Simone Biles Named 2016 AP Female Athlete of the Year

The Associated Press announced Monday that four-time Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles was named the AP Female Athlete of the Year.

According to the AP, Biles received 31 of the 59 votes, while fellow Olympian Katie Ledecky placed second with 20 votes.  

Place	Athlete	Sport	Votes
1st	Simone Biles	Gymnastics	31
2nd	Katie Ledecky	Swimming	20
T3rd	Serena Williams	Tennis	4
T3rd	Breanna Stewart	Basketball	4

The AP's Will Graves noted four other gymnasts have claimed the honor:

Biles won five medals—four golds and one bronze—in Rio de Janeiro this past summer. She was the first American gymnast to win three or more gold medals in one Olympics, and she was the first female gymnast with four golds since Romania's Ecaterina Szabo in 1984, per CNN.com's Emanuella Grinberg.

Biles' best work arguably came in the vault. With a final score of 15.966, she finished 0.713 points ahead of Russia's Maria Paseka. To put that gap in perspective, 0.437 points separated Paseka from eighth-place Shallon Olsen of Canada.

Aly Raisman won silver in the women's all-around and floor routine. In August, she said competing for gold in Rio was a futile effort given Biles' ability, per the Washington Post's Jerry Brewer: "I wasn't reaching to get a gold. I knew Simone was going to win. I was just hoping that I would be able to get second, and it was very, very special because this was the very best I could do."

With her near-total dominance across the board in Rio, Biles made a strong case to be considered among the greatest female gymnasts in Olympic history.