Really lovely running from Pearson.
She's been run out!
Stephanie Gilmore has been...
Oh, she's done it again.
Yeah, I think Australia should be mighty proud of itself
when it comes to producing top female athletes
and it seems like you guys agree.
I like Sam Kerr because she's extremely skilful.
I like Sally Pearson because she's just, like, a really good athlete.
I really like Erin Phillips because she's an amazing athlete
and I personally find her a huge inspiration for girls
and women who want to start playing sport.
Some new research has shown the popularity
of top level women's sports is on the rise.
And more than half of Australians follow women's sports.
That's great news for people like Nicole,
who spent her whole life getting to the top of her game.
Yeah, I mean, I love it. It's so much fun.
It's so fun to play in front of a lot of people but, like,
just obviously having a love for the game
and playing it at that kind of level it's, you know, competitive
and challenging but it's fun.
Now a chance for Seekamp...
Nicole Seekamp has just played in a WNBL Grand Final.
She also represents her country
and has even won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games.
She also helps to train up-and-coming stars, like Amy,
who has big ambitions of her own.
Yeah, I'd like to hopefully probably do what Nicky's done,
play WNBL, hopefully, and maybe represent Australia one day.
But while becoming an elite athlete is an awesome achievement,
it doesn't always come with a big pay packet, especially for women.
In many sports there are big gaps in the amount
that men and women get paid.
For example, in the W-League,
the minimum salary a player can earn this season is $12,200.
In the A-League for men over 20, it's over $64,000.
AFL players earn around $370,000 on average,
while average AFLW players earn just $9,700.
As for basketball, Nicole says there have been steps
to make pay fairer but women still get less.
Thankfully now for our younger players,
if you sign a contract you get a minimum wage,
so that's a big step for us.
But still it's not enough to live off,
so a lot of people do have to get jobs.
Some say low wages are stopping many sportswomen
from reaching their potential.
That's why recently the heads of 17 Aussie sporting organisations
got together to come up with a plan to close the pay gap
between men and women.
The plan says there is no good reason why, in the future,
women shouldn't be paid the same as men.
But it'll take effort from lots of areas of sports.
For example, making sure girls have the same opportunities as boys
to play and train.
And building the profile of women's sports
and women's sport stars in the media
so that they attract valuable sponsorship and broadcast deals.
The plan pointed out a few examples of sports that have already managed
to lower the pay gap, like tennis,
where men and women receive the same prize money at all major tournaments.
And Cricket Australia,
which pays both men and women the same hourly base rates.
For many, it's a positive step.
It probably won't be enough, you know, I think it's a good start
but there's always going to be something that comes up
that needs to get better.
So it would be good to find out what some young sporting stars
have to say.
Did you get that?
Come on, ref, that was a foul!
They're all doing the same thing, you've just got a different gender.
What's the difference?
I would think it's really disturbing to see that people actually think
that women should get paid less than men in sport.
I don't think it's enough, I think they definitely should be
getting paid the same and it needs to change.