After an epic year, one of these 10 will be 2024 Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year
The Lexington Herald-Leader started presenting the Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year award in 1981.
Over all the years since, the members of the commonwealth’s sports media whose votes determine the winner have faced an enduring conundrum:
A.) Should the victor be the one who had the biggest impact on sports inside Kentucky?
B.) Or should the award go to the figure with a viable tie to the commonwealth who has succeeded in that year at the highest level of sports?
The 138 members of our state’s sports media, both active and retired, who voted for this year’s winner faced a stark version of that choice.
As the voting turned out, the 10 Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year finalists for 2024 are evenly split: Five primarily played/worked inside Kentucky last year, while five competed on major national and/or international stages.
On Tuesday at around 9 a.m., the Herald-Leader will reveal on Kentucky.com who has been chosen as the 44th Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year.
It will be one of these 10 people:
In-state contenders
▪ Dani Busboom Kelly. The Louisville women’s volleyball coach led the Cardinals (30-6) to an NCAA Tournament runner-up finish in 2024. It was U of L’s third Final Four trip in the past four seasons.
▪ Kenny McPeek. The Kentucky-based thoroughbred horse trainer won the Kentucky Oaks (Thorpedo Anna) and Kentucky Derby (Mystik Dan), a feat that had not been achieved in the same year by a trainer since 1952.
▪ Nick Mingione. The University of Kentucky baseball head man coached the Wildcats (46-14) to the men’s College World Series for the first time in school history.
▪ Travis Perry. The high-scoring guard led Lyon County to the boys high school hoops state title, and was named State Tournament MVP and Kentucky Mr. Basketball, among other honors.
As the winner of the 2023 Sports Figure of the Year award, Perry is seeking to earn back-to-back victories in the voting.
That has not been done since former Eastern Kentucky University football coach Roy Kidd did so in 1981 and 1982.
▪ Reed Sheppard. In what turned out to be his one-and-done season as a Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball player, Sheppard was named National Freshman of the Year by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association and by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
National/international stars
▪ Walker Buehler. The former Henry Clay High School pitcher was one of the heroes of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ 2024 World Series championship.
Buehler won Game 3 vs. the New York Yankees as a starter, then came back two days later to work a perfect ninth inning to earn the save in the decisive Game 5.
▪ Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The former Kentucky Wildcats guard (2017-18) finished second in NBA MVP voting after averaging 30.1 points a game for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
▪ Lamar Jackson. The former Louisville star and current Baltimore Ravens quarterback became the first NFL player to throw for over 4,000 yards (4,172) and run for over 900 (915) in a season.
▪ Lee Kiefer. The Paul Laurence Dunbar alumnus won two Olympic gold medals in women’s foil fencing in Paris.
Those medals gave Kiefer three Olympic golds for her career, the most for any American fencer.
▪ Sydney McLauglin-Levrone. The former UK track star set a world record in winning the 400-meter hurdles in the Olympics. She then came back to run a scintillating second leg for the Team USA 4-by-400 relay to earn a second gold medal in Paris.
Historically, the Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year voters have tended to pick as the award winner someone who was toiling inside the commonwealth during the year in question.
Of the 43 prior winners of the award, 35 were primarily competing or working inside the state of Kentucky in the year for which they won.
Only seven times in the past has the Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year Award gone to an athlete who was mainly competing nationally.
One past victor, American Pharoah in 2015, competed in major events both inside and outside of the commonwealth in the year for which he won.
Will the 2024 Kentucky Sports Figure of the Year Award voting continue the long-running trend of favoring those whose achievements came inside the Kentucky state lines?
On Tuesday morning, you will find out.
