The Most Searched Athletes of 2013
Last year was an incredible year for sports. We had heroes and villains, thrills and chills, pretty much everything you could want if you’re a sports fan. As the 2013 year-in-review comes to an end, let’s see which athletes were the most searched throughout the year.
We Google just about everything these days and athletes are no different. Unfortunately, despite all the great things that happened in sports in 2013, many of the Google searches related to athletes are not of the positive nature. Yes, with all of the glory and excitement there is a dark side of sports that seems to have dominate the information highway.
Here are the Most Searched Athletes of 2013….
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Lindsey Vonn – Olympic Skier
I wonder why Lindsey Vonn was searched so much…. Maybe because her relationship with a certain professional golfer went public in 2013? Vonn and Tiger Woods were an extremely trending topic in the sports world this past year. Tigsey (see what I did there) is still going strong so we expect more searches for Vonn in 2014.
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Colin Kaepernick – QB – San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback became a sensation in a short period of time when he took one of the NFL’s most popular franchises to the Super Bowl in 2013. ‘Kaepernicking’ became an internet sensation this past year and thus his Google search numbers went through the roof. He’s also been buoyed by dating rumors like Sanaa Lathan and Teyana Taylor. Duel threat quarterback is a duel threat with Google searches.
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Ray Lewis – Retired NFL Player
Ray Lewis was given a huge boost by the Ravens playoff run and his imminent retirement. The Super Bowl win and subsequent retirement in the early part of 2014 was enough to get Ray on the list. He later joined the analyst game which put on the finishing touches of a solid 2013 in searches.
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Richie Incognito – OL – Miami Dolphins
Richie Incognito exploded on the Google search scene when the story of his bullying fellow teammate Jonathan Martin went public. Incognito was the top searched athlete for a string of several weeks putting him on the list for most searched in 2013. Thus, we begin our string of villains being searched.
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Lamar Odom – NBA Basketball Player
The fact that Lamar Odom needs no explanation shows YOU Googled him this year. Lamar Odom already gets attention because he was connected to the Kardashians who are the most Googled group in the world. His infidelity, drug use, and divorce was a tour de force of Google searching. Once again, another guy who was not Googled for his sports play.
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Oscar Pistorious – Ex-Olympian
Oscar Pistorious went from hero to villain in the blink of an eye. Pistorious became a global sensation for qualifying for the Olympics as an amputee. He did not medal, but he was story of inspiration for people following the Olympics. He did win gold in the Paralympics in the Summer of 2012 that immediately followed the Summer Games. Horrifically, within months of his fame he was charged with murder in his home country of South Africa. His murder case because a hot trending topic in early 2013 and carried through the year. His trial date was changed several times and won’t take place until March of 2014. You know what that means – expect to see him again this time next year on this list.
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Jason Collins – NBA Basketball Player
Jason Collins isn’t playing in the NBA right now. In fact, he hasn’t been an effective player in the NBA for quite some time. What made Collins a hot topic in 2013 was he became the first player in major professional sports in America to come out publicly as gay. His decision opened the door for other athletes to come out in the future.
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Kevin Ware – Louisville Cardinals
Kevin Ware’s leg injury in the 2013 NCAA Tournament was the injury that you didn’t want to see but you had to. Ware’s broken bone in his ankle came on a freak play that ultimately led to the images of his bone protruding through his skin as probably the most Googled sports image in 2013. Ware also became an inspirational internet story as he was present for the Cardinals run to win the championship. March Madness is an incredibly popular sports time and Ware was the number one topic of the tourney.
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Adrian Peterson – RB – Minnesota Vikings
Adrian Peterson is a unique story because it’s not so much about what HE did in 2013. Peterson is always a dominant figure in the Fantasy Football world and because that’s incredibly popular he’s going to get his fair share of searches. However, it was the brutal murder of Peterson’s son that drove his search results through the roof. Sadly, Peterson never even met the child or the man who murdered him, which created this terrible web of stories surrounding this tragic event.
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Aaron Hernandez – TE – New England Patriots
Aaron Hernandez was the top Google searched athlete in 2013 because of his indictment on the murder of Odin Lloyd in August of 2013. There hasn’t been a week that has gone by since August that there hasn’t been a news story released on Hernandez. We expect Hernandez to continue in 2014 as his trial and probably prosecution/sentencing will occur.
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