SportsPro Media , a British company focused on the sports media business, released this week its traditional 50MM list , featuring the world’s most influential athletes for marketing.
And while gymnast Simone Biles leads the pack, motorsport is present with three great drivers: Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo, from Formula 1, as well as Valentino Rossi, from MotoGP.
In its 12th edition, the SportsPro list considers five aspects that athletes perform on platforms such as social networks. These are: post frequency, reach, engagement, and interactions, based on demographics and attractiveness. Each of these factors generates a score and their sum forms the final result of each athlete.
Biles, who tops this year’s list, was the top name among the more than 11,000 athletes who competed at the Tokyo Olympics , and was in the spotlight when he dropped out of some gymnastics finals in favor of his mental health, a decision that was applauded for attracting more attention to the problem.
The American, who added 183 points, surpassed the tennis player Naomi Osaka , with 179. The goalkeeper of the American team Ashlyn Harris, the Mexican boxer Canelo Álvarez and the Argentine player Paulo Dybala completed the top 5.
Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton is the highest placed on this list, ranking 16th. In recent years, the Briton has become one of the most active voices in the world of sport against racism and inequality, also having a strong presence on social media. The Mercedes driver finished ahead of other big names in world sport such as basketball star LeBron James (24th) and tennis player Rafael Nadal (26th).
In the midst of his last season as a MotoGP rider, multi-champion Valentino Rossi is in 29th position. The Italian recently analyzed the impact his long career had on the popularity of the motorcycle world championship, making the category better known to the public.
Just behind Rossi in 32nd position is McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo. The Australian, who is going through a difficult time adapting to the British team’s car, has always been very active on social media and has a large number of followers.
SportsPro’s list of the 50 most influential athletes in the world:
1 – Simone Biles (gymnastics – USA)
2 – Naomi Osaka (tennis – Japan)
3 – Ashlyn Harris (soccer – USA)
4 – Canelo Alvarez (boxing – Mexico)
5 – Paulo Dybala (football – Argentina)
6 – Cristiano Ronaldo (football – Portugal)
7 – Ali Krieger (soccer – USA)
8 – Stefanos Tsitsipas (tennis – Greece)
9 – Novak Djokovic (tennis – Serbia)
10 – Alex Morgan (soccer – USA)
11 – Hardik Pandya (cricket – India)
12 – Lionel Messi (football – Argentina)
13 – Roger Federer (tennis – Switzerland)
14 – Sergio Ramos (football – Spain)
15 – Karim Benzema (football – France)
16 – Lewis Hamilton (Formula 1 – England)
17 – Te’a Cooper (basketball – United States)
18 – Robert Lewandowski (football – Poland)
19 – Grigor Dimitrov (tennis – Bulgaria)
20 – Nyjah Huston (skateboard – United States)
21 – Serena Williams (tennis – USA)
22 – Candace Parker (basketball – United States)
23 – Kylian Mbappe (football – France)
24 – LeBron James (basketball – United States)
25 – Dominic Thiem (tennis – Austria)
18 – Robert Lewandowski (football – Poland)
19 – Grigor Dimitrov (tennis – Bulgaria)
20 – Nyjah Huston (skateboard – United States)
21 – Serena Williams (tennis – USA)
22 – Candace Parker (basketball – United States)
23 – Kylian Mbappe (football – France)
24 – LeBron James (basketball – United States)
25 – Dominic Thiem (tennis – Austria)
26 – Rafael Nadal (tennis – Spain)
27 – Thomas Müller (football – Germany)
28 – Katie Ledecky (swimming – United States)
29 – Valentino Rossi (motorcycles – Italy)
30 – Stephen Curry (basketball – United States)
31 – Neymar (football – Brazil)
32 – Daniel Ricciardo (Formula 1 – Australia)
33 – Bethany Hamilton (surfing – USA)
34 – Kristie Mewis (soccer – USA)
35 – Megan Rapinoe (soccer – USA)
36 – Gabriel Medina (surf – Brazil)
37 – Kelley O’Hara (soccer – United States)
38 – Riyad Mahrez (football – Algeria)
39 – Julie Ertz (soccer – USA)
40 – Cody Bellinger (baseball – United States)
41 – Mesut Özil (football – Germany)
42 – Chloe Kim (snowboarding – United States)
43 – Tobin Heath (soccer – USA)
44 – Lieke Martens (football – Netherlands)
45 – Sydney Dwyer (soccer – USA)
46 – Cam Newton (American football – United States)
47 – Shikhar Dhawan (cricket – India)
48 – Paul Pogba (football – France)
49 – Sydney McLaughlin (Athletics – United States)
50 – Devin Booker (basketball – United States)
