Serena Williams Named Sports Illustrated 2015 Sportsperson of the Year
Serena Williams, the number one tennis player in the world, has added another honor to her already overflowing trophy case.
Williams, 34, has been named the Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year for 2015.
It's a title that is deserved: she flirted with the Grand Slam, winning three majors (she fell in the U.S. Open semis), en route to a ridiculous 53-3 record. Her dominance was so, well, dominating that SI wrote she was essentially without peer:
For six weeks this summer — and for the first time in the 40-year history of the WTA rankings — Williams amassed twice as many ranking points as the world No. 2; at one point that gap grew larger than the one between No. 2 and No. 1,000.
Williams was certainly moved by the recognition:
The last time a woman earned SI's top honor was 2011 when University of Tennessee women's basketball coach shared the award with Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. The last time a woman won it solo was 1983 by runner Mary Decker. In 1999, the U.S. women's national soccer team won it, while Olympic skater Bonnie Blair and Olympian Mary Lou Retton shared the award with male Olympians in 1994 and 1984, respectively.
There were certainly other viable candidates for the award: Jordan Spieth, American Pharoah, Steph Curry, Carli Lloyd and the fan bases of long-suffering teams like the Golden State Warriors and Kansas City Royals also made compelling cases.