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). 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.)