Firstly, congratulations to six-time Olympic medallist and star canoeist Jessica Fox on topping ESPN Australia's annual Aussie athlete Power Rankings for 2024. Jess' performance in Paris cemented her status as a legend of Australian sport and an inspiring athlete for the next generation.
Jess follows in the footsteps of our previous winners Ash Barty (twice), Sam Kerr and Pat Cummins, as we seek to pull together the impossible. A list of the most influential active athletes in the country.
It's not a simple task. How do measure a solo athlete versus a team member? How do you measure domestic success versus international? How much weight do you give a sole performance in one year, against a body of work? How do you quantify 'influential'? Is it fame, success, potential, longevity, money? Or all of the above? For us at ESPN we had to stick to core principle of the list:
"Based on success, influence on and off the field, star power, potential, longevity at the top, level of competition, and sheer talent."
To tackle the task this year, our team of writers and editors sat down and drafted a shortlist of 67 athletes, from cricketers to Olympians, Aussie Rules stars to Paralympic medalists, combat warriors to world class hoopers. The list was long, varied and chock full of talent. The task then was to work through a ranking. The athletes were put into a computer program that generated match-ups. Tim Tszyu versus Ariarne Titmus, for example. This was then shared with a panel of ESPN staffers, contributors, and a selection of the general public for voting.
After a week of votes -- we received nearly 10,000 -- we had a ranking from 1-67. The final stage was to 'sense check' the result. Ensure no statistical anomalies were impacting the final result. This involved another smaller group of the ESPN editorial team debating the merits of each athlete, ensuring the ranking reflected the ethos of the poll, and that it would, as much as a subjective list possibly could, pass 'the pub test'.
And so with that we settled, after some vigorous debate, on the 25. Not a list of the best 25 athletes in Australia. Not a list of the best 25 performances in 2024. But a power ranking. The latest installment of a now five year journey that sees the list evolve over time. A living, breathing document of this sporting era.
It's a list that will please many, confuse some, infuriate more. And that's okay. There is nothing riding on this. No-one's life will change if they make it or they don't. It's there to initiate discussion, debate, to reflect, and to consider what it may look like next year or in 5 years.
There are dozens of athletes unfortunate to miss out. Olympic medalists, national team captains, some iconic names. But that's the nature of the beast.
There are only twenty-five spots in any given year, and in an Olympic year, where a light is shone in oft neglected areas, the competition for spots is intense. There's also a reality that as this isn't just based on results in any given year, athletes may slide but will stay in the list. Sam Kerr is a great example. An incredible difficult year with legal proceedings pending and a serious knee injury, but there's no doubt she is on a ranking like this given her outsized influence not just on football, but on Australian sporting culture.
The top 25 for 2024: the full list
The list also highlighted that we as a nation have some incredible talent, but are we lacking true stars? In sense-checking the final results, the top three were clear. The difficulty came at 4. Any number of athletes could have filled that spot, and in reality it's incredibly close from four down.
The current landscape sees a men's cricket team in transition, an AFL competition full of stars, but short of an era defining superstar, and the NRL dominated by one team and a clear star -- but one who probably needs to dominate an Origin series. Men's football and rugby are definitely in a different era, with Nestory Irankunda and Joseph Suaalli on the list, inclusions that scream of hope and potential.
It's a rare year with no tournament success for the women's cricket team, and a rough 12 months for a Matildas team in limbo. In AFLW and NRLW, the competitions growth trajectory will naturally propel the names on our shortlist forward as the likes of Monique Conti, Ebony Marinoff, and Tamika Upton gain broader exposure.
In the international space, we obviously have a penchant for athletes succeeding in the US. To be a starter in the NBA, NFL, or WNBA is a big deal and the rankings reflect the challenge of just making it to the top of the sport.
Then you have the bolters. This year the incredible scenes in Brisbane in early December saw 16-year-old Gout Gout sneak into our final spot. One more test match failure may have seen Steve Smith slide out of the 25, the struggles of 2024 finally beginning to outweigh the bank of his storied career.
Which is why we all love sport and why we do this. To feel excited about the newest sensation. To feel sad about the seeming decline of an iconic figure. To never know what is around the corner. It's the beauty of sport, and why nothing else comes close to it. So sit back, enjoy the list, and start working out where we should fix things for 2025.