashpoint for the existential question of how the league retains its biggest talent — but she’s also just a 23-year-old human, trying to play the game she loves.

Meg Linehan

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone wins fastest women’s 400m World Championships final in history

On a wet track at the Japan National Stadium in September, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran her way, once more, into the record books.

The 26-year-old had boldly switched from the 400-metre hurdles to the one-lap flat, moving out of an event in which she holds the world record and forfeiting an almost certain gold medal over the barriers.

In her way stood Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino and defending world champion Salwa Eid Naser. Paulino clocked 47.98secs, but McLaughlin-Levrone stunned them both, flying round in 47.78secs, the second-fastest time by a woman and only 0.18s off Marita Koch’s 1985 world record.

It was the first race where two women had run 400m in under 48 seconds.

Liam Tharme

The fairytale run that exposed a tournament’s folly

During another French Open blighted by allegations of sexist scheduling, Loïs Boisson offered the best possible rejoinder.

The wild-card entry, ranked No. 361 at the time, became the first Frenchwoman since 2011 to reach the semifinals, and her run became one of the stories of the tournament.

On one level, it was personal: Boisson had a wild card in 2024, but tore a knee ligament just before the tournament. She did not even watch it on TV.

But it also came in the context of zero women’s matches being selected for the coveted night slot on Court Philippe-Chatrier, the main stadium, for the second year in a row. Women’s matches also opened play — a slot with the stands at their most empty — every day of the tournament that both men’s and women’s matches were played. Tournament officials maintained that the decisions were not a comment on the quality of women’s tennis.

Boisson’s fourth-round match, against then-world No. 3 Jessica Pegula, was declined for the primetime slot by the tournament, multiple people briefed on discussions between Amazon and the French Open told The Athletic at the time.

So Boisson started the biggest match of her life in front of swathes of empty seats, which steadily filled as news of an upset swept across Roland Garros and Boisson became the first home women’s quarterfinalist at Roland Garros for eight years.

Boisson then beat No. 6 seed Mirra Andreeva to reach the semis, where she lost to eventual winner Coco Gauff. But her stirring performances captured the imagination of supporters and showed the potency of women role models being given the sport’s biggest stages — especially at their home event.

Charlie Eccleshare

‘If you don’t know who Lottie Woad is, you don’t follow golf’

Lottie Woad began the year as the reigning amateur world No. 1 of women’s golf. She will end it ranked 11th on the Rolex professional world rankings.

In July, we saw a “Woad summer”: the Englishwoman, 21, started July by winning the Irish Open by six strokes. One week later, she finished third at the Evian Championship, one of the women’s game’s five majors. The best part? She was still an amateur at both events, so had to forego earnings of around half a million pounds ($660,000).

But it wasn’t riches Woad — who has since earned $831,400 — sought, it was the holy grail: an LPGA Tour card.

Then, on the last weekend of July, Woad won the Scottish Open at Dundonald Links by three shots. It was her professional debut and the first time since 2018 that a women’s golfer had won their inaugural event after turning pro – that has only happened twice before.

“If you don’t know who Lottie is, you don’t follow golf,” Amy Bond, Woad’s coach at Florida State University, told The Athletic at the time. Plenty of people know her name now, that’s for sure.

Caoimhe O’Neill

WNBA players use All-Star platform to spotlight tense CBA negotiation

Before the WNBA’s mid-season showcase, players participating in the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game took the floor in Indianapolis revealing a message on their shirts: “Pay Us What You Owe Us.” The shirts made a clear statement, one that resonated across the sporting landscape and brought waves of attention to the ongoing collective bargaining agreement (CBA) discussion between the players union and the league.

The WNBA is generating record revenue and expanding. Franchise valuations are soaring. Amid the growth period, players are seeking a significant change not just in how much they are being paid, but to the salary system that determines what they are being paid.

Tensions between the two sides continued to escalate throughout the summer and into the fall, highlighted by a press conference on the eve of the WNBA Finals when Minnesota Lynx Napheesa Collier lambasted WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the league office. Collier said the WNBA has “the worst leadership in the world.” Engelbert was pressed to answer questions about her job status.

And while those questions have publicly dissipated, the two sides remain on edge. They have agreed to two extensions of the deadline in recent months, but gaps remain and it is unclear when a new agreement will be reached.

Ben Pickman

Women’s rugby union World Cup shows the sport is ‘here to stay’

The women’s rugby union World Cup in England was a watershed moment, a line drawn in the sand that marked a before and after.

A record 81,885 fans attended the final in which England beat Canada 33-13 at London’s Twickenham Stadium, the largest women’s rugby crowd in history. It represented a 518 per cent increase from 15 years ago, when England hosted the 2010 World Cup final at the Twickenham Stoop, which has a capacity of 14,800.

What’s more, 50 per cent of fans had never been to a women’s rugby match before. Across the tournament, 444,465 tickets were sold, three times more than the 2022 World Cup.

Parallels can be drawn with England women’s triumph on home soil at soccer’s Euro 2022. “What we are trying to prove is that it’s not just a one-off with football,” England winger Abby Dow told reporters. “It’s women’s sport as a whole and it is here to stay.”

Charlotte Harpur

‘Underdogs, my ass’ — Gotham FC add their second star

There’s just something about a Gotham run in the playoffs coming in on the final day of the regular season as the final team to clinch the postseason. They won it all in 2023 that way, and managed to repeat the feat in 2025 thanks to clutch performances from Rose Lavelle, Jaedyn Shaw, Emily Sonnett and Ann-Katrin Berger.

Add in an instant classic of a quote from Shaw, dropped after Gotham upended the Kansas City Current (winners of the NWSL Shield by a whopping 21 points in a historically great season) in Kansas City. Then, they went to Orlando and beat last year’s champions, led by Marta. Finally, the win in San Jose over the Washington Spirit thanks to a Lavelle banger late in the match. An instant classic of a playoff run ending in lifting the Tiffany trophy for the second time in three years.

They’ll add it to the hardware cabinet, alongside May’s trophy for winning the inaugural Concacaf W Champions Cup. Continental champions and domestic bragging rights — it’s a solid way to wrap 2025, and maybe the start of another NWSL dynasty.

Meg Linehan

India win the Cricket World Cup 

When India lost three games in the group stage of their home cricket World Cup, pressure grew. But the team captained by Harmanpreet Kaur, who would go on to make the winning catch in the final against South Africa, reset themselves on their way to a stunning victory in Navi Mumbai.

The final itself at the DY Patil Stadium was intense. India lost the toss and batted first. A two-hour rain delay stood in their way but when it cleared, they got off to a flier. Shafali Verma hit 87 off 79 balls to set India up for glory as they put up a score of 298-7, the second-highest total in a World Cup final. Smriti Mandhana scored 45 to take her total for the tournament to 434 runs, the most by a player at a World Cup.

South Africa, led by captain Laura Wolvaardt, who posted 101 runs, didn’t give up. But the host nation had Deepti Sharma in stellar form and she took five wickets to stop South Africa as India won by 52 to become world champions for the first time.

Caoimhe O’Neill

Lindsey Vonn is back — and still fast

When Lindsey Vonn and her damaged knees barreled out of the start gate at the 2019 World Championships in Sweden for one last time, it was the denouement of one of the greatest careers in Alpine skiing history.

At the finishing line in the Swedish resort of Are was Ingemar Stenmark, whose then-record of 86 World Cup wins she was four short of equalling. She had begged him to come, she would later tell a crowded news conference. Her father, Alan, and sister, Karin, were there, too. She had always wanted to break Stenmark’s record but this was meant to be the last race for a champion whose body was, she said, “broken beyond repair.”

Competing in such a brutal event had taken its toll. The injury list over the years was lengthy: broken right arm, fractures in the left knee, broken left ankle, torn ligaments, broken bone in the right leg, concussion.

But then came a partial knee replacement in 2024 and one of the greatest comebacks in modern sport.

With titanium in her right knee, the most famous skier of her generation, the first American to win the women’s Olympic downhill, was pain-free for the first time in years.

But Vonn isn’t merely competing again. She is fast. Not only did she win the year’s first World Cup downhill in Saint Moritz, Switzerland, this month, but she also did so by nearly a second. The next day, she finished on the podium again in the downhill.

With the 2026 Olympics under two months away, the 41-year-old is a contender and that is remarkable — or, as she said in February, a “miracle.”

Aimee Lewis

Let us know which of these picks was your favorite of 2025 — and tell us about any we have missed! — in the comments below.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Gotham FC, WNBA, Golf, Boxing, Women's Soccer, Women's College Basketball, Olympics, Women's Euros, Women's Hockey, Tennis, Global Sports, Cricket

2025 The Athletic Media Company