Federer Repeats as Athlete of the Year in Academy Fan Vote

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Tennis star Roger Federer of Switzerland was named the 2006 Academy Outstanding Athlete of the Year by the United States Sports Academy after a worldwide online fan vote presented by USATODAY.com and MSNBC.com.

Roger Federer, who also won the Academy Athlete of the Year in 2005, won his fourth straight Wimbledon title and third straight U.S. Open title while winning three out of four Grand Slam tournaments for the second time in three years. He now has nine Grand Slam championships, he has been ranked No. 1 in the world for three years and he is the first man in the open era to win at least 10 singles championships in three consecutive years.

Tiger Woods was named Academy Male Athlete of the Year, while Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova was named Academy Female Athlete of the Year. The ballot was open to voting from 1-25 December. Overall, the ballot received hundreds of thousands of votes from sports fans around the globe. Mexican golf sensation Lorena Ochoa finished second in the women's balloting, while Italian soccer star Fabio Cannavaro finished behind Woods for Male Athlete of the Year.

The Academy Athlete of the Year presented by USATODAY.com and MSNBC.com is the culmination of the Academy's yearlong Athlete of the Month program, which recognizes the accomplishments of men and women in sports around the globe.

To view results from the Academy Athlete of the Year, please visit http://www.usatoday.com/sports/front.htm, http://athleteoftheyear.msnbc.com or http://www.ussa.edu/aoy/index.asp.

Roger Federer (Switzerland), 2006 Academy Outstanding Athlete of the Year.

Aside from Federer, Woods dominated the rest of the field among male athletes, in the same manner he dominated the PGATOUR. Woods earned Male Athlete of the Year honors after winning nine tournaments in the first nine months of 2006, including six in a row and two majors (the U.S. Open and the British Open). His sixth win of the season was an eight-stroke victory in the WGC-American Express Championship, in which he led wire-to-wire for the seventh time in his career. It marked the second time in his career that he won six straight PGATOUR events.

Top female athlete Sharapova won five tournaments in 2006, including a victory over Justine Henin-Hardenne in the U.S. Open finals. The U.S. Open win was her second Grand Slam singles title and her first in two years. Her match record for the year was 59-9.

Male runner up Cannavaro was named the Most Valuable Player of the World Cup in which he led Italy to the title. Cannavaro was named European Footballer of the Year by France Football for his defensive performance at the World Cup and for his performance with his current team Real Madrid.

Female runner-up Ochoa of Mexico the LPGA's Player of the Year and leading money winner, won the LPGA Takefuji Classic, Sybase Classic, Wendy's Championship for Children, Corona Morelia Championship, Samsung World Championship and The Mitchell Company LPGA Tournament of Champions in 2006. She led the LPGA in eagles (15), Birdies (381) and Greens in Regulation (.757).

American NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and Belgian tennis star Justine Henin-Hardenne finished in third place on the respective male and female ballot.

Last year, as the leading overall vote getter in the male and female categories, Federer won the Outstanding Athlete of the Year. Danica Patrick received the most votes in the women's category to take home 2005 Female Athlete of the Year honors, while seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong won the men's category and 2005 Male Athlete of the Year.