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Xinhua Names Top Ten Athletes of the Year
Following are the top ten athletes of the year of 2000 selected by the Xinhua News Agency on Friday, December 29:
1. Fu Mingxia, 23, female, China, diving
Following three golds at the previous two Games, Fu won the 3m springboard gold at Sydney Olympics this year.
2. Steven Redgrave, 38, male, Britain, rowing
Redgrave won five golds at five straight Games after claiming the title in rowing's coxless fours at Sydney Olympics.
3. Marion Jones, 25, female, American, athletics
In September's Sydney Olympics, Jones swept three golds in women's 100m, 200m and 4x400m relay. In April she also anchored the USA women's team to a world record in the 800-meter relay at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia. Repeating her glories in 1997 and 1998, she was voted the female athlete for the year of 2000 by the International Amateur Athletic Federation.
4. Zinedine Zidane, 28, male, France, soccer
The playmaker of French national team plays for Italian Serie A Juventus club. This summer he helped world champions France win the title of the European Championships. He was selected into the Euro 2000 All-Star team and voted the Player of the Euro 2000. This year he was named the Player of the Year by the FIFA for the second time.
5. Ian Thorpe, 18, male, Australia, swimming
Thorpe broke the world record in 400 freestyle and brought home the relay team for gold in 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle the same evening in world record time.
6. Michael Schumacher, 31, male, Germany, auto racing
Shumacher pulled off 9 grand prix victories from 17-leg F1 series this year and won the Formula One championship for the third time.
7. Sun Wen, 27, female, China, soccer
Sun was awarded the Women's Soccer Player of the Century by FIFA in an Internet vote on the FIFA's official website. She has joined the Women's United Soccer Association of the United States which will be launched in April.
8.Tiger Woods, 24, male, America, golf
Woods took the US Open, the British Open and the PGA to become the youngest player in history to have won all four Majors. He also became only the second player in history to win three Majors in a single season.
9.Inge de Bruijn, 27, female, Netherlands, swimming
In Sydney Olympics, Bruijn won the women's 50m, 100m freestyle and 100m butterfly in world record time.
10. Felix Savon, 33, male, Cuba, boxing
Following golds in 1992 and 1996 Olympics Games, Savon won the 91kg title in Sydney Olympics. He lost only 17 matches in the total of 358 he attended since 1983.
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