Time Magazine has released its annual list of the “100 Most Influential People” of the year, and, as usual, several athletes made the cut.
Let’s look at who’s in and who’s out on this year’s Time 100 list.
Jalen Hurts
The Philadelphia Eagles’ reigning Super Bowl champion quarterback cracked the list under the “Icons” category. Fox Sports MLB analyst and five-time World Series champion Derek Jeter writes of Hurts, “I admire how great athletes deal with success and failure. What Jalen Hurts went through in being benched during the 2018 National Championship game would break many people down. But not Jalen; he focused on what he could control and found a new path to success.”
As far as star quarterbacks go, Hurts is about as low-profile as it gets. He’s not in very many commercials. He’s not in your face on social media and self-promoting. He focuses on his craft, which paid off for him in February. Hurts certainly isn’t the most famous quarterback in the NFL, but he’s the only one to secure a spot on Time’s list, which should count for something.
Léon Marchand
In front of a home crowd in Paris, Marchand took last year’s Summer Olympics by storm. The French swimmer took home four gold medals last year: the 400-m individual medley, 200-m individual medley, 200-m butterfly, and 200-m breaststroke, breaking Olympic records for all four.
Three-time Olympic gold-medalist Summer McInosh wrote, “I have so much respect for the incredible work and dedication that went into Léon’s preparation to be the world’s best across multiple races, including some of the toughest events in our sport.”
Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier
Stewart and Collier are listed together as co-founders of the upstart 3-on-3 women’s basketball league Unrivaled. But, of course, they’re also two of this generation’s most iconic WNBA players. In creating Unrivaled, Stewart and Collier allowed players to stay stateside during the WNBA’s offseason and make good money while doing so.
World Cup champion Alex Morgan writes, “Unrivaled makes female athletes think about everything differently. It’s not always about taking the salary, signing on the dotted line, and being happy. Sometimes you can do it yourself better. That’s what Phee and Stewie did here. The launch of Unrivaled will go down in history as a pivotal moment for continuing the tidal wave of momentum in women’s sports.”
Simone Biles
Arguably America’s most iconic Olympian from 2024, Simone Biles completed one of the greatest sports comebacks of recent memory. Biles won gold in the team, all-around, and vault competitions during the Paris games, four years following her famous bout of “the twisties,” which led to a disappointing gold-less run during Tokyo 2020.
Gold medal gymnast Aly Raisman writes, “Simone has faced—and withstood—mounting expectations, pressures, and adversity, which seem to intensify yearly. Through it all, she has embraced her vulnerability while refusing to let it define or limit her. She is deeply human and undeniably superhuman—a combination that makes her impact profound. She inspires us to believe that we, too, can persevere. That we, too, can shatter limits.”
Serena Williams
Given that Williams is now retired, her inclusion on the list might be most impressive of all. Her ventures as an entrepreneur have arguably made her more influential now than she was during her playing career, and that’s a pretty high bar to clear!
In a short few years since her retirement, Williams has invested in a WNBA expansion team, a TGL team, is executive producing a Netflix series, and even danced on Drake’s grave during the Super Bowl halftime show.
As track and field star Allyson Felix writes, “She doesn’t have to do any of this. She could take a break from being in the public eye and raise her family. Instead, she continues to pave the way. So many female athletes see ourselves in Serena. A win for her is a win for all of us.”