|
Armstrong wins 4th straight AP athlete honor
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-30 11:08 Lance Armstrong, who won his
seventh consecutive Tour de France, was honored as The Associated Press Male
Athlete of the Year for the fourth straight year Wednesday.
He is the only athlete to be selected by U.S. sports writers four times since
the honor first was awarded in 1931.
Armstrong received 30 of the 83
votes cast. U.S. college gridiron football running back Reggie Bush of the
University of Southern California was second with 23 votes, and Indianapolis
Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was third with eight, followed by tennis star
Roger Federer and golf's Tiger Woods with seven each.
"It's nice to win," Armstrong said. "I'll never win again.
"I'd hoped to go out on top. As a sportsman it's really hard to do, to time
it right."
The 34-year-old Armstrong retired after deciding there were no more mountains
to conquer on his bike.
"I may have to take up golf," he said. "Take on Tiger."
Armstrong calls his 2005 season "a dream." His final Tour was another
dominant performance - he won by the comfortable margin of 4 minutes, 40
seconds. Stepping off the winner's podium for the final time, his goal was to
kick back "with a beer, having a blast" and play with his three young children
from his first marriage.
Also Wednesday, Annika Sorenstam was selected as the AP Female Athlete of the
Year.
Sorenstam, who became the first woman in 19 years to capture the first two
legs of the Grand Slam and won 10 times on the U.S. LPGA Tour, became the first
golfer since Babe Didrikson Zaharias (1945-47) to win the award three straight
years.
"I am flattered and honored to be chosen by so many different editors," said
Sorenstam, who received 47 of 81 votes cast by U.S. AP newspaper and broadcast
members.
Danica Patrick, the rookie race car driver whose fourth-place finish at the
Indianapolis 500 was the best ever by a female, received 17 votes. Maria
Sharapova got five votes for becoming the first Russian-born tennis player to
reach No. 1, while Wimbledon champ Venus Williams and 16-year-old golfer
Michelle Wie each got four votes.
|
