This year, these 21 athletes made the leap from mere fame (or, in some cases, total anonymity) to iconhood. You'll like them — which is good, since we'll all be spending a lot more time with them going forward.
Russell Wilson
Before the season Russell Wilson was known by NFL fans mostly for being short: 5'10" or 5'11". In normal American society, 5'11" makes you average-sized; among professional football quarterbacks like Peyton Manning (6'5") and Tom Brady (6'4"), it makes you a curiosity. Despite his accuracy, intelligence, and mobility, he fell to the third round. Quickly realizing the type of player that they had, the Seahawks installed Wilson as their starting QB halfway through the preseason. He's been superb ever since, throwing more touchdowns than Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III and helping the Seahawks become one of the league's best teams. Add his boyish handsomeness and reputation as an off-the-field mensch, and you have a name in lights.
Image by Tom Szczerbowski / Getty Images
Andrew McCutchen
Center fielder McCutchen plays a sport where players have always been talked about in terms of the numbers they produce, and his numbers are tremendous — but they don't do him justice. He's skinny and quick, but hits with incongruous power; he's so explosive that it takes a while to notice how fundamentally sound he is. Pittsburgh is a dedicated sports town, and if the Pirates ever reach the heights that the Steelers and Penguins have, it'll be McCutchen who leads the way.
Image by Gene J. Puskar / AP
Ricky Rubio
Rubio, a point guard, has been a star in his native Spain since he was a teenager, and almost immediately upon arriving in the NBA on the Timberwolves, his spot blew up here thanks to 1) his adorably goofy demeanor, and 2) the fact that he can see the future. Or at least, seeing the future is the only logical explanation for how the passes he throws seem to find their way through forests of defenders before arriving to teammates who only realized after the ball hit them in the hands that they were in perfect position to score.
Mo Farah
When a country hosts the Olympics, its hometown heroes take on a burden. The microscope is on their country, and it's up to them to do it proud. And this year, you could say that none did Great Britain prouder than Mo Farah. Farah picked the perfect time to become the first Briton to win a distance-running gold at the Olympics, and not only did he do it once, he did it twice, winning both the 5,000- and 10,000-meters, making him only the second runner to accomplish such a feat. In the course of doing this, he also just looked really cool, and ran away from a lot of things, including but not limited to other racers.
Source: s3-ec.buzzfed.com
