GOOD

Here's Who ESPN Just Named Woman Of The Year

She’s a living-legend

 Tosten Burks
12.13.16

Image via Simone Biles's Instagram

The day after Sports Illustrated crowned Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James as its Sportsperson of the Year, espnW awarded its Woman of the Year honors to 19-year-old U.S. gymnast and certified god-living-among-us Simone Biles.

Biles, who led America’s “Final Five” women’s gymnastics squad to team gold this summer in Brazil while winning individual gold in all-around, vault, and floor, is the most decorated American gymnast of all time. She also is the only 4 feet, 8 inch human with the gift of flight.

The Columbus, Ohio, native’s story lent itself to all the overwrought uplifting sports fanfare to which Olympics coverage is susceptible. Biles spent time in foster care and was adopted by her grandparents—the clumsy, insulting headlines wrote themselves—and she’s spent her career defending the value of her skill, which gymnastics traditionalists complain is unfairly privileged by a modern scoring system that weighs athleticism over “elegance,” “artistry,” and other coded language.

But her charisma and athletic magic obviously survived the haters. Since the summer games, Biles has safely nestled into our hearts, charming Ellen and Colbert; taking pictures next to incredibly tall people; and covering Ebony with power and grace. Biles may go down as the greatest gymnast ever, but she will definitely go down as one of the few great things about this godforsaken year.

The espnW IMPACT25 package is wonderful, featuring star-studded tributes to the year’s 24 other coolest people. Billie Jean King toasts Hillary Clinton; DeRay Mckesson honors the racial activism of the Minnesota Lynx; and a 15-year-old Seahawks fan beautifully recounts Jessie Graff’s historic run to become the first woman to complete Stage 1 on American Ninja Warrior.

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Youth activists gather to fight climate change at UN Summit: 'We need to transform anger into action'

Julian Meehan

Young leaders from around the world are gathering at the United Nations Headquarters in New York Saturday to address arguably the most urgent issue of our time. The Youth Climate Summit comes on the heels of an international strike spearheaded by Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate activist from Sweden, who arrived in New York via emissions-free sailboat earlier this month.

Translated from Swedish, "berg" means "mountain," so it may feel fated that a young woman with Viking blood in her veins and summit in her name would be at the helm. But let's go out on a limb and presume Thunberg, in keeping with most activists, would chafe at the notion of pre-ordained "destiny," and rightly so. Destiny is passive — it happens to you. It's also egomaniacal. Change, on the other hand, is active; you have to fight. And it is humble. "We need to get angry and understand what is at stake," Thunberg declared. "And then we need to transform that anger into action."

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There's no doubt the visual images from the marches send a powerful message to those on the ground but especially those watching from around the world. GOOD's own Gabriel Reilich was on the scene for the largest of the Climate Strikes. Here are 18 of the best signs from the Climate Strike march in New York City.

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Woman dreams she swallowed her engagement ring and wakes up with it missing

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via I love butter / Flickr

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