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The Most Marketable Female Athletes of 2015
The repucom.net has compiled such a list, which arranges the leading sportswomen according to their marketing potential. To compile the list, the site used the Celebrity David Brown Index (DBI), a tool that sports marketers often use to analyze perceptions of over 7,000 celebrities, representing the views of over 1.5 billion people. This process helps provide a clear picture of how audiences perceive a personality or athlete across different demographic groups, including age and income group. These perceptions are measured against eight attributes, which are combined to provide a view of an individual’s marketability.
The DBI is measured on a scale of 0 to 100 points, with 100 points being the highest possible. So here is the list of the most marketable female athletes compiled by DBI score.
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Marta – Soccer, DBI Score – 90.21
Marta Vieira da Silva, known by her first name, is one of the most talented and popular soccer players who has won multiple awards and prizes in women’s soccer. Marta, known as “Pele in Rock” with 15 goals, holds the record for most goals scored in FIFA Women’s World Cup tournaments. She surpassed Birgit Prinz’s previous record of 14 with a goal against South Korea in the first game of the 2015 Brazilian edition in Canada. She was named FIFA World Player of the Yearfive consecutive times between 2006 and 2010. Her other personal accolades include the Golden Ball Award for Best Female Player and the Golden Boot Award for Top Scorer at the 2007 Women’s World Cup, the Women’s Professional Soccer MVP (twice) and the Women’s Professional Soccer Golden Boot (3 times).
Almost 97 percent know Marta in their home country. In fact, she was one of the six ambassadors for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, along with soccer legends Amarildo, Bebeto, Carlos Alberto Torres, Ronaldo and Mario Zagallo. She starred in Puma’s Forever Faster campaign with Usain Bolt and Mario Balotelli.
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Lorena Ochoa – Golf, DBI-Score – 86,26
Lorena Ochoa is the first Mexican golfer of any gender and is considered the finest golfer the Central American nation has ever produced. For three years from April 2007 until her retirement in May 2010, she was the top ranked female golfer in the world. She is also the first female golfer since Annika Sorenstam to win three consecutive events. the CN Canadian Women’s Open and the Safeway Classic. In 2007, she also became the first woman to earn more than $4 million in a single season. It surpassed Sorenstam’s previous record of $2,863,904. Her immense accomplishments in the game and her popularity in her nation have made Ochoa one of the most marketable female athletes. During her illustrious career she has had sponsorship deals with Banamex, Lacoste, Rolex, PING,
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Venus Williams – Tennis, DBI Score – 80.66
However, she is less successful than her younger sister, she is still more popular than Serena and is recognized by more than 90 percent of Americans. Her popularity is due in part to the fact that she was the first African American tennis world champion, which she accomplished in February 2012. With 43 singles titles, 19 doubles titles, seven Grand Slams and four Olympic gold medals, Venus is one of the greats in women’s tennis. She is also credited with altering the pay structure at major tennis events on her own authority. It was after their fierce campaign that leading tournaments like Wimbledon and the French Open decided to pay women tennis players the same as men. She is also a successful entrepreneur and often wears her own branding, “Eleven by Venus”, at tournaments.
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Laure Manaudou – Swimming, DBI Score – 83.32
Laure Manaudou, the French swimmer, made a stunning debut at the Athens 2004 Olympics, winning three medals including a gold medal in the women’s 400m freestyle, which was France’s first gold medal in women’s swimming history. During her successful career she has won world and European championships and held the world record in freestyle events between 200 and 1500 meters. In 2008, the 28-year-old briefly retired from the sport to welcome daughter Manon. Her comeback at the 2012 Summer Olympicswas less than ideal when she got stuck. The first round runs in the three events – 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke and 4 x 100m medley relay. However, this has not changed her popularity as she has 96.6 percent of the popularity in France. She has sponsorship deals with Reebok and local French sponsors such as Mondial Piscine, Envido and Topsec.
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Luciana Aymar – field hockey, DBI result – 87.67
Luciana Aymar is considered the best female hockey player in the history of the sport. In fact, she is the only player to have won the prestigious FIH Player of the Year Award eight times. After Argentina to a silver medal in London 2012 Olympic GamesShe was the second Argentine to win four Olympic medals. Known for her ability to beat opposing players with her pace and dribbling skills, she has often been compared to legendary footballer Diego Maradona. Their nicknames are “El Diego”, “La Maradona del Hockey” and “La Maga” (The Magician). She retired on December 7, 2014 after winning the league title in her home country to start her own family and spend more time with family and friends.
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Steffi Graf – Tennis, DBI Score – 86.45
Despite retiring from the game 16 years ago, Steffi Graf, considered by many to be the greatest tennis player of all time, remains Germany’s most marketable star. With 22 singles titles, she holds the record for the most major wins by a tennis player (male or female) since the inception of the Open Era in 1968. In 1988, she became the first and only female tennis player (male or female) to win the calendar year Golden Slamwinning all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in the same calendar year. Her other notable achievement is being ranked No. 1 in the world by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) with a record 377 weeks. male or female. The 46-year-old enjoys an enormous awareness of 98.41 percent in Germany and has major advertising contracts with brands such as Adidas, Longines, Mrs Sporty, Nintendo and Teekanne.
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Carolina Kostner – Figure Skating, DBI Score 86.45
Carolina Kostner’s flawless beauty and brilliance in the figure skating arena have made her one of the most popular athletes in Italy. Kostner is the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist, the 2012 World Champion, the five-time European Champion (2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013) and the 2011 Grand Prix Final Champion. She has won the national championship seven times. Unfortunately, the multilingual skater, who started skating at the age of four, has banned her role in the doping case with her ex-boyfriend and Olympic gold medalist Alex Schwazer for 16 months. However, this hasn’t changed her popularity in Italy, where she enjoys around 96 percent of the fame. She has support contracts with OVS Active Sport Training, Pompadour, Acqua Norda, Grissin Bon and Südtirol-Südtirol.
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Yelena Isinbayeva – Stabhochsprung, DBI-Score – 86,76
Yelena Isinbayeva is probably the most popular athlete in Russia. By the time she was 15, she had trained as a gymnast, but had to switch disciplines as she was considered too tall to succeed in gymnastics. And just six months later, at 16, she won her first major victory at the 1998 World Youth Games in Moscow, Russia, standing 4.00m tall. Since then, she has achieved enough in the sport to be considered the tallest female pole vaulter of all time. In her illustrious career, she set 17 world records and 13 indoor world records. In medals, she is the two-time Olympic gold medalist (2004 and 2008), three-time world champion (2005, 2007 and 2013) and the first woman to cross the five-meter mark.
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Maria Sharapova – Tennis, DBI score – 75.29
Maria Sharapova stormed to win Wimbledon in 2005 at the age of 17. The current world number four has been ranked singles world number 1 by the WTA on five separate occasions for a total of 21 weeks. She is the only Russian tennis player who made a career in Grand Slam. She is an Olympic medalist and earned silver for Russia at the women’s 2012 Summer Olympicsin London. With 35 singles titles and five Grand Slam titles, including two French Opens and one Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, she is the third-ranked player in terms of titles behind Venus Williams and Serena Williams. Sharapova enjoys fame in Russia 76.2 and is one of the highest paid tennis players. Her contract with Nike in 2010 was valued at $70 million, significantly higher than the previous record deal for women athletes, which was $43 million by Venus Williams with Reebok.
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Serena Williams – Tennis, DBI score – 81.93
However, she may have lost in relation to her older sister, Serena Williams is still the best player on the court, which is why she has been hailed as the “Queen of the Court” by the media. Williams has won the most major singles, doubles and mixed doubles titles combined among active players, male or female. With her 35 Grand Slam titles, she ranks seventh on the all-time list. She has 20 singles, 13 women’s and two mixed doubles. With her total of 20 Grand Slam singles titles, she ranked third on the all-time list behind Margaret Court (24) and Steffi Graf (22 titles). The American is currently in the form of her life, ruling the Australian Open, French Open, US Open, WTA Tour Championships and Olympic women’s singles champion. While not as popular in the US, it is the most marketable in Australia with 94.65 percent of those recognizing their achievements in the game. Serena is reported to earn $10-15 million in endorsement deals per season.