The Harris Poll^® #16, March 3, 2004

No Active Athlete Has Yet Replaced Michael Jordan as Nation’s Favorite Sports Star

The Williams Sisters top the list of favorite women sports stars
_____________________________________

Michael Jordan continues his long reign as America’s favorite sports star even though he is retired. As yet nobody else comes close although Tiger Woods, in second place, is the favorite of many millions, and Brett Favre, in third place, also has a big following.

These are the results of a Harris Poll conducted online by Harris Interactive^® with a nationwide sample of 3,778 adults who were surveyed online between January 19 and 28, 2004. Harris Interactive has asked this question of the public almost every year since 1993, and Michael Jordan has been the nation’s favorite sports star on every occasion. It will be interesting to see how long this truly remarkable run will continue into the future. One interesting analogy comes from Harris Interactive’s annual poll to measure the nation’s favorite movie stars; John Wayne continues to make the top-10 list almost 25 years after his death in 1979, although he has been slipping down the list in recent years.

Michael Jordan’s reign at the top of the Harris Poll (long after his string of championships in the 1990s) speaks to the absence of big stars among this generation’s athletes. No athlete today seems to transcend the game as Michael Jordan once did. Tiger Woods is the only other athlete whose excellence so surpasses his peers, but his more earthly performance over the past few years may explain why he has not continued to rise in the Harris Poll rankings.

Other athletes who make it into this year’s top-10 list of favorite sports stars (after Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Brett Favre) are Shaquille O’Neal (#4), Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (#5), Kobe Bryant (#6, notwithstanding the pending criminal charges against him), Peyton Manning (#7), Allen Iverson (#8), Donovan McNabb (#9), and Derek Jeter (#10). This is the first time that Peyton Manning, Allen Iverson, Donovan McNabb and Derek Jeter have made it into the Harris Interactive top-10 listing.

Basketball as a sport contributes the most stars to the top-10 list with four this year. Conversely, even with the onset of the baseball season nearing, "America’s favorite pastime" has only one athlete (Derek Jeter) in the top 10, and he is ranked last at #10. Perhaps due to the recent controversies over the use of steroids or the lack of a salary cap, baseball does not seem to be resonating with the American public.

Last year two women, Michelle Kwan and Serena Williams, made it into the top-10 listing of favorite athletes. This year the top-10 list was all male. However, for the first time this year, Harris Interactive also asked the public to name their favorite female sports stars.

The list demonstrates how women’s sports overall have permeated the national consciousness with five different sports (tennis, soccer, ice skating, golf, and basketball) contributing at least one player to this year’s top-10 list.

The Williams sisters top the list with Venus edging out Serena by a few, statistically insignificant, votes, despite Serena’s recent domination on the tennis court. They are followed by soccer star Mia Hamm, figure skater Michelle Kwan and golfer Annika Sorenstam. Others in the top-10 are Anna Kournikova, Lisa Leslie, the teenage golf phenomenon Michelle Wei, Chris Evert (another non-playing favorite) and Cheryl Swoops.

The Williams sisters are particularly popular with people under 40 and with African Americans. Mia Hamm is the top pick for people aged 40 to 49 and for Whites and Hispanics. Michelle Kwan gets the most votes among people aged 50 and over.

Humphrey Taylor is the chairman of The Harris Poll^®, Harris Interactive.

"Who is your favorite sports star?"

Base: All adults

* Not listed in that year

Jerry Rice (was #4), Emitt Smith (#6), Michelle Kwan (#8), John Elway (=#9), Terry Bradshaw (=#9), Serena Williams (=#9), and Andre Agassi (=#9).

"Thinking about the female sports stars you like, which ones are your favorites?"

Base: All adults

*The gap between the two Williams sisters is statistically insignificant.

Base: All adults

*Difference is statistically insignificant.

The Harris Poll^® was conducted online within the United States between January 19 and 28, 2004 among a nationwide cross section of 3,778 adults. Figures for age, sex, race, education and number of adults in the household were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. "Propensity score" weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

In theory, with probability samples of this size, one could say with 95 percent certainty that the results have a statistical precision of plus or minus three percentage points of what they would be if the entire adult population had been polled with complete accuracy. Unfortunately, there are several other possible sources of error in all polls or surveys that are probably more serious than theoretical calculations of sampling error. They include refusals to be interviewed (non-response), question wording and question order, and weighting. It is impossible to quantify the errors that may result from these factors. This online sample is not a probability sample.

____________________________________________

W20447
Q1150, Q1160