LeBron James and Simone Biles Named AP's Athletes of the Year
Both are well-deserved.
The Associated Press has awarded basketball player LeBron James and gymnast Simone Biles with 2016’s Athlete of the Year for both men and women. The AP Athlete of the Year award kickstarted 85 years ago in 1931 with winners Pepper Martin (baseball) and Helene Madison (swimming). It has since become one of America’s oldest and most revered individual athletic awards.
LeBron James takes home this accolade after being named Sports Illustrated‘s 2016 Sportsperson of the Year earlier this month. These two very well-deserved awards come at the end of a successful year that includes winning the NBA Finals for his hometown in unprecedented fashion, earning a Finals MVP, dominating the performance basketball sneaker market, signing on for a Space Jam sequel, producing a Muhammad Ali documentary, inking a record contract with the Cavs, and so much more. His influence on and off the court is only rivaled by the great one, Michael Jordan.
19-year-old Simone Biles follows in the footsteps of fellow American gymnast and 2012’s winner, Gabby Douglas, to earn her first Associated Press Athlete of the Year. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, Biles took home four gold medals — an American record for most gold medals in women’s gymnastics at a single Olympic Game – in the individual all-around, vault, floor and team categories, in addition to earning a bronze for the balance beam. At the moment, she has accumulated a combined total of nineteen Olympic and World Championship medals, making her the most decorated American gymnast ever.
