The best athletes by sport in 2018

Todd Gurley may be named Offensive Player of the Year for the second year in a row, and the same goes for his teammate Aaron Donald on defense. Patrick Mahomes is everybody’s beloved new face. Then, there’s Brees. He’s fighting Mahomes for the MVP this year, but last year Mahomes was a mystery, and Brees was a great quarterback who played in the postseason. This year, in addition to being primed to break his own completion percentage record, Brees set the record for most passing yards in a career.

James has been the best player in the NBA for over a decade. The only reason he hasn’t won every MVP is because of voter fatigue. He led the Cavaliers to the playoffs last year. Seeing how they’ve played without him this year shows how vital he was. When LeBron moved to the Lakers, it changed the landscape of the NBA. Also, he’s still the best player in the league.

Connor McDavid won the Art Ross last season and, frankly, should have won the Hart Trophy. Instead, Taylor Hall got it. Ovechkin, though, led the league with 49 goals. Just as importantly, he led the league in playoff goals en route to finally leading the Capitals to the Stanley Cup. Naturally, Ovi won the Conn Smythe as postseason MVP. He was a partying MVP after that and remains the best goal scorer in the NHL.

There’s no question about this one. Betts won the AL MVP thanks to his stellar numbers. Then the Red Sox won the World Series. Being named the top player in your sport and winning a ring? It doesn’t get any better than that.

Tagovailoa burst onto the scene in January by stepping into the title game and throwing the game-winning touchdown. This earned him the starting job for Alabama this season, and he’s now among the favorites to win the Heisman. Tua has given the Crimson Tide the kind of dynamic offense that past teams have missed. Another title could be in the works.

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo both had great years, as per usual. Mo Salah also burst onto the season last season, though some of that was in 2017. However, Modric gets the nod here. He was a focal point for a Real Madrid team that won the Champions League. On top of that, though, Modric won the Golden Ball at the World Cup for surprisingly leading Croatia to the final against France. Due to this, he was named the best men’s player by FIFA, only the third time since 2008 that Messi or Ronaldo hasn’t won it.

Brunson, as a junior, wasn’t one of the shiny prospects that get NBA fans excited, but he showed why you should pay attention to non-freshmen. Brunson won the Naismath and Wooden Awards and helped lead Villanova to a title. In fact, he was named the best player in the East Region during that run as well. He may have been a second-round pick, but he’s a college hoops legend in Philly now.

This was a huge year for Wilson. Not only did she win WNBA Rookie of the Year but also that came after the stellar finish to her college career at South Carolina. She took the Gamecocks to a whole new level and won basically every player of the year award available to her in 2018. By next year, you may see her named as the best WNBA player.

You couldn’t have asked for much more from Stewart. She led the WNBA in points per game (21.8) in winning the MVP. Then she actually improved her performance in the playoffs. Stewart averaged 24.6 points per game in leading the Seattle Storm to the WNBA title. The Sonics may be gone, but at least Seattle still has the Storm.

Logano won three races this year, including the final race of the season. That win paid off, as it meant that the 28-year-old won the whole NASCAR title. Sure, it’s now called the “Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series,” which is a bit clunky, but it still counts.

This wasn’t an Olympics year for gymnastics, but Biles still had a year to remember. In addition to being a vital voice in important social matters, especially surrounding the state of U.S. gymnastics, Biles had as good of a World Championships as any gymnast ever has. She won five medals, three gold and one silver, including the all-around gold.

Winning one major tournament in a year is amazing. Winning two, though, is truly special. Koepka won both the U.S. Open, his second in as many years, and the PGA Championship in 2018. He’s not a household name, but he’s the best golfer in the world.

This was a tough one. Jutanugarn and Park Sung-hyun both won one major and three overall titles. However, Jutanugarn’s three wins gave her 10 in her career to Park’s five. Plus, her win at the U.S. Women’s Open earned her the biggest payday of anybody this season. So by a nose, the Thai golfer is our winner.

This probably isn’t surprising, although the fact Djokovic had elbow surgery in January made this far from a given. However, Novak came back just fine, winning two majors and reclaiming the No. 1 ranking. He, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer just refuse to release their grips on tennis, but right now, Djokovic is king.

Halep won just one major this year, the French Open, but nobody else won more than one. She also was a finalist in the Australian Open, however, and is the top-ranked tennis player in the world. The WTA named the Romanian its player of the year, and we’re in agreement.

Get ready to hear the 24-year-old Horan’s name more often. After starting her career in France at PSG, in lieu of taking the traditional college route, Horan returned to the United States to play in the fledgling NWSL. Playing for the Portland Thorns, Horan was named league MVP and scored three goals for her national team as well, including one in the Tournament of Nations.

There was one MMA fight this year that everybody was talking about. That’s Nurmagomedov against Conor McGregor, the biggest star in UFC. Who won that fight? That would be Khabib. You do the math. Even the insane postmatch scuffle couldn’t change our minds, and that was mostly McGregor’s fault anyway.

Nobody new won a title among UFC women, and all the champions had only one fight. Nunes, though, is the champion of the bantamweight division, the one that Ronda Rousey turned into the biggest in MMA. On top of that, Nunes’ title reign is now up to 863 days, the longest among female UFC champs.

If you don’t know cricket, the stats aren’t going to mean a ton to you when discussing the sport. Let’s just say Kohli set several records in 2018 and won a few different top player awards in 2017. It wouldn’t be surprising in the slightest to see him repeat this year. Kohli is the highest-paid player in the world and was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine this year. How many other athletes, let alone cricket players, can claim that?

Here’s what we all know about cycling: The Tour de France is the biggest race in the world every year. The only cyclists most people can name are the ones who have won the Tour de France, most of them Americans who cheated. Britain’s Thomas won the Tour de France this year, making him the easy choice for this category.

As a junior at Northeastern, Gaudette led the country with 30 goals and 60 points. This earned him the Hobey Baker, college hockey’s equivalent to the Heisman. That performance got Gaudette signed to a deal with the Vancouver Canucks, where he now plies his trade.

How does a guy who bats .408 in a season be even more valuable than you imagine? When he does it as a catcher. That was the case for Rutschman, who was one of the best hitters in college baseball, and arguably the best in a major conference, while catching for Oregon State. He didn't win the Golden Spikes Award — that went to Cal first baseman Andrew Vaughn — but he did win something arguably even better: College World Series MVP.

Garcia suffered a knee injury in her senior year of high school, but she’s overcome that to be a stellar pitcher for UCLA. She’s led the Bruins to back-to-back College World Series appearances, and Garcia’s numbers in 2018 were staggering. Her 1.02 ERA with 273 strikeouts in 185 innings (not to mention a .356 batting average) made her an easy choice for USA Softball’s College Player of the Year award.

First off, shout out to Tyler Andrews and Beatrice Chepkoech, the two people who set individual world records in 2018. However, at the IAAF World Indoor Championships, Dibaba won both the 1,500 metres and 3,000 metres races, and she was the only person at that event to win two golds.

Since this was a Winter Olympics year, people actually cared about figure skating! Adam Rippon got most of the press, but that’s an American-centric point of view. He didn’t even win an individual medal. Zagitova, who almost didn’t get to appear until the Olympics allowed athletes from Russia to circumnavigate the country’s doping ban, won the ladies individual gold and then also was part of the silver-medal-winning Olympic Athletes from Russia team.