Sportskeeda's International Sportsperson of the Year 2015

2015 was another banner year for sports, but when has a year not been so? Every single year, it seems, we see hundreds of compelling, captivating, cathartic storylines in the sporting world, with heroes and superheroes emerging in each discipline. There's an epic battle at every athletic corner of the world, and a legendary gladiator standing tall whenever the dust settles.Comparing those fascinating storylines and heroic performances is perhaps not the most productive use of our time; how many times can you say 'apples and oranges'? But we are humans, and there is possibly no trait more definitive of our race than our urge to compare.So giving in to that urge, here is our list of the 10 most dominant sportspersons in 2015, culminating in the crowning of Sportskeeda’s International Sportsperson of the Year 2015.Note: Just being the best in your sport is not enough to warrant inclusion in this list; the extent of dominance over your rivals was the most important criterion in making these selections.

#10 Lewis Hamilton (Formula One)

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The fact that car technology has so much to do with F1 results makes picking any driver in this list a little suspect. But in 2015 Hamilton was dominant enough, against drivers equipped with comparable technology, to merit a mention here.

Mercedes continued to be the most irresistible force on the circuit all through 2015, although there were signs of life from Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel. None of that mattered to Hamilton, who was the consummate professional in the face of all the chaos around him, serenely cruising to the title with three races to spare.

Nico Rosberg had the same car and the same advantage over the rest of the field as Hamilton did. But the Brit was consistently the better driver, winning 10 races out of 19 while finishing just once outside the podium.

Whichever way you look at it, it's hard to argue against the worthiness of Hamilton's second consecutive Drivers' Championship, and third overall.

#9 Floyd Mayweather Jr. (pro boxing)

Can an athlete who played exactly two matches in 2015 be considered among the best sportspersons of the year? When one of those matches was labeled the 'Fight of the Century' and generated over US$410 million in revenue, he can.

Floyd Mayweather famously ended his professional boxing career undefeated, posting a remarkable 49-0 record across a 19-year span. But perhaps even more remarkable than that was his bout against Manny Pacquiao this year, which in some ways defined all of sport in 2015.

Big money, big viewership, big men – Mayweather vs Pacquiao was sport in its most extravagant, most spectacular form. And by winning that once-in-a-lifetime event, the American stamped his mark on history forever.

The pressure of competing in such a high-octane environment alone would have made lesser mortals shrink in fear, but not Mayweather. He stuck to his much-derided defensive strategy even though he knew he'd be berated by the critics for it later, and gutted out a painstaking win amid vociferous jeers and widespread disapproval.

The Fight of the Century may have turned out to be one of the most disappointingly dull sports events of the year, but by doing everything in his power to win it, Mayweather ensured that his legacy will endure for decades to come.

#8 Chen Long (badminton)

The women possibly produced more drama than the men in 2015, with Carolina Marin and Saina Nehwal exchanging the No. 1 ranking like it was a hot potato. But if the men's section was a tad boring this year, it was because one player soared so much higher than his contemporaries that he made the competition irrelevant.

Chen Long won seven titles in 2015, but it was the quality of the tournaments he won that makes his year so remarkable. The All England Open, the World Championships, the Denmark Open – almost every big event went to the 26-year-old. Lee Chong Wei did get the better of Long at the China Open, but by then the Chinese had already cemented his place atop men's badminton.

With both Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei on the wrong side of 30, Long may well be settling in for a long reign on the sport's throne. And that's certainly not good news for the rest of the field.

#7 Daniel Carter (rugby)

Arguably the greatest fly-half of all time, Carter helped add to the mystique of the New Zealand All Blacks in 2015.

With a string of powerhouse performances, New Zealand stormed to the final of the Rugby World Cup, going up against familiar foes Australia. Carter chose that stage – the biggest stage in the sport by a mile – to showcase his brilliance for the umpteenth time.

The veteran scored four penalties and converted two tries in the match, but it was his drop goal that sent his legacy into stratosphere. Scripting the winning moment for the All Blacks with style, Carter won his second successive World Cup trophy to add to his already glittering CV.

The Kiwi's exploits in the match earned him the Man of the Match award, and at the end of the year he was given the IRB Player of the Year award too. Clearly, slowing down is not an option for this 33-year-old youngster.

#6 Usain Bolt (athletics)

Being forced to pull out of a bunch of events leading up to the Beijing World Championships, it was a year that started on a low key for the 'fastest man on the planet'. Struggling with injuries and indifferent form, Bolt seemed to have finally ceded ground to his arch-rival Justin Gatlin, who was tearing up the tracks everywhere in the first half of 2015.

Of course, Bolt had a bad start to the year only in relative terms; he still won the 100m in Rio and London and the 200m in Ostrava and New York. But this is a superhuman we're talking about. Just winning isn't enough; winning without breaking the 20-second mark in 200m or the 9.8-second mark is a crime in Boltverse.

All that changed at the World Championships in Beijing, where the Jamaican stunned the world for what seemed like the millionth time by winning both the 100m and 200m in blazing fashion. Recording a time of 9.79 seconds in 100m and 19.55 in 200m, Bolt pipped his arch-rival Justin Gatlin to the post in both the marquee events, thus re-establishing his stranglehold on the sport.

For good measure Bolt went on to add the 4x100m relay gold to his Beijing haul, and by the end of 2015 there was little doubt who the greatest sprinter of all time was.

#5 Kane Williamson (cricket)

It's not often that you see a New Zealand player at the top of any cricket list, least of all a year-end ranking of the best sportspersons in the world. But Kane Williamson seems hell-bent on changing the perception of Kiwi cricket – he's not content with being labeled 'nice' or 'spirited' or 'hard-working'; he wants to be the best.

It's hard to argue that Williamson was anything but the best in 2015, in any format. Averaging 90 in Tests and 57 in ODIs, the 25-year-old seemed to be on a mission every time he took the field for the Black Caps. His Test performances were as imperious as they were stodgy; his back-to-back hundreds against Australia made Steven Smith's men look completely out of ideas, and his magnificent 108 to win New Zealand's last Test of the year was one of the most beautiful exhibitions of focus and panache that you'll ever get to see.

His limited overs exploits were no less impressive; scoring centuries and fifties for fun, he showed that you don't need to have an unorthodox technique to score quickly. Playing with the straightest of bats and using some of the most assured footwork ever seen in cricket, Williamson plundered runs all over the world while maintaining a staggering strike rate of 90.32.

Perhaps the only knock on Williamson's year was his failure in the World Cup final, but there's certainly no shame in succumbing to an Aussie juggernaut that is used to trampling opposition teams in big matches. And even in the tournament in which he was widely considered a disappointment, Williamson shone in the biggest match of the group stage. His unbeaten 45 in a thrilling low-scoring chase against Australia made for one of the best spectacles of the event.

The rest of the year, Williamson was nearly flawless. His composure and skill have caused many to earmark him as the best batsman of his generation, and his numbers are already starting to show that. Williamson is currently just 235 runs shy of the all-time record of most international runs in a calendar year, and he's still got two matches to play.

At the end of the second Test against Sri Lanka, Williamson was referred to as the 'King' by his captain Brendon McCullum. The rest of the world could only nod in awe.

#4 Serena Williams (tennis)

There's dominance, and then there's Serena Williams-level dominance. Has a sport ever been reduced to almost farcical status because of the unquestioned authority of one player?

Women's tennis in 2015 was all Serena. Nothing else mattered apart from her; she was not just the principal newsmaker, she was THE news in the sport all year. A record of 53-3, with the first three Grand Slams and every other title of significance up to August in her kitty, speaks of a tennis calendar that danced to the tune of one woman.

There will always be aspersions cast on the greatness of Serena's 2015 because of the level of competition she faced. But how much of a dominant run by a champion is because of the sub-par competition, and how much of it is because of the objective brilliance of that champion?

Some of the players that Serena beat in 2015 – the Sharapovas and the Azarenkas – are decorated champions in their own right, with multiple Slams to their credit. Did these players suddenly turn incompetent in 2015?

The answer, of course, is no. Azarenka herself gave Serena a run for her money at two different Slams, but that only had the effect of making the American raise her level of play beyond the mortal. Serena's performance in the electrifying Wimbledon quarterfinal this year may have been the single greatest performance by a female athlete this decade, and it was the perfect exhibition of just how extraordinary a player she really is.

For two weeks in 2015, as Serena chased the improbable Calendar Grand Slam, she was the most talked about athlete on the planet. And while she faltered at the penultimate hurdle, there was no questioning her hold on our consciousness; with the Grand Slam on the line, even non-tennis fans tuned in to watch her.

If Serena had not pulled the plug on her season after New York and had actually competed in the remainder of the year's events (which she likely would have won), I would have been tempted to place her at the No. 1 position in this list. As it is, she still makes it to the top 5, in the process giving the best possible advertisement for women's tennis – and women's sport in general.

#3 Lionel Messi (football)

After a point, the superlatives start sounding redundant, even forced. How much longer can the sporting world sing the praises of the Argentine wizard, who never seems to get tired of creating history?

2015 was a normal year for most of us, but for European football, it was a platform to showcase Messi's mastery. The 28-year-old helped Barcelona win as many as five titles in the year; the only trophy that the Blaugrana didn't win was the Spanish Supercup, where they lost to Athletic Bilbao.

'MSN' has become a truly terrifying acronym in the football world; no team wants to see Messi, Suarez and Neymar bearing down on their defense with a hunger for goals that borders on the obscene. And as he has done throughout his career, Messi has risen from the pack to thoroughly distinguish himself; just like the Messi-Iniesta-Xavi days, the Argentine has proven to be the first among equals, the Alpha dog among the superstars.

Perhaps the most incredible fact though is that 2015 is not even among Messi's best individual years. While he hammered 51 goals in 57 appearances and made 25 assists this year (which would've been dream stats for any other player, in any era), he missed almost two months with injury, and failed to win the Copa America trophy with Argentina.

Even so, 2015 was yet another otherworldly year in a series of otherworldly years for Messi. He was the most dominant player on the planet, despite not producing the most extraordinary stats of his career.

That, in a nutshell, is what Messi's 2015 is all about – he has reached such dizzying heights that even the extraordinary has started looking ordinary. An unprecedented fifth Ballon d'Or is just waiting to fall into the Argentine's lap, but why are we still counting?

#2 Novak Djokovic (tennis)

If there's one stat that perfectly sums up Novak Djokovic's dominance in 2015, it's this: he faced a top 10 player 36 times in the year, and won 31 of those matches. Djokovic didn't just beat up on inferior players in 2015; he beat up on the best in the business.

There's little to debate about the numbers that the Serb put up this year. Three Majors, six Masters titles (the most ever in a single season), a fourth consecutive World Tour Finals trophy and an 82-6 record made for a giddy concoction of history, gut-wrenching battle and superlative tennis. It's been argued that this was the second-best season in the Open Era – even better than Roger Federer's 2006. And while the jury may still be out on that, the fact that we're even having this conversation puts Djokovic in rarefied air.

We may not realize it now, but the Serb bouncing back from his heartbreaking French Open loss to defeat Federer at both Wimbledon and the US Open probably ranks among the most remarkable of feats in sporting history. He wasn't just facing arguably the GOAT in those finals; he was also facing a legion of fans who cheered his double faults and booed his winners. But in a display of singular stubbornness that verged on the schizophrenic, Djokovic doused both the Swiss' brilliance and the fans' voices to come away the winner.

It was a performance that made even his most passionate haters stand up and tip their hats. Love him or hate him, Djokovic was the undisputed King of tennis in 2015.

#1 Stephen Curry (basketball)

Steph Curry alongside the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, which he helped the Golden State Warriors win

How do you improve on an incredibly successful, multiple-record-breaking season? By creating even more records in the following season, of course.

Stephen Curry had a phenomenal 2014-15 season with the Golden State Warriors, breaking his own regular season record of 272 three-pointers as the Warriors notched up an impressive 67 wins against just 15 losses. The team went one better in the playoffs, with that man Curry at the centre of it all again – he broke the record of the highest three-pointers in the post-season as the Warriors swept past the Cavaliers 4-2 in the NBA Finals to win their first title since 1976.

The crowning glory for Curry's contribution to the Warriors' dominant run came in the form of the regular season MVP award – easily one of the most indisputable picks in recent memory.

You'd think that a season like that would be hard for Curry to top. But the man who is already being heralded as the greatest shooter of all time was not done tearing up the stats sheets just yet. The Warriors started the 2015-16 season on a 24-match winning streak (the best of all time), and are currently sitting on a 27-1 record, with Curry boasting of a league-high 31.2 points per game.

He is on another rampage in the three-pointers' department, racking up a scarcely-believable 133 already – he's well on course to break the 300-barrier this season.

At just 27 years of age, Curry is primed to enter the pantheon of all-time NBA greats, if he isn't there already. But irrespective of where he finishes in history, there's no denying that his 2015 was easily one of the most sparkling years ever seen – not just in basketball, but in any sport.

Novak Djokovic, Lionel Messi and Serena Williams were all dominant in their respective sports, but in our opinion it was Curry who shone the brightest among all athletes in 2015. His all-year-round brilliance coupled with the fact that he was far, far ahead of his peers make Stephen Curry Sportskeeda's 'Sportsperson of the Year 2015'.

Take a bow, Steph!