Bolt, Biles voted AIPS Champions of 2016

Nine-time Olympics champion, Usain Bolt was voted the AIPS Best Male Athlete of 2016 for a record sixth time and the award for Best Female Athlete went to US gymnast and four-time champion from Rio 2016 Simone Biles.
This is the result of the most international poll yet by the International Sports Press Association (AIPS), where a panel of 382 journalists from 110 countries voted for the Champions of 2016.
Earlier yesterday, it was announced that Premier League Champions Leicester City F.C. was voted the Best Team, while the award for the Best Press Facility went to Euro 2016.
Proving to be the star of yet another Olympics year, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt completed a “triple triple” at Rio 2016, winning the Olympic titles in each of the 100m, 200m and 4x100m, after similar clean sweeps in London and Beijing.
Bolt is the first man to hold both the 100m and 200m records, and will be looking for his 12th IAAF World Championship title at London 2017, after which the Jamaican superstar is set to retire.
Bolt garnered top place with a landslide of 1149 votes, ahead of US swimmer and 23-time OlympicsGold medalist Michael Phelps, while Portugal and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo, winner of the 2016 Golden Ball, is in third place with 387 votes.
The Olympic Games were the main stage for the Female Athletes of the year as well, as Simone Biles, the 19-year-old superstar from Rio 2016 stole the show, by winning a record-tying four individual Olympic gold medals and bronze with the dominant U.S. women’s team.
Biles, already regarded as one of the greatest Olympics gymnasts of all time, wowed the crowds in Rio with performances of dazzling complexity and focus and was pronounced as the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year earlier this week.
The race for the AIPS Best Female Athlete of 2016 was one of the closest yet, with just over 50 votes separating first place Simone Biles (524) from three-time Olympic champion swimmer Katinka Hosszú from Hungary, in second place with 472 votes. Third place went to US tennis star Serena Williams (361) after yet another dominant year in which she won her 22nd Grand Slam title at Wimbledon.

• Tweet
• Share
• Share
• Share
• Share