• by Tony Silber , December 9, 2021

The venerable Time magazine, 98 this year, named a 2021 Entertainer of the Year and a 2021 Athlete of the Year just ahead of its influential Person of the Year reveal, set to take place on Monday.

The athlete of the year is Simone Biles, the extraordinary gymnast. The entertainer of the year is Olivia Rodrigo, the 18-year-old singer-songwriter. Her uninhibited, confessional album “Sour” captured the tone of a turbulent year, Time wrote.

“Rodrigo has a gift for picking the best of the past — whether a well-worn shirt, the faded feedback of a guitar or the intensity of first love,” Time’s Lucy Feldman wrote. “And [then] finding just the right way to situate it in the present. Her songs have hit with audiences of all ages, in large part because she renders adolescence so viscerally: she’s resentful, seething, crushed, itching to just grow up already.”

Rodrigo’s rise to pop stardom was swift and definitive. It began in January, when Rodrigo, a Disney actor with an audience, released the song "Drivers License." Later that same month, she became the youngest solo artist ever to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where her song stayed for eight weeks.

Biles, for her part, is widely considered to be the greatest gymnast of all time. And “with the eyes of the world upon her, she sparked a global conversation about mental health,” the magazine said.

Time’s Alice Park and Sean Gregory wrote: “In the middle of the Olympics for which she had trained for five years, and which was supposed to be the triumphant capstone on a historic career, Biles slipped on her warm-up suit, packed her competition bag and told her teammates she wouldn’t be competing with them, but rather cheering them on in the team event.”

“Her mind and body weren’t in sync," she said, "which put her at serious risk,” the magazine noted. “She also withdrew from her next four events, returning only to participate in the final one. At an Olympics in which five gold medals for Biles seemed preordained, she won a team silver and a balance-beam bronze.”

Time’s 2021 Person of the Year will be revealed on Monday, December 13, during a special set to premiere at 7:30 a.m. Eastern Time. In addition to Person of the Year, Time’s Heroes of the Year will also be revealed at the show. A review of 2021 will be included, featuring exclusive interviews and profiles highlighting the year’s most prominent global stories, surprise guest appearances and more.