At the Olympics and beyond, women’s sports media outlets are writing their own playbooks

The days when sports columnist Christine Brennan faced ridicule from male colleagues for covering women’s sports are rapidly fading into history. What was once dismissed as niche coverage has evolved into a thriving media ecosystem, with dedicated outlets expanding their reach and reshaping how women’s athletics are presented to the public.

“It was absolutely infuriating to me,” recalls Brennan, a best-selling author and the first president of the Association for Women in Sports Media. Now covering her 22nd Olympic Games for USA Today, Brennan has witnessed a remarkable transformation in the landscape, particularly evident at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.

Media platforms focused exclusively on women’s sports – including TOGETHXR, The GIST, Just Women’s Sports, The IX Sports, GOALS, and Good Game with Sarah Spain – are experiencing unprecedented growth. Their emergence addresses what Brennan describes as a significant failure: “The male-dominated mainstream sports media totally missed the boat on women’s sports.”

While traditional outlets have increased their women’s sports coverage, University of Michigan sport management professor Ketra Armstrong points to something more profound occurring with these specialized platforms. They offer a “liberating” alternative where women athletes are “owning their stories and not waiting for it to be filtered through any traditional lens.”

This insight explains the origin story behind Just Women’s Sports, founded by former professional soccer player Haley Rosen in 2020. After retiring from competition, Rosen struggled to follow her sport through existing media channels.

“Everything I was seeing just felt nothing like the world I had known,” Rosen explains. “It felt very young, very pink and glitter, a lot of lifestyle content. And I was just like, where are the sports?”

What began as an Instagram account has evolved into a prominent industry platform with major brand partnerships including Nike and Amazon Prime. Rosen’s editorial approach is straightforward: women’s sports deserve the same serious treatment as men’s competitions.

“These women are the best athletes in the world, competing at the highest level. And I think we have to treat them as such,” she emphasizes.

The GIST, another rapidly expanding platform, emerged from similar frustrations. Co-founder Ellen Hyslop describes herself as “a super-massive avid sports fan” who nonetheless felt excluded from sports media communities. Along with college friends Jacie deHoop and Roslyn McLarty, she created an outlet specifically designed for audiences traditionally overlooked by sports coverage.

Today, The GIST reaches approximately one million newsletter subscribers – reflecting nearly 50% growth over the past two years – with a readership predominantly comprising Gen Z and millennial women. The outlet prides itself on providing equal coverage to men’s and women’s sports.

“Sports are supposed to be for everyone. They really do have the ability to unite people,” Hyslop notes.

ESPN veteran Sarah Spain, who hosts the daily women’s sports podcast Good Game on iHeart, identifies several catalysts for the industry’s growth, including social media, WNBA phenomenon Caitlin Clark, and the prominence of the women’s national soccer team. She points to “a very organic and natural push for more women’s sports coverage.”

Spain, covering her first Olympics in Italy for Good Game, emphasizes that media attention is vital for any professional league’s success – something women’s sports have historically lacked.

“There was this blaming of the product of women’s sports, without understanding the incredible ecosystem and infrastructure that was lifting up and bringing fans back over and over again to men’s sports,” she explains. “Now we’re finally catching up in terms of investment.”

The Olympics have consistently demonstrated that quality media coverage of women’s sports attracts enthusiastic audiences. At the Milan Cortina Games, stars like skier Lindsey Vonn, downhill champion Breezy Johnson, and snowboarding phenomenon Chloe Kim continue generating significant headlines and viewer interest.

Despite encouraging growth, challenges remain. Armstrong notes that women’s sports media still represents a “very small piece of the pie” compared to the broader sports media industry. Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism professor Craig LaMay cautions that current momentum doesn’t guarantee long-term sustainability, observing that coverage decisions remain “relentlessly a business decision.”

“For all the changes, there’s a lot of things that haven’t changed,” LaMay says, noting the absence of women from Forbes’ annual list of the world’s 100 highest-paid athletes.

Nevertheless, media companies like TOGETHXR – founded by Olympic athletes including halfpipe silver medalist Kim – are leaning into the industry’s positive trajectory with their slogan: “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports.” Co-founder Jessica Robertson says the message deliberately rejects “very antiquated rhetoric in women’s sports that no one watches.”

TOGETHXR has sold over $6 million in merchandise featuring this messaging while building an audience exceeding 4 million users across platforms – a 17% increase from 2024. The company produces newsletters, docuseries, and podcasts, including “A Touch More” with Olympic champion Sue Bird and soccer star Megan Rapinoe.

Danette Leighton, CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation, points to streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple as creating additional opportunities for women’s sports consumption in an industry no longer dependent on traditional television networks.

“It takes generations to make generational change,” says Leighton, whose organization was founded by tennis legend Billie Jean King in 1974, shortly after the passage of Title IX. “This is really a tipping point.”