New York City, Dec. 12, 2018 – Simone Biles of Spring, Texas/World Champions Centre, is the most dominant athlete of 2018, according to a statistical ranking conducted by ESPN the Magazine, and is featured on the cover of the Dec. 14, 2018, issue of the magazine. Biles, who made both U.S. and World history with her performances this year, sits atop a list of 20 highly accomplished male and female athletes that includes a number of well-known names including LeBron James, Drew Brees and Katie Ledecky. The announcement was made on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Biles triumphantly returned to competitive gymnastics in 2018, continuing her winning ways from 2013-16 without missing a beat. Here’s a quick recap of Biles’ amazing 2018.
- Extended her reign as the USA’s most decorated athlete by adding four additional gold plus one silver and one bronze to for a grand total of 25 World and Olympic medals. She also tied with Svetlana Khorkina for most World medals by a woman.
- With her 2018 all-around title, she is the first woman to capture four World all-around titles.
- Biles became the first woman to medal in all four event finals since Yelena Shushunova of the USSR at the 1987 Worlds.
- Her 2018 World medals are team, all-around, vault, and floor exercise gold; uneven bars silver; and balance beam bronze.
- Biles’ 14 World titles gives her the all-time record of World titles, surpassing Vitaly Scherbo of the Soviet Union, who won 12 from 1991-96.
- Biles led the U.S. Team to the team gold with an 8.766 margin of victory, the USA’s largest ever.
- In the all-around final, Biles won by 1.693 points, the largest margin for any of her World all-around titles.
- In Doha, she also picked up her first World vault title and uneven bars medal (silver).
- At the U.S. Championships, Biles became the first woman to win five U.S. all-around titles, four of which were consecutive, after returning to training eight months earlier. She also won all four event titles (vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise).
- In her first competition since the 2016 Olympic Games, Biles won the all-around, balance beam and floor exercise titles at the 2018 U.S. Classic.
The complete list of the top 20 dominant athletes for 2018 is available online. The top 10 also includes: 2. runner Eliud Kipchoge; 3. MMA fighter Daniel Cormier; 4. golfer Ariya Jutanugarn; 5. swimmer Ledecky; 6. skier Chloe Kim; 7. WNBA player Breanna Stewart; 8. soccer player Luka Modric; 9. tennis player Simona Halep; and 10. tennis player Novak Djokovic. James was 13th, with Brees in 14th place.