Caitlin Clark honored as 2024 AP Female Athlete of the Year

Caitlin Clark adds to her mantle of honors with AP Female Athlete of the Year Award.

As a memorable 2024 comes to a close in the coming days, Caitlin Clark continues to add to her mantle of honors with the Associated Press (AP) recognizing the former Iowa women’s basketball legend and current Indiana Fever star as its 2024 Female Athlete of the Year on Tuesday.

The AP specifically pointed to her tremendous advocacy for women’s sports and impact on and off the court as one of its reasonings for the honor.

During the 2024 calendar year, Clark finished the NCAA Division I career scoring record for both men’s and women’s basketball with 3,951 career points, led the Hawkeyes to their second consecutive National Championship Game appearance, selected No. 1 overall by the Fever in the WNBA draft, and won WNBA Rookie of the Year.

During her first year with the Fever, Clark helped draw sky-high attendance and viewership numbers, which generated an uptick in competition throughout the league as a result.

Off the court, Clark remained in the spotlight through numerous endorsements, such as her recent State Farm advertisement, and even helped shed light on other women’s sports throughout the summer and into the fall.

Joe Buglewicz/Getty Images

Of the 74 sports journalists from The Associated Press and its members that voted to decide the award, Clark received 35 votes, Olympic gymnast Simone Biles came in second with 25, and boxer Imane Khelif landed third with four votes.

Clark now enters an exclusive club as the fourth women’s basketball player to be honored as the female athlete of the year since it was first presented in 1931, joining Sheryl Swoopes (1993), Rebecca Lobo (1995), and Candace Parker (2008, 2021).

“I grew up a fan of Candace Parker and the people who came before me and to be honored in this way, is super special and I’m thankful,” Clark said in a phone interview.

“It was a great year for women’s basketball and women’s sports.”

Clark will start the new year with a celebration early on as the Iowa Hawkeyes’ women’s basketball team is set to retire her No. 22 to the rafters of Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Feb. 2 vs. USC.

Gators swim coach Katie Ledecky wins AP Female Athlete of the Year award

It’s safe to say Katie Ledecky’s move to Florida has paid off as she claims her second AP Female Athlete of the Year award.

Swimming star [autotag]Katie Ledecky[/autotag], who trained and coached at the University of Florida this year, was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year on Wednesday.

Ledecky joined Florida’s swim staff as a volunteer coach in September 2021 after spending time at Stanford, where she competed and earned a psychology degree. Although the move across the country was big, Ledecky has little to no regrets regarding it.

“It’s been a lot of fun every day,” Ledecky said. “This is the right place for me to be at this point in my career. I’m training really well and learning a lot along the way.”

Since moving to Gainesville, Ledecky has done plenty of winning. She finished first in the 800-meter freestyle by more than 10 seconds at this year’s world aquatics championship, won the 1,500 free by more than 15 seconds, earned gold in the 400 free and won the 4×200 free relay with the U.S. team. She also claimed two more world records in the short-course 800 and 1,500 before the year ended.

The move to Florida has also brought out some competitiveness in Ledecky, not that she lacked any motor before. Practicing with the men’s team has opened her up to the world of trash talk, and she’s finally found her footing in her new environment.

“Guys are guys,” she said. “They love to trash-talk with each other. “I’ll poke a little fun at some of the guys, give them a little push here and there. I’m definitely pretty comfortable in this environment now.”

Ledecky doesn’t plan on slowing down, either. She’s currently focused on the 2024 Olympic games in Paris and expects to compete in the 2028 games in Los Angeles. By then, she’ll be 31, and learning how to keep her body fresh as she gets older is one of her major lessons from Florida coach Anthony Nesty.

There’s plenty left to be written in the book of Ledecky, and her time at the University of Florida could play a major part in keeping her on top of the swimming world. This is the second time she has received the AP honor, but no one should count on it being the last.

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