Top TikTok athletes
TikTok, the short-form video app from China’s ByteDance, is taking the world by storm, with 1.7 billion registered users as of early 2024. This huge audience makes it an ideal platform for promoting one’s brand or project, and athletes – both amateur and professional – are not immune to the platform’s appeal and potential.
Athletes are a natural fit for TikTok’s ever-growing fanbase, whether they’re a hometown hero who has moved on to bigger things, a star player who’s come to town to turn a team’s fortunes around, or an aspiring contender who’s just starting out. And TikTok’s propensity for promoting niche accounts to engaged fans means that even athletes without widespread name recognition can still make it big within the confines of their sport or region.
Athletes are taking to TikTok in their droves to connect with fans, promote events and wins, and partner with brands for lucrative campaigns. Marketers in turn are increasingly drawn to athletes, whose total dedication to their craft and in-built trust of their fanbase creates a halo effect for any technique, equipment or product they choose to endorse.
In this article we’ll look at some of the top athletes on TikTok today – from celebrities, to students, to Olympians. The only thing they have in common is their dedication to their chosen sport, and their natural charisma which keeps their TikTok follower counts rising.
Serena Williams (@serena) – 15.3M Likes. 1.8M Followers
Yes, not only are sporting celebrities on TikTok, they’re among the most exciting people to follow there – from Cristiano Ronaldo and Conor McGregor to Lebron James and Simone Biles. TikTok offers a tantalizing glimpse of the lives and personalities of these sporting superstars away from the spotlight of major sporting tournaments, and lets them connect with audiences around the world in a manageable and often lucrative way.
Serena Williams is arguably one of the biggest sporting superstars in the world today, even after her retirement from tennis in 2022, and has taken to TikTok with the same verve and dedication she now dedicates to her business dealings, travels and parenting. She showcases all of these aspects of her life on her channel, and her playful posts offer a glimpse of her personality beyond the fierce competitor we saw on the courts for so long. In the process, she’s amassed 1.7 million followers in a short space of time, in addition to her 17 million followers over on Instagram.
Olivia Dunne (@livvy) – 425M Likes. 7.9M Followers
College sports are undergoing a boom on social media, and student athletes are turning to TikTok in particular to promote their skills, accomplishments and personal brands, leveraging the app to reach audiences far beyond the capabilities of traditional platforms.
Gymnast and model Olivia Dunne, or “Livvy”, has become a TikTok sensation since joining in 2020, amassing nearly 8 million followers, in addition to 4.4 million followers on Instagram, and becoming one of the most-followed NCAA athletes in the United States. And while previously amateur athletes were off-limits to brands, a recent ruling by the NCAA could make Livvy the highest-paid college athlete in the country too – all thanks to her innate knack for both gymnastics and social media.
Johnni DiJulius (@johnni.dijulius) – 6.8M Likes. 339.6K Followers
TikTok users can’t get enough of extreme sports, which seem tailor-made for the visual-heavy platform thanks to their often-spectacular feats of daring. Extreme sport content creators tend to have a faithful audience and a great deal of built-in marketing potential, having fronted successful campaigns for everything from streetwear to skincare.
Johnni DiJulius is one such a example – a former wrestler for Ohio State turned extreme sports athlete and social media influencer, who according to his TikTok bio is “currently traveling the world BASE Jumping”, and showing off his feats of daring to a rapidly increasing audience of 340,000+ followers.
Sage Watson (@sagewatson7) – 5.1M Likes. 143.7K Followers
Olympians are among the best-trained athletes in the world, but until the advent of social media, they rarely had a tangible audience during the 4-year cycle leading up to the Olympic Games. Nowadays, TikTok is the best place to show their fans what it takes to be the best, and let them get to know them up close and in person.
Sage Watson has been an Olympic mainstay since Rio 2016, where she made it to the semifinals of the 400m hurdles and anchored Canada to a fourth-place finish in the 4x400m relay. Her endlessly engaging TikTok account invites her fans to train with her as she builds up to Paris 2024, and promotes her wellness brand, among other products.
TikTok is a great place to connect with established and rising stars, but it can also be a great venue to promote your next sports fundraiser, and connect donors with the aspiring athletes they’re financially supporting, so they can follow along with their progress in real time. Get started today!