Tiger Woods Tops Lists of Richest Athletes
Two prominent magazines have listed controversial golfer Tiger Woods as the top earning athlete for 2010. In their latest top 50 richest athletes, Forbes magazine and Sports Illustrated ranked Woods as the highest earning sportsman for the current year.
Although Woods’s overall earnings only reached US$90 million, which is 10 percent lower than his earnings in the previous year, still he retained the prominent title for world’s top money makers in Sports, according to Forbes. Similarly, Sports Illustrated listed Woods as the highest earning US athlete. The lists are released annually by Forbes magazine and Sports Illustrated, respectively.
The total earnings of the world’s top ranked golfer dropped mainly because of his much-publicized sex scandals and extra-marital affairs, resulting in losing big endorsement contracts with giant companies, such as AT&T, Pepsi, Gilette, and Accenture Plc. In spite of this, Woods’s endorsement deals with Nike and Electronic Arts and his personal golf earnings amounting to US$20.5 million propelled him to the top of the list.
Boxer Floyd Mayweather, Jr. was ranked second in Forbes magazine’s 2010 list of the top 50 earning athletes. Mayweather’s $65-million income placed him on the list. Kobe Bryant came in at third place with US$48 million earnings. Woods’s fellow golfer Phil Mickelson and football star David Beckman made it to the top five.
In Sports Illustrated’s “Fortunate 50” list, golfer Phil Mickelson placed second with a net income of $61.6 million. Just like Woods, 2009 for Mickelson’s was also tough, with his wife being diagnosed with breast cancer. Mayweather was ranked third with $60.2 million earnings.
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