The 50 Most Googled Female Athletes of 2012

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20. Agnieszka Radwanska



Google Results From Past Year: 302,000
After becoming the first Polish player in the Open Era to reach the finals of a grand slam (Wimbledon) this summer, Agnieszka rose to #2 in the rankings and #1 in the hearts of Polish sports fans. Though she currently sits at #4, the 24-year-old looks poised for a great 2013.

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19. Li Na



Google Results From Past Year: 562,000
When you become the first Chinese tennis player to win a Grand Slam event (the 2011 French Open), you become very popular on the web. (In case you didn’t realize, there are a lot of people in China.)

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18. Lolo Jones



Google Results From Past Year: 652,000
Lolo was heavily criticized by Jere Longman of the New York Times this summer for using her good looks to gain more attention heading into the 2012 Summer Olympics than her athletic performance merited. Actually, “heavily criticized” probably doesn’t do it justice.

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17. Ana Ivanovic



Google Results From Past Year: 846,000
Will Ana Ivanovic ever win another Grand Slam tournament? Who knows. But she’s got one, which is more than enough to prove that, unlike Anna Kournikova, she didn’t just get by on her (insanely good) looks.

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16. Victoria Azarenka



Google Results From Past Year: 927,000
Belarusian Victoria Azarenka kicked off 2012 by winning the Australian Open, her first Grand Slam victory, and she capped the year by reaching the finals of the U.S. Open and finishing the #1 player in the world.
That’s a pretty good year.

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15. McKayla Maroney


Google Results From Past Year: 954,000
To be honest, given the ubiquity of McKayla Maroney’s “not impressed” expression, I expected her to finish even higher on the list. But hey, 15th aint bad.

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14. Allyson Felix



Google Results From Past Year: 1,030,000
Discussing Lolo Jones’s popularity in #18, I said that she was not the most popular female U.S. track athlete on the web this year. That honor belongs to Allyson Felix. In addition to being gorgeous and intelligent (she graduated from USC with a degree in elementary education), Felix is also the owner of 6 Olympic medals. Four of those are gold, and three of them came in London this summer in the 200m, the 4x100m relay, and the 4x400m relay.

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13. Sania Mirza



Google Results From Past Year: 1,120,000
Sania Mirza has never been ranked higher than #27 in the world, and has never even sniffed the singles final of a Grand Slam tournament. However, she is by far the most accomplished Indian player of all time, having been the first to win a WTA event and only the third to win a Grand Slam doubles event. (She won mixed doubles at the 2009 Aussie Open and the 2012 French.)

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12. Alex Morgan



Google Results From Past Year: 1,260,000
Alex Morgan is very good at soccer and very good at being attractive. The only thing surprising about her place on this list is that it’s not higher.

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11. Hope Solo



Google Results From Past Year: 1,410,000
This year U.S. soccer goalkeeper Hope Solo just barely beat out her teammate Alex Morgan for the #11 spot on this list. She dropped a couple of spots from last year’s list, but she also had stiffer competition, what with the Olympics and all. So #11 is still solid.

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10. Ronda Rousey



Google Results From Past Year: 1,680,000
If women’s MMA finally takes off, it will be because of Ronda Rousey, who became the first woman ever signed by the UFC.
Of course, if women’s MMA doesn’t take off, it might be because of Ronda Rousey. Since no one can seem to get past the first round of their fights against Rousey, it will be hard to foster competitive balance.

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9. Danica Patrick



Google Results From Past Year: 1,870,000
Danica made the full-time move to NASCAR this year but the results were still the same: disappointing. Of course, she may have been distracted by events in her personal life, as she recently announced she and her husband were getting divorced.

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8. Venus Williams


Google Results From Past Year: 2,210,000
Unlike her sister, Venus Williams, 32, looks to be done as a top-10 tennis player. Of course, she is still ranked #24, and she still has those 7 Grand Slam titles to her credit. So she’s still a big draw on the tour and a big presence on the Googles.

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7. Gabby Douglas



Google Results From Past Year: 2,490,000
No surprise here. Gabby Douglas became the newest “America’s Sweetheart” this summer when she took gold in the individual all-around gymnastics competition at the Summer Olympics. This picture pretty much says it all.

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6. Lindsey Vonn



Google Results From Past Year: 6,340,000
Lindsey Vonn is, in my opinion, the greatest female athlete in the world right now. Though she has “only” one Olympic gold medal on her resume, the 28-year-old skier has won 4 of the last 5 World Cup season championships.
Find me another female athlete who’s dominated her sport so thoroughly over the last 5 years.