Women's Fastbreak On SI

Caitlin Clark Fans Celebrate Simone Biles Winning SI Sportsperson of the Year

Fever superstar Caitlin Clark's fans aren't upset about Simone Biles beating her out for SI Sportsperson of the Year.

Grant Young

Aug 5, 2024; Paris, France; Simone Biles of the United States poses for a photo with her three gold and one silver medal after day three of the gymnastics event finals during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
Aug 5, 2024; Paris, France; Simone Biles of the United States poses for a photo with her three gold and one silver medal after day three of the gymnastics event finals during the Paris 2024 Olympic Summer Games. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images / Kyle Terada-Imagn Images

On Thursday, it was announced that American artistic gymnast and 11-time Olympic medalist (seven of which are gold) Simone Biles was named Sports Illustrated's 2024 Sportsperson of the Year.

In the feature article that SI's Stephanie Apstein wrote about Biles amid the announcement, Apstein said, “Biles is SI’s 2024 Sportsperson of the Year because she won gold, and then another gold, and then another; because she changed the face of her sport and the conversations around athletes in general; because she continues to speak out about issues that matter to her.”

The athlete who was probably next in consideration for this SI Sportsperson of the Year award was Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark, as she notably won Time Athlete of the Year.

However, Clark's huge fanbase isn't lamenting her not winning the SI honor that was bequeathed to Biles. Quite the contrary, in fact.

Popular Clark X fan page @cc22report wrote Thursday, "Would it have been cool for CC to win SI POTY

"Of course it would have

"But

"There's no denying the argument for Simone is extremely strong, or that she is a deserving winner

"I think it's the correct result to have her and CC both win major POTY awards since they both had crazy historic years

"In the end, you tip your cap and move on, the future waits for no one".

Another Clark fan page @FeverBandwagon added, "Women’s sports are so up. ✨
Congrats, @Simone_Biles, you are the 🐐."

Major Caitlin Clark fan Ken Swift wrote, "Congrats to this amazing woman! They are going to say we are gonna be mad, but even Caitlin would respect this choice."

We know that there's mutual respect between Biles and Clark after Biles visited the Fever in their locker room after a game last year. So surely Clark is celebrating this achievement for the Olympic legend as well.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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