Forbes ranked the 10 highest-paid female athletes, and South Korean figure skating superstar Yuna Kim is the only winter Olympian on the list.
Eight of the top 10 are Olympians (seven tennis players and Kim), leading with Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Li Na and Victoria Azarenka. The only non-Olympians are race car driver Danica Patrick at No. 5 and golfer Paula Creamer at No. 10.
Kim, the 2010 Olympic champion, comes in at No. 6. Three more tennis players — Caroline Wozniacki, Agnieszka Radwanska and Ana Ivanovic — and Creamer complete the list.
The magazine reported Kim made $14 million in prize money, endorsements and appearance fees from June 2012 to June 2013, helped by endorsements from a dozen sponsors including Samsung Electronics, Korean Air and KB Financial. Sharapova, with $29 million, topped the list for the ninth straight year.
Forbes ranked Kim seventh each of the last two years (and fifth in 2010), even though she didn’t skate competitively after the 2011 world championships. The magazine reported she made $9 million in earnings in its 2012 list.
Sharapova, Williams, Patrick, Ivanovic and Kim are the only athletes who have appeared on the top 10 in each of the last four years.
Kim returned to the world championships in March and won gold by more than 20 points (the same margin that separated second from eighth), affirming she’s favored to become the first woman since Katarina Witt to win back-to-back Olympic figure skating titles.
