A battle of young Olympic stars came down to just 11 votes, with gymnast Simone Biles eking out the Associated Press’s Athlete of the Year award over Katie Ledecky.
Biles won four gold medals in Rio, tying the record for American female gymnasts at a single Olympics. She’s also the most decorated gymnast in American history after winning 4 golds and a bronze in Rio. At 19, Biles was the face of the gold medal-winning American gymnastics team and one of the overall faces of American Olympic coverage.
Ledecky, also 19, was one of the other key pieces in 2016 Olympic coverage. Her 4 golds and a silver medal included an incredibly rare sweep of the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles in Olympic competition. Ledecky also helped the dominant American 4×200 free relay take gold, and showed off her impressive range with a key split on the 4×100 free relay that took silver.
In some ways, Ledecky was hurt by the overall popularity of her sport. As dominant as Ledecky was on the women’s side, she had to compete with Michael Phelps‘ farewell tour, Katinka Hosszu‘s Olympic breakthrough, Ryan Lochte‘s in- and out-of-pool charisma as well as world records from Adam Peaty, Sarah Sjostrom, the Australian 4×100 free relay and Ryan Murphy just to get coverage within her own sport. Biles was the face of a 5-person American gymnastics team that became media darlings, and as such, was launched a bit higher into the public eye during Rio.
Biles earned 31 of 59 total votes for the award, with Ledecky taking 20. The other votes went to tennis player Serena Williams (4) and basketball player Breanna Stewart (4).
The AP will announce the Male Athlete of the Year tomorrow.
Ever since London, they have been Legends 1 and 1A in their respective sports- I tend to see it as rather a coin flip between GOATs if you can only pick one athlete of the year. What I didn’t get was Serena Willams over both of them for 2015 honors when Simone and Katie were both redefining their sports in amazing ways and Serena didn’t even get the Slam.
Simone didn’t compete in London. She was too young.
Also there is some good news ( in reply to poster below) .re Simone’s backstory – her biological mother is upset at the stories & wishes the adopted father would shut up . She has cleaned herself up & as she is still likely still in her early 40s may she keep going . I am thinking we will hear her side of the story coming up .
May Simone fare well in the non gymnastic world . She branched out into a music vid cameo but received some bad feedback tweeting ‘ I have feelings too ‘ .
Ok fun aside , USA Gymnastics has major sex abuse problem which threatens to derail Simone’s achievement . It is not known if she had contact with the US team doctor (96-2015 ) who is under investigation . Luckily Simone only had one injury period so let us hope she did not have unchaperoned contact & also that she was not on the talent. radar till 14 -15. Dr Nasser is credited with the medical science behi d the US girls success .
This comes on top of the 2009 World Champion & 2013 NCAA champ Bridget Sloane’s coach committing suicide after being charged with seemingly strong evidence. This coach also had another 2008 Olympian besides Bridget . Both Bridget… Read more »
You are the best long distance swimmer in the world. Can’t beat that. My granddaughter is 19 and getting ready to attend Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. She is very excited.
Not to in anyway denigrate Biles’ remarkable Roo performance but dollars to donuts Ledecky had a better year.
Not only did she win four golds snd set a pair if wrs @ zRio but her dominance of her spirits/wS so,overwhelming it’s almost laughable.
Just take her 800 gold: not only did devein and break her own wr but she won by almost 10 seconds — if not more!
Bikes won by hundredths of a point.
Ledecky us by far and away the best female athlete on the planet in any sport. Too bad she can’t swim men’s NCAAs. She’d be Top 8 in any race she swam.
Biles won the all round by over 2 points. That is a title that is usually won by less than 0.1 points. Ledecky was overwhelming in her dominance but we have at least seen dominance like that before in the history of the sport. Never seen anyone win like Biles before.
Or not win, as was the case with Biles’ third place finish in the balance beam. Would you like to compare Ledecky’s performance in her final event of her week (the 800 Free), with Biles’ performance in her final event of her week, the balance beam? Didn’t think so. BTW, there was a gymnast who won 6 medals in each of three Olympic games, and plenty of gymnasts who have dominated a Games and their sport in other eras–here’s looking at you Nadia. Gymnastics scoring has recently changed to reward exactly the type of “power” gymnastics as performed by Biles, so old-time comparisons to wins by 0.1 points don’t cut it under the new scoring system.
“Or not win, as was the case with Biles’ third place finish in the balance beam. Would you like to compare Ledecky’s performance in her final event of her week (the 800 Free), with Biles’ performance in her final event of her week, the balance beam? Didn’t think so ”
Biles competed in four individual events finals, winning 3 golds a bronze. Ledecky competed in three individual events finals. Would you likes to compare Ledecky’s nonexistent fourth individual final with BIles’ fourth individual final? Didn’t think so.
Even Janet Evans added 400 IM, Shane Gould 200 IM, in addition to their freestyle events.
“BTW, there was a gymnast who won 6 medals in each of three Olympic games, and… Read more »
Forgot to mention that Babashoff won silvers in 200/400/800/4×100 medley and gold in 4×100 free all behind juiced up east germans.
So, 5 golds, and that’s even without 4×200 which was not event yet.
And French sport newspaper L’Equipe has just named Bolt for the men and Biles for the women.
What a surprise for the men! Once again their darling.
But I don’t care. That newspaper has no more credibility with me since they picked Schumacher over Björndalen in 2002 and never picked MP even in 2007 (Federer) and 2008 (Bolt).
Look at their picks each year
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27%C3%89quipe_Champion_of_Champions
Hilarious to think that they were forced to make 2 separate awards for men and women probably because they remarked that they named only 1 woman since 1980. Hilarious but sad to see that discrimination against women.
.
I said I didn’t care about these awards but I can’t stand that MP never wins in France. I said I didn’t care but I comment a lot these news. Not very logical. It’s so subjective. But I find that funny the difference of choices between each country.
LeBron James named male athlete of the year by AP ahead of MP and Bolt.
Interesting.
Bolt 3rd. It would never happen in France…. 😆