Women’s Sport Trust has partnered with YouTube to launch an exclusive five-month accelerator designed to support current Unlocked athletes and alumni in building their digital presence and personal brands.
With more than 40 billion hours of sports content consumed annually on YouTube, and living room viewing of this content growing over 45% year-on-year, the partnership is designed to help Unlocked athletes and alumni tap into a rapidly expanding global audience.
WST’s latest Visibility Report highlights just how fast women’s sport is growing on YouTube. The top 10 global women’s properties generated 463 million video views in 2025, led by the WTA with 185 million, up +172% year-on-year. Growth is also outpacing men’s sport, with views across the top 10 women’s properties rising +92% compared to +19% for men’s.
“We’re proud to partner with YouTube on this exclusive opportunity. Extending this athlete-tailored support to both the current cohort and our Unlocked alumni community will give athletes greater access to the tools, networks and knowledge they need to elevate their visibility and build their personal brands,” said Eilidh Gibson, WST Athlete Programmes & Relationship Manager.
WST’s Unlocked programme is a leadership and development initiative designed to support elite female athletes in leveraging their platform to shape the future of women’s sport. Launched in 2020, Unlocked provides training, mentoring and networking opportunities to help athletes advocate for greater visibility, investment and equality across the industry.
Alison Lomax, MD at YouTube in the UK, said:
“We are incredibly excited to partner with the Women’s Sport Trust for the YouTube ‘Unlocked’ accelerator. This partnership directly supports our shared mission: empowering female athletes to ignite new communities around sport, cultivate their personal brands, and unlock valuable new revenue streams on YouTube. By showing the world what’s possible, this cohort of role models will inspire a generation of girls to dream bigger.”
Starting this April, the five-month YouTube accelerator will cover everything from channel setup and content strategy to advanced analytics and monetisation, helping athletes turn their influence into a long-term asset – both for themselves and for the wider women’s sport industry.
Thanks to a grant from the Jacobs Futura Foundation, the Women’s Sport Trust launched a new Unlocked programme in November 2025. This funding supports not only the latest cohort, but also strengthens our growing community of 111 athlete alumni. Find out more about the Unlocked programme here.