Women are well-represented on this Most Influential list

Forty-five women appear on TIME’s first-ever list of “The 100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026.” The list features several household names, including WNBA stars Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson, Olympic Gold Medalist figure skater Alysa Liu and skiing legend Lindsey Vonn. It also highlights several executives: New York Liberty (WNBA) owner Clara Wu Tsai; Ariel Investments CEO Mellody Hobson, who has created a fund dedicated exclusively to women’s sports; Michelle Kang, a billionaire entrepreneur who has made numerous investments in women’s sports teams and leagues; and Nobel prize winner Claudia Golden, who advised the WNBA players’ union in recent collective-bargaining negotiations, resulting in what’s been called the largest pay raise ever negotiated by a union.