Who is the Athlete of the Year? You asked. We’re going to answer.
USA TODAY Sports assembled an expert panel to break it all down. It includes: national columnists Nancy Armour and Dan Wolken; reporters Jordan Mendoza and Cydney Henderson; and editor Mike Freeman.
It was another remarkable year in sports. But it was these athletes who were the best.
Nancy Armour: Simone Biles
Simone Biles outdid herself.
Simply getting to the Paris Olympics was a triumph in itself. Biles is 27, an age once considered positively ancient for a gymnast. Three years earlier she’d been forced out of much of the Tokyo Games with a case of “the twisties” that made her question whether she’d be able to do gymnastics again.
So yeah, Biles could have shown up in Paris, done a couple of back handsprings and it would have been a success.
But Biles didn’t go to Paris for participation trophies. She went for gold, and she got it. Three of them in fact. Biles led the U.S. women to the team title, claimed gold in the all-around two days later and won vault with a skill we might never see again. She’s one of only three women to win two Olympic all-around titles, and the first to do it in non-consecutive Games.
Biles also won silver on floor exercise, upping her total medal count in three Olympics to 11. Seven of those are gold. She’s now won 41 medals at the Olympics and world championships, more – a lot more – than any other gymnast, male or female.
These stats alone, along with her ability to push the boundaries of gymnastics, would make Biles an obvious choice for athlete of the year. But she is so much more than a gymnast.
Her nightmare experience in Tokyo forced a long-overdue conversation on the mental health struggles many athletes have, and she continues to be a vocal advocate for therapy and prioritizing self-care. Biles has taught a master class on dealing with trolls, reminding everyone that living your best life is the ultimate answer to these small-minded people and bigots. She’s shown how to be a good and supportive teammate, using her platform to help elevate others.
The athletes who continue to loom large even when they’ve long since retired are those who transcend sports. Biles didn’t just change gymnastics, she changed our society. She is the GOAT of GOATs, as teammate Jordan Chiles called her, one of one.
The Paris Olympics were the biggest sporting event of the year this year. When people look back on them, Biles will be the first name that comes to mind.
Dan Wolken: Scottie Scheffler
Early on the morning of May 17, the world’s best golfer was arrested in a snarl of traffic while trying to get to Valhalla Golf Club before the second round of the PGA Championship.
After spending a little more than an hour in jail and enduring the most surreal and distressing experience of his life, strait-laced Scottie Scheffler got back to the course for his 10:08 a.m. tee time and proceeded to shoot a cool 66.
Though Scheffler didn’t win the tournament, nor does the arrest alone make him my athlete of the year, the round he played that day was emblematic of how unflappable, how dominant and, of course, how talented he was in 2024.
Though Scheffler is never going to have Tiger Woods’ Q-Rating off the course or make non-golf fans tune in when he’s in contention, what he accomplished this year is as close to Tiger-like as anything we’ve seen since his run in the early 2000s.
In 21 PGA Tour-sanctioned events, Scheffler won nine times, including his second Masters, The Players, the year-end FedEx Cup and the Olympic gold medal. He racked up another nine top-10 finishes and didn’t miss a cut. His scoring average for the season was 68.65, nearly half a shot per round better than No. 2-ranked Xander Schauffele. In the advanced “strokes gained” metrics, he was No. 1 by a mind-blowing margin in approaching the green, No. 2 off the tee, and No. 17 around the greens. If he was a little bit better at putting – he ranked No. 77 in strokes gained – he might never lose.
And that’s not too much of an exaggeration.
The level of consistency is just staggering, and the scary part is Scheffler has gotten better every year he’s been on the Tour. And at age 28, he may not have even reached his peak.
There’s no doubt that Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka have been the two defining golfers of the post-Tiger era. With four and five majors, respectively, they still have a little breathing room over Scheffler, who just has his two Masters titles.
But unless something goes wrong to take Scheffler off his current trajectory, he has enough game and enough years ahead to eventually be in the company of the all-time greats. And having won pretty much all the other important stuff already – as well as more than $71 million in career earnings – don’t be surprised if his focus turns almost exclusively to racking up more majors.
Still, it’ll be hard for Scheffler to duplicate a year like this one – which included the charges against him getting dropped and his mug shot becoming an all-time golf meme. Not only was he the best golfer on the planet, nobody in any sport created a gap as big between themselves and the rest of the field.
Jordan Mendoza: Caitlin Clark
I also debated Simone Biles and Shohei Ohtani, but no one captivated sports this past year quite like Caitlin Clark. She had a packed schedule that began with the college basketball world watching her pass the NCAA all-time scoring record, and she brought record attention to the women’s side of March Madness. For once – and rightfully so – the women’s national championship had more viewership than the men’s side. At some points, it cost an arm and a leg just to be able to witness the end of her Iowa career.
When she moved to the WNBA, Clark had the same effect. Everyone wanted to see her, and teams had to move to bigger arenas just accommodate the demand. She brought more eyes to the WNBA, and although it was late, people began to see just how much talent the league has outside of one player.
There are so many moments that show why Clark is a star, but I was someone that was able to witness it firsthand. I covered Clark and when she came to Los Angeles, it was an incredible sight to see. A packed arena, and so many children excited to see a player they are looking up to and hoping to one day be. It reminded me of my childhood and when me and countless other children wanted to grow up to play like Kobe Bryant.
Even if you weren’t someone following Clark, you at least knew who she was and what she was doing – regardless of sports knowledge. I can’t tell how many times I’ve been with family, friends or big gatherings where someone would suddenly ask me about Clark. Some of these people I’d hardly ever talk about sports with, but they all knew what Clark was doing was incredible.
Even with all of the basketball talk, there have been plenty off-the-court issues that have centered around Clark. She was used in culture wars and unfortunately brought out the ugly side of fandom. It wasn’t her fault, and she recognizes her white privilege, but how she was used politically showed there’s still plenty of things people must learn in how women athletes are viewed and portrayed.
We haven’t touched the fact she’s pretty good at her job too. She broke several WNBA rookie records and was a major contributor for an Indiana Fever team that hadn’t made the playoffs since 2016. Every team made it their mission to not let Clark perform any of her magic, and while it sometimes worked, it didn’t stop her from having a stellar rookie season.
It was the year of Clark, and she’ll likely continue to captivate the country – and the world – for years to come.
Cydney Henderson: Simone Biles
Simone Biles didn’t have to compete at the Paris Olympics this summer to cement herself as the GOAT.
After unexpectedly pulling out of several events at the Tokyo Games in 2021 after anxiety brought on “the twisties” – where a gymnast loses their sense of space and awareness in the air – Biles returned to the Olympic stage in dominant form. She brought home three gold medals (team, all-around, vault) and a silver (floor), bringing her total number of Olympic medals to 11, the most by any U.S. female gymnast.
More importantly, Biles continued to highlight the importance of mental health, a discussion she helped destigmatize three years ago. Although all eyes were on her difficult gymnastics routines and eponymous skills that only she can do, Biles credited another routine for her Olympic success.
“I saw (my therapist) about three or four times throughout this whole entire process,” Biles said in Paris. “It didn’t matter if it was before all-around or after qualifications, I went back to the village and got on a call and did my therapy sessions because that’s routine for me now.”
Biles even offered a behind-the-scenes look at how she was battling anxiety in real time throughout the Olympics. In a TikTok video titled, “Get ready with meeee for all around finals @ the Olympics,” Biles opened up about being “really nervous” as she did her makeup for the competition.
“I just had therapy this morning so I am feeling a little bit better. I have just worked so hard mentally to get to this moment,” she said.
Biles’ vulnerability wasn’t reserved for TikTok. She shared her journey to Paris in the Netflix docuseries “Simone Biles: Rising,” offering fans a raw look into the mental and physical work she underwent.
Biles had every reason to shut out the world after some critics labeled her a quitter for prioritizing her mental health at the Tokyo Games, but she didn’t. She didn’t need to prove anything to anyone, but she did. Biles is not only an 11-time Olympic champion, she’s a champion for mental health.
It was fun watching Simone Biles have fun (and win) this year and her GOAT necklace was as epic as her 2024.
Mike Freeman: Transgender athletes
Sometimes, many times, the athlete of the year is about, well, a singular athlete. As it should be. But there are occasions, so rare and yet so important, when such an honor is less about an individual and more about a statement. Or even a movement. Or, in this case, almost a resistance.
Few athletes this past year were persecuted like the transgender athlete. Their treatment at the hands of extremist goons is one of the more disgraceful things we’ve seen in recent American sports history. That’s not an overstatement. Right-wing media has created an anti-trans hysteria in sports. Which, by the way, has its origins in Nazi Germany. “The Nazi era has substantially shaped the conversation surrounding trans athletes today,” writes Vox.
The height of this manufactured panic is the grift-a-thon fueled stupidity of the campaign against a San Jose State volleyball player who is trans.
Trans athletes don’t want to be heroes. They just want to do what they love, which is play sports. Which is what every athlete wants. They may not want to be heroes but they are.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Athlete of the Year: USA TODAY panel picks 2024’s top athlete
