Two of swimming’s biggest stars rank among the world’s most marketable athletes in 2022, according to SportsPro‘s annual list which was released earlier this week.
American superstar Katie Ledecky cracked the top 50 for the second straight year, coming in at #21, while British fan favorite Adam Peaty comes in at #90.
From the USA 🇺🇸 21st on our #SP50MM list – and the 9th woman overall – is swimmer @katieledecky.
Discover all the athletes 👉 https://t.co/ltVdeEKWuI #Sportbiz pic.twitter.com/2B422pRVNc— SportsPro (@SportsPro) October 19, 2022
Now in its 13th year, SportsPro‘s Most Marketable rankings consider the evolving nature of athlete marketability in the digital age, using advanced metrics to track brand strength, audience and reach, and economics.
Ledecky, who moves up seven spots after ranking 28th last year, scored 11.94/20 on brand strength, 18.64/50 on audience and reach, and 6.38/30 on economics for a cumulative total of 36.95 (scored out of a possible 100).
The most comparable athlete to Ledecky’s marketability is another Olympic star, American snowboarder Chloe Kim, who ranks 22nd and has very similar scores across all three metrics (12.02/17.46/6.88=36.37).
The highest-ranked athlete in a sport that is primarily centered around the Olympics was U.S. gymnast Simone Biles, who ranks 11th with a cumulative total of 46.85 on the marketability scale. Biles earned the #1 ranking last year coming off the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Peaty ranks 90th, scoring 7.31/11.49/0.72 across the three metrics for a final total of 19.52.
Portuguese soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo earned the #1 spot with a marketability score of 91.21, while tennis legend Serena Williams (67.99) and Formula 1 great Lewis Hamilton (64.58) rank second and third.
Ronaldo earned maximum scores for both audience and reach (50) and economics (30), while NBA superstar Lebron James had the highest brand strength score at 18.71 (out of 20).
Top 50
- Cristiano Ronaldo, Soccer
- Serena Williams, Tennis
- Lewis Hamilton, Motorsport
- LeBron James, Basketball
- Lionel Messi, Soccer
- Naomi Osaka, Tennis
- Virat Kohli, Cricket
- Alex Morgan, Soccer
- Sam Kerr, Soccer
- Tom Brady, Football
- Simone Biles, Gymnastic
- Emma Raducanu, Tennis
- Alexia Putellas, Soccer
- Stephen Curry, Basketball
- Simona Halep, Tennis
- Rafael Nadal, Tennis
- Neymar, Soccer
- Mohamed Salah, Soccer
- Kylian Mbappé, Soccer
- Rohit Sharma, Cricket
- Katie Ledecky, Swimming
- Chloe Kim, Snowboard
- Roger Federer, Tennis
- Erling Haaland, Soccer
- Charles Leclerc, Motorsport
- Candace Parker, Basketball
- Megan Rapinoe, Soccer
- Oksana Masters, Paralympic Athlete
- Eileen Gu, Ski
- Garbiñe Muguruza, Tennis
- Karim Benzema, Soccer
- Bianca Andreescu, Tennis
- Max Verstappen, Motorsport
- Bethany Hamilton, Surfing
- George Russell, Motorsport
- Sergio Pérez, Motorsport
- Robert Lewandowski, Soccer
- Giannis Antetokounmpo, Basketball
- Sky Brown, Skateboard
- Becky Sauerbrunn, Soccer
- Sydney McLaughlin, Sprint
- Mesut Özil, Soccer
- Kevin De Bruyne, Soccer
- Olivia Dunne, Gymnastic
- Luka Dončić, Basketball
- Novak Djokovic, Tennis
- Katie Taylor, Boxing
- Rory McIlroy, Golf
- Harry Kane, Soccer
- Marcus Rashford, Soccer
Ledecky, 25, has been the most dominant swimmer in the sport for the past decade, winning seven Olympic gold medals and 19 World Championship titles.
Last summer in Tokyo, she won her third straight Olympic gold medal in the women’s 800 freestyle, won the inaugural title in the 1500 free, and claimed silver behind Australian Ariarne Titmus in the 400 free.
With Titmus absent at the World Championships this past summer, Ledecky swept the women’s 400, 800 and 1500 free, and added a fourth gold medal on the U.S. women’s 4×200 free relay.
Peaty, the world’s most dominant male breaststroker, won a repeat gold medal in the men’s 100 breast at the Tokyo Olympic Games, but was forced out of the 2022 World Championships due to injury. At this past summer’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, Peaty failed to reach the podium in the 100 breast but bounced back and won gold in the men’s 50 breast in front of his home crowd.
Read More: Katie Ledecky, Adam Peaty Among World’s Most Marketable Athletes
