The five-time Olympic gold medalist and 14-time world champion Katie Ledecky can add one more accolade to her resume—2017 Female Athlete of the Year. The Associated Press chose Ledecky, with 351 votes, over world-class tennis player Serena Williams (343 votes) and track star Allyson Felix (248 votes).

Finishing second last year in voting to gymnast Simone Biles, her candidacy was strengthened this time around by her performance at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships is Budapest, where she won five gold medals and a silver.

According to the AP, Ledecky is the eighth female swimmer to win the award and the first since Amy Van Dyken in 1996. Among others is 1969 winner Debbie Meyer who Ledecky mirrored at last year’s Rio games by swimming the 200, 400, and 800 freestyles in a single Olympics. She is also the first active college athlete to win since UConn basketball player Rebecca Lobo in 1995.

“It’s a really great history of women swimmers and freestylers,” she told AP. “I really look up to a lot of those women.”

The 20-year-old Stanford sophomore got her start in swimming at age 6 because she wanted to make friends. Over the years, she has spent time training at Michael Phelps’ alma mater, the North Baltimore Aquatic Club in Mt. Washington. Now, she is one of the most decorated American female swimmers in history and is favored to win big at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Despite the pressure of living in a performance-driven and results-driven world, Ledecky enjoys her journey from start to finish and always puts in her best effort.

She is remaining levelheaded and trying to enjoy a normal college experience—living in dorms, swimming with friends, and trying to decide on a major.

“Just being in the college environment has kind of added another layer of fun,” she said. “Being with teammates and working toward NCAA championships and having that team goal, that’s another thing that is fun. I know the four years goes by very quickly and I want to do everything I can to prepare.”

Back, back, back. Joe Flacco returns for Ravens opener.
The quarterback is back from his back issues. Catch the theme? After missing most of the preseason because of a lower back injury (which raised the possibility of the team signing the controversial Colin Kaepernick), Flacco returned to practice last weekend to start preparing for the Ravens’ season-opener on Sunday afternoon at Cincinnati. Still, his health status isn’t exactly clear.

“It’s good,” Flacco told reporters of the back in general, as well as “I honestly don’t know how I did it,” about how the injury happened. And, “I really don’t know the actual answer to that,” about if he feels vulnerable to re-injuring the back, for which he said a spine doctor told him rest was the best medicine.

This isn’t exactly an inspiring start to the season for the most important player on the Ravens’ roster, but, hey, there’s plenty else to be excited about as the new football year begins.

Can we have nine Manny Machados, please?
To quote Buck Showalter, “I like our guys,” but how can you not love Manny Machado at this point? He did it again this week, hitting his third walk-off home run in just 19 days (the shortest span since Sammy “Corked-Bat” Sosa did it in 1996). For extra dramatic effect, he hit it at 1 a.m. Wednesday to end a rain-delayed game against the Yankees, among the teams the Orioles are chasing for, yes, a still-possible playoff spot. (As of this writing, the O’s are two games behind Minnesota for the American League’s second and final wild card position.) 

Visiting fans from the north at Camden Yards serenaded our beloved Manny, the recently named A.L. Player of the Month for August, with chants of “Fu-ture Yank-ee,” and we sure as heck hope not. That’s a story for another day, though a few hours after Machado’s latest heroics The Big Leagues Daily’s Dan Clark started a tongue-in-cheek GoFundMe page (goal: $400 million), after getting more than 1,000 retweets in support of the idea, to show the world we want to keep the modern-day Brooks Robinson here. For now, let’s enjoy the Manny Magic, at the plate and in the field, as he and the rest of the once left-for-dead O’s (as in 4 percent chance to making the playoffs) keep their, and our, postseason baseball hopes alive.

Every (win) is bigger in Texas.
Especially when the University of Maryland football team is doing the winning. To start their season, the Terps, a three-touchdown underdog, pulled off a wild 51-41 win at preseason nationally-ranked Texas last Saturday afternoon. Despite losing starting quarterback Tyrrell Pigrome to a season-ending knee injury mid-game, Maryland notched one of the best victories in the program’s history, and certainly the biggest win of coach D.J. Durkin’s tenure, coming in the first game of his second season. 

#mood:

Up next, the Terps host Towson on Saturday, and, if you’re still on the fence about going, three words: Baltimore Cheese Steak. It’s the newest concession at Maryland Stadium, a “thinly sliced griddled rib eye steak, topped with a white cheese sauce blended with Old Bay and a touch of Sherry,” information important enough to include in a school press release. 

John Urschel fibbed — making him even smarter than we thought?
The recently retired former Ravens center and still math genius revealed on Freakonomics Radio that he was enrolled as a full-time Ph.D. student at MIT during the 2016 football season, and that the Ravens didn’t know. “I guess since I’m retired, I’m allowed to say, I was full-time, full-time,” he said.

Urschel took classes remotely and, for example, studied and worked on assignments on Sundays after games, during off day Mondays and before practice on Tuesdays. “I did not tell anyone this,” Urschel said. “Well, except MIT. But I don’t think an NFL team would be extremely happy to hear that I’m working towards my Ph.D. also in the fall.” Such was his (former) life in pro football. 

Serena Williams and fiancé Alexis Ohanian have baby girl.
We’re still waiting for pictures. C’mon People. But, seriously, congratulations to Ohanian, the Howard High alum and Reddit co-founder, and Williams, the greatest women’s tennis player of all time, on their firstborn, a six-pound, 13-ounce girl.

Terps Kick Off Big 10 Play in Style
The Terps were favored to win Tuesday’s game against Big 10 rivals Illinois, but not by a lot. First of all, the Fighting Illini were on a six-game winning streak of their own and the Terps, while going an impressive 12-1, had demonstrated an annoying tendency to fall behind and come charging back at the last minute for a narrow victory. Throw in the fact that the team’s big men, Michal Cekovsky and Damonte Dodd, were both on the bench nursing injuries, it seemed a recipe for a close game. Well, the team had other ideas, blowing Illinois off the court for a surprisingly easy 84 to 59 romp. Melo Trimble continued his stellar play, but we were particularly impressed by guard Jaylen Brantley, who, at 5’11” (at most), is usually the shortest guy on the court. In the beginning of the season, some experts were suggesting that Brantley would struggle for playing time, but he has inserted himself into the lineup with his aggressive and confident play. The Terps freshman class is a thing of beauty, with a different player stepping up each game. This time, it was a chance for guard Anthony Cowan to shine. The kid is fast as hell, has great court vision, and can finish at the rim. We think we’re in love.

Speaking of love…
A guy proposed to his girlfriend on the Terps Kiss Cam and it was freaking adorable.

SHE SAID YES! ????????????

Congrats to Terp fans Jeff Wehberg and Carly Smith who got engaged during yesterday’s kiss cam! https://t.co/FwJdI3fXYl
— Maryland Basketball (@TerrapinHoops) December 28, 2016

And speaking of adorable…
Boomer Phelps has his own Instagram account and it does not disappoint.