On Monday, search engine Google released its annual “Year In Search” report for 2023, which lists the top ten most-searched terms in various categories. Two swimmers, Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom and France’s Leon Marchand, were amongst the top ten most searched athletes in their respective countries.
- To view the whole “Year In Search” report, click here.
Sjostrom was the fifth-most searched athlete in Sweden, behind retired English soccer player David Beckham, Swedish gymnast Jonna Adlerteg, Swedish women’s national team soccer goalkeeper Zecira Musovic, and retired Swedish soccer player Bojan Drordjic. Interest in Sjostrom peaked during the date range of July 30 to August 5, with July 30 being the day she won gold at the 2023 World Championships and broke Michael Phelps‘ record for the most individual medals won at the meet. A day prior, she had broken the world record in the 50 free. Likewise, July 30 was also the day that her Wikipedia page got the most views in 2023.
Marchand was the sixth-most searched athlete in France, behind French soccer player Kylian Mbappe, French rugby player Antoine Dupont, Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, Spanish soccer player Sergio Rico, and French MMA artist Ciryl Gane. Interest in Marchand peaked between July 23 and 29, which was when he competed during the 2023 World Championships. At that meet, he won three gold medals and broke Phelps’ final individual world record in the 400 IM. Like with Sjostrom, his Wikipedia page saw an uptick in views around this period, with his pageviews numbers peaking on July 23 and July 27.
- To view SwimSwam’s article on the Wikipedia pageviews that swimmers get, click here.
In the United States, seven out of the ten most-searched athletes were NFL players, with six of those seven athletes being in the top six. The most-searched athlete was Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce following behind him. Hamlin made headlines when he suffered cardiac arrest and collapsed on the field in a January 2 Monday Night Football game, whereas Kelce won a Super Bowl with the Chiefs in February and later began a high-profile relationship with singer-songwriter Taylor Swift in the fall. Hamlin and Kelce were the most-searched and the third-most-searched people respectively in the United States.
Australia’s Year In Search page does not have a category specifically for athletes, but Australian soccer player Sam Kerr topped the list of most-searched Aussies in the nation.
There’s something uncomfortable about ranking the number of times people searched someone who passed.
🙄
no one passed away on this list bruh.
You clearly didn’t click on the link to see the other awards.