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The minutes felt like hours as I waited for the final whistle. It was stoppage time in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics gold medal women’s soccer match between the U.S. and Brazil. The former was up by one lucky goal and doing everything in their power to keep it that way.
They succeeded—and I, like tens of thousands of other spectators at Parc de Prince Stadium, erupted in song and chants. Yet for me, a former athlete and longtime sports fan, the celebration went beyond this one soccer game. It’s been both thrilling and emotional to watch these and countless other female athletes finally gain the fandom they deserve.
Women’s sports have skyrocketed over the past decade, with headliners like basketball icon Caitlin Clark and viral 2024 U.S. rugby Olympian Ilona Maher bringing even more fans into the fold. This momentum is coinciding with another emerging movement—travel for sports—which the United Nations World Tourism Organization now calls one of tourism’s fastest-growing sectors. “Women’s sports are grabbing more attention and more bandwidth in the media,” says Dave Guenther, president and founder of Roadtrips, the luxury sports travel company that coordinated my trip to the history-making Paris 2024 competition—the first Olympic games to have full gender parity.
“Maybe more importantly, fans are increasingly passionate about the women’s side of the game in a variety of sports, in particular basketball, soccer, and hockey.” Case in point? Last year, more viewers watched the women’s NCAA basketball national championship than the men’s.
This boom is inspiring new leagues, clubs, and stadiums across the country. ESPN estimates the National Women’s Soccer League could grow from 12 clubs in 2023 to up to 50 by late 2026. The buzzed-about new Professional Women’s Hockey League, which launched in 2024, has already drawn more than 1 million fans to its games. And this March, the Women’s Elite Rugby league—the first of its kind in the U.S.—commenced their inaugural season with six teams from Boston and Chicago to the Twin Cities and Denver.
“It is no surprise that since Title IX’s passage in 1972, we have seen women’s participation in sport steadily grow,” says Danette Leighton, CEO of the Women's Sports Foundation, an organization founded by tennis sports icon and equality champion Billie Jean King. “As generations of athletes continue to benefit from the law’s 37 words, more and more fans and investors are seeing women athletes for what they are: fierce competitors who deserve respect and investment.”
And there’s no time like the present to cheer on—and travel for—these talented athletes, particularly with the lineup of women’s sports competitions in bucket-list getaways this summer.
The South American cultural hub of Santiago, Chile, will draw basketball fans with the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup from June 28 to July 6. The tournament, which draws teams from North, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean, runs every two years. The U.S. is in the group phase with countries like Chile, Canada, and Brazil.
From July 2 to 27, Switzerland is hosting the UEFA Women’s Euro Championships, a quadrennial event with 16 European teams competing across scenic Swiss getaways like Zurich, Lucerne, and Basel. Officials expect major viewership for this event, with the prize money for the women more than doubling since the last tournament .
In England, cities from York and Bristol to London will welcome the much-anticipated Women’s Rugby World Cup in late August. The tournament, which has already broken ticket-sale records, is expected to be the largest of its kind to date. Teams from around the world will compete, including the U.S., who will play England during the first round.
This is all leads up to next February, when the 2026 Winter Olympic Games will head to northern Italy, specifically Milan and Dolomites ski hub Cortina d’Ampezzo. The 18-day games will showcase many popular U.S. competitors, from Alpine ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin and professional snowboarded Chloe Kim to the U.S. women’s hockey team, which has medaled in every Olympics appearance to date. This could also be the last major competition for longtime ski legend Lindsey Vonn, who’s come back after a partial knee replacement and hopes to end her storied career on Italy’s slopes.
While there’s nothing like rooting on beloved athletes in person—particularly with the backdrop of the Alps or Andes—U.S. sports fans do have another way to game-watch closer to home: women’s sports bars. These hangouts, which focus solely on female athletics, have popped up across the country since the first venue, The Sports Bra, opened its doors in Portland, Oregon, in April 2022. According to NBC News, the number of women’s sports haunts could quadruple by the end of this year.
Wilka’s, one of the Big Apple’s first women’s sports bar, built their Lower East Side hangout to build community and amplify female athletes. “The biggest goal for us is to help grow women’s sports, to get fresh eyes and more exposure,” says Wilka’s co-owner Melissa NG, noting the venue will have around 20 TVs showing a variety of national and international games when it opens later this year.
From sports bars to global tournaments, the excitement surrounding women’s sports is infectious, and the Women’s Sports Foundation is working to turn this fandom into positive change—particularly when it comes to equal pay. “We are hopeful that record-breaking viewership, growing fan engagement and increased investment will continue to push the needle forward and pave the way toward closing the gender pay gap,” says Leighton. “We also recognize that systemic change takes time, and the work is far from over.”