# SI Sportsperson of the Year 2024 **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [August 11, 2024, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571 "2024-08-11T16:11:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2024, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/21 "2024-08-12T21:47:18Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > > [@XOldiesJock](#): > > > > **Katie Ledecky** , the most decorated female swimmer of all time. Did Michael Phelps get the nod after his Olympic swimming victories? If he did, she should. > > Yes, he did, but he won eight _at the same Olympics_. Note that Mark Spitz won 7 in 1972 (9 overall, if you include 1968), and he did not. > > > [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > > > My longshot for SPOY would be the US Olympic track and field team. They continued their dominance of sprinting and short-distance running (albeit losing the 4x400 mixed relay for the first time in the event’s history), but added gold and bronze in the men’s 1500m, bronze in men’s 5000m, bronze in men’s 10000m, an 8th place finish in the men’s marathon and a 12th in the women’s race. Cole Hocker running down both Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Josh Kerr in the 1500 was a huge upset. Historically, the U.S. has been an also-ran (ha!) in distance running, but four medals in this Games, added to bronze medals in women’s marathon and men’s 5000m three years ago in Tokyo, shows a resurgence of American distance running. We’re still not at the level of the Ethiopians and Kenyans, but we’re not completely overmatched, either. > > Er, USA finished third in the mixed 4x400 in 2021, and even that was after it had to be reinstated after a disqualification caused by the second runner lining up outside of her passing zone (because a Japanese official told her where to go - ironically, it almost happened again, but this time an official told the runner to back up into the zone). You might be confusing it with the 4x100 mixed medley swimming relay, which USA did lose for the first time (to China). > > You are also asking to open the can of worms concerning which of the two tied men’s high jumpers asked for the jump-off rather than agreeing to share the gold medals, especially as that would have given the USA 41. Thank you, you’re right - I was getting my "four-by"s mixed up. > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > As was discussed at length in threads on previous years’ awards, the award is at least as much about generating sales/clicks/views/media coverage for SI as it is about recognizing a sportsperson. Agreed. SPOTY is about who gets people talking, watching, and not-coincidentally buying magazines. It’s only tangentially about recognizing sporting excellence. My serious guess for this year is Biles. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2024, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/22 "2024-08-24T15:47:47Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Now that the Olympics are over, it’s time to start _that_ discussion… > If you ask me, based on what SI has done in the past, the choice seems obvious, and the only choice is whether it’s one person or two: > > 1. Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce - but probably only if they can get at least one photo of Kelce with Taylor Swift, so it can get the Swifties to buy the issue > 2. Just Mahomes > 3. Stephen Curry and Simone Biles - I had LeBron & Bronny at #3 before those last two games in the Olympics > 4. Simone Biles, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, and maybe a few other female USA Olympic athletes - why, yes, I do keep saying that every year, don’t I? > 5. Curry, LeBron, and maybe Kevin Durant. Change: 5. If the Dodgers win the World Series: Shohei Ohtani - 40/40 before September 1 is impressive. 6. Curry, LeBron, and maybe Kevin Durant. ---
**Author:** ![DKW](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dkw/32/3118_2.png) [@DKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DKW)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2024, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/23 "2024-08-26T04:35:23Z")
I’d _love_ it to be Simone Biles, especially given all the completely undeserved crap she got from Tokyo, and it’d be even nicer for SI to give a full-throated condemnation of social media ignoramuses as opposed to the pitiful “controversy” mincing from every other major media outlet. Two marks against that, however: 1. While she was excellent, she (completely understandably) wasn’t quite the transcendent superhuman she was pre-Tokyo, and 2. Suni Lee played a big part in the team’s success and _also_ had the kind of tearjerker comeback story magazines love. Also, there were quite a few other Olympians who made plenty of noise, particularly in track, and I’m thinking there’s going to be some pressure to honor Jordan Chiles as a back-pat for being unjustly stripped of a bronze. (Which could’ve been completely avoided, incidentally, if they _got their crap together BEFORE having the damn medal ceremony,_ but that’s another thread.) So I’m going with “America’s female Olympic superstars”, which would be just fine with me. My sentimental pick would be Scottie Scheffler ([friendly reminder of that little “controversy” at the PGA Championship](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pga-championship-2024/1001696)). Speaking from harsh experience, there are few things in this world worse than being completely innocent and having to live under a cloud of suspicion and accusation due to events completely out of your control. We live in an era where one utterly made-up accusation, one nugget of absolute steaming BS that a lot of people _believe_ is true, or one correction that arrives a few days too late can _destroy_ a person’s life **permanently**. If he chose to respond by withdrawing and launching a blistering tirade at the league for not getting behind one of its top stars, then took a hiatus to deal with the trauma, I would’ve understood completely. _I’ve_ had to take hiatuses for far less. So what does he do? Finishes out the tournament in the top 10, completely clear his name, and play like an absolute champ for the rest of the season. That’s downright inspirational. And my screwball pick. 😁 I could, no-joke, see Mike Tyson getting it if he beats the everloving crap out of Jake Paul this November. I don’t think this has any chance of happening, however…one thing I learned about obnoxious scumbags is that the ones that survive to adulthood know how to protect themselves (particularly the ones who enter the fight game themselves). And despite some nice shadowboxing moves, I’m not convinced that Tyson has the stamina to bring the thunder for a whole fight. My guess is that there’s some fireworks in the first round and then it devolves into a paw-and-clinchfest, and the ending is totally unsatisfying and both men walk out without a scratch. It seems almost inevitable at this point. (All this, of course, is assuming that they don’t just give it to a football player. I have no illusions about what we’re dealing with here.) ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/24 "2024-10-31T13:11:14Z")
Now that the World Series is over, it’s time for my “final” ranking on who I think is going to get it: 1. Still the “obvious” choice, based on past history - Patrick Mahomes, and most likely Travis Kelce as well, as I think the magazine’s owners want to get Swifties to buy the issue. 2. Simone Biles, most likely along with one or both of Katie Ledecky and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. One possible problem: there may still be subscribers who would react, “That quitter? Cancel my subscription - well, except for the swimsuit issue.” Never mind that (a) the “quitting” incident was four years ago, and (b) had she not dropped out of the event and ended up costing USA a medal as a result, most of these people would have responded, “She cost USA a medal by thinking more of herself than the team - why didn’t she drop out?” 3. Shohei Ohtani. The World Series injury might have hurt his chances a little, but 50-50 speaks for itself. Pretty much any other year, and he probably would have won. A few longshots: 1. “Year of the Women” - one or more of the women in (2) along with Caitlin Clark, and never mind her team didn’t win the WNBA title; Deion Sanders couldn’t even get Colorado into a bowl game last year, but that didn’t stop him from getting the award. 2. Biles and Stephen Curry, “hero of USA Basketball” 3. LeBron & Bronny, because He’s LeBron Dammit ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/25 "2024-10-31T14:44:29Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Shohei Ohtani. The World Series injury might have hurt his chances a little, but 50-50 speaks for itself. Pretty much any other year, and he probably would have won. An Ohtani/Freddie Freeman combo could be in the running which I’d prefer over the entire Dodgers team. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/26 "2024-10-31T17:18:05Z")
Doubt it would be the team as a whole, especially with Ohtani’s 50-50 season. I hesitate to include Freeman, as what did he do during the regular season? ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/27 "2024-10-31T17:23:14Z")
I think Caitlin Clark has to be it, surely? No one had a comparable impact on their sport. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/28 "2024-10-31T17:30:58Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > I hesitate to include Freeman, as what did he do during the regular season? The story with his son and taking time off from baseball in the middle of a pennant race would add to his appeal and then the World Series performance coming later. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/29 "2024-11-01T12:11:32Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I think Caitlin Clark has to be it, surely? No one had a comparable impact on their sport. As a media story Clark was pushed further into the spotlight. I think Biles is more deserving but the audience forgets the Olympics the minute they are over. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/30 "2024-11-01T13:20:18Z")
This is one of the first years in a long time that no one in tennis deserves it. I have long thought that Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic should have each been picked at some point. This year? We are at the end of that. I think even Djokovic won zero Grand Slams this year. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/31 "2024-11-01T16:47:26Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > As a media story Clark was pushed further into the spotlight. I think Biles is more deserving but the audience forgets the Olympics the minute they are over. Biles is the greater athlete so far, and I can see her winning it in part as credit for her career dominance. That’s well precedented - Derek Jeter in 2009, for instance, or Steph Curry two years ago. Clark’s candidacy has to be based on the remarkable, enormous impact she had on the popularity of the WNBA and women’s basketball, for which there is no recent precedent. SI’s choice last year was so awful and inexplicable that they can’t really do worse. Shohei Ohtani isn’t American, so he won’t win. Aaron Judge would have been a candidate but his dreadful World Series killed that chance. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2024, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/32 "2024-11-01T16:56:18Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Biles is the greater athlete so far, and I can see her winning it in part as credit for her career dominance. That’s well precedented - Derek Jeter in 2009, for instance, or Steph Curry two years ago. Clark’s candidacy has to be based on the remarkable, enormous impact she had on the popularity of the WNBA and women’s basketball, for which there is no recent precedent. I lean towards Clark or Biles, for these exact reasons. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/33 "2024-12-17T19:34:07Z")
It looks like they’re going back to having an actual award ceremony, which will be January 7 at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. This is a departure from the past, where the award would be given out before the end of the year. Why do I have the feeling they’re waiting until that date because they think the Kansas City Chiefs will have a bye in the first round of the playoffs, so it won’t disrupt their schedule if Mahomes and possibly Kelce as well will be there? (Speaking of whom, What a Coincidence, Taylor Swift’s concert tour just ended.) Then again, Mahomes is on the December cover, and you would think (a) they would know who the winner is by now, and (b) they wouldn’t want him on the cover twice in a row. Yes, I am aware that Caitlin Clark is Time magazine’s “Athlete of the Year,” but that is an entirely separate award with an entirely separate set of credentials. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/34 "2024-12-17T19:42:16Z")
Could be the Kelce brothers, then. They’ve both been relatively high profile this last year ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/35 "2024-12-17T19:50:33Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > SPOTY is about who gets people talking, watching, and not-coincidentally buying magazines. Does SI still publish printed magazines? ---
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/36 "2024-12-17T19:59:23Z")
I’d wager on Clark, if I were a betting person. Spring and Summer of this year, she was the biggest story in sports. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/37 "2024-12-17T21:00:25Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Speaking of whom, What a Coincidence, Taylor Swift’s concert tour just ended. Why is this a coincidence? The Eras Tour was scheduled to end in November for the last year. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/38 "2024-12-17T22:24:13Z")
The last concert was on December 8. Having it in January gives her plenty of time to show up. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/39 "2024-12-17T22:24:44Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Does SI still publish printed magazines? Yes, although only monthly now. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2024, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571/40 "2024-12-17T22:41:41Z")
I find Clark to be odd in that her story is that she was a story? I don’t follow women’s basketball, but my dad was pissed about her being left off the olympic team (because right wing media was claiming it was anti-white racism; he couldn’t get a single shit about women’s basketball). So I looked into her stats, and she had a good season, but wasn’t a league MVP contender. Enough in her position ahead of her that leaving her off the team seems reasonable. Might not look it in hindsight, like Shaq. Regarding Ohtani not being likely because he’s foreign; how much of that is because football and basketball are overwhelmingly American? Brief glance at the list shows 2 foreign born baseball players in the last 26 years. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/si-sportsperson-of-the-year-2024/1005571.md?page=3)