Today’s athletes have to carry a lot more baggage than a smelly gym bag and the giddy dreams of their parents. If they hope to achieve true greatness (or GOAT-ness) – and not just fleeting athletic notoriety – they also have to shoulder the leg-wobbling weight of responsibility to the community. This responsibility can come in different forms: charity work, as a role model and/or political activism. At the same time as they’re pushing the boundaries of their sport, they have to help define and promote the values of their community, even if that goes against some of the members of that community. That kind of athlete needs as much courage off the court as they do on it. Maybe more. With that in mind, in no particular order, here are my picks for athlete of the year, based on conduct most becoming a professional athlete.

Colin Kaepernick, football

Colin Kaepernick is still being punished by the NFL for exercising his right to peaceful free speech. Despite protestations of innocence from various teams, his continued absence from the league is a deliberate message meant to keep players in line and pander to football fans who aren’t also fans of the Bill of Rights. This is truly a case of a league misreading the room – and the decade. His influence has only spread more during his enforced absence from football. Nike’s use of his image in their ad campaign increased sales 31%. On 14 December, seven members of the Prince George County Board of Education sent a letter to Washington requesting they give Kaepernick an immediate tryout for the team after their two starting quarterbacks went down with injury: “We believe that giving Kaepernick an opportunity will send the right message to our students and community members, who see him as someone who cares about issues affecting our community.” Washington have instead chosen to start a quarterback who last threw a pass in the NFL in 2011. Kaepernick risked everything to quietly protest racial injustice while the NFL is unwilling to risk anything to do what’s right.

Colin Kaepernick may be out of football, but cannot be silenced. Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP

Maggie Nichols, gymnastics

University of Oklahoma gymnast Maggie Nichols will be honored in January with the 2018 NCAA Inspiration Award. This year she won an NCAA individual national championship as well as becoming the first gymnast with two perfect 10s on every event. She is the only gymnast to post back-to-back “Gym Slams” with a 10.0 on every event in consecutive seasons. What makes her achievements even more remarkable is that she accomplished this while undergoing the kind of personal stress that would have sidelined most of us. Right before the start of the 2018 season, Nichols revealed that she was the first of what would become hundreds of young girls to accuse Larry Nassar, the team doctor for USA Gymnastics, of sexual molestation.

Beyond exposing the exploitation of the athletes, her courage in coming forth also led to uncovering the negligence of the USA Gymnastics organization in stopping the abuse. The subsequent lawsuits have resulted in USA Gymnastics declaring bankruptcy and a complete reorganization. “Coming forward made me a stronger person,” Nichols said. “Going through such a traumatic event and growing the courage to come forward took a lot of strength for me. It was very hard. But after I did so, I felt that I was inspiring others which gave me so much strength and made me feel like an inspiration which is so motivating.” Because of her and the other gymnasts who have come forward, thousands of other young girls are safer to focus on the joys of the sport instead of worrying about predators.

Maggie Nichols played an outsized role in bringing a serial predator to heel. Photograph: Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

Serena Williams, tennis

No one disputes Serena Williams’ place as one of the most successful athletes in the world. She has dominated tennis for most of her career, tying Steffi Graf’s record of being ranked number one by the Women’s Tennis Association for 186 consecutive weeks. Her achievements have not only encouraged young girls to take up tennis, but her prominence as a black woman in a mostly white sport has inspired more African-American girls to pursue the sport. That would be enough to make her one of the most influential athletes this year. But she has gone even further in redefining the sport by redefining the way females are perceived, not just as athletes, but as women.

For most of her career, she has faced body shaming for being a muscular woman. Watching her stride onto the court confident in her powerful body is a stark refutation of the harmful traditional view of beauty which praises skinny, physically weak women in need of a man’s strength. Fortunately, that grotesque and self-loathing image is being replaced by women like Williams who aren’t ashamed of their muscles.

Williams is also the embodiment of what NFL coach Vince Lombardi used to say: “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.” She returned to professional tennis just months after giving birth, a procedure that nearly killed her due to a pulmonary embolism that required multiple surgeries. Despite the trauma to her body, she is back playing as hard as ever, demonstrating that motherhood is not an impediment to ambition, but a bonus in providing a new perspective. “I think having a baby might help,” Williams said. “When I’m too anxious I lose matches, and I feel like a lot of that anxiety disappeared when Olympia was born. Knowing I’ve got this beautiful baby to go home to makes me feel like I don’t have to play another match. I don’t need the money or the titles or the prestige. I want them, but I don’t need them. That’s a different feeling for me.” That difference was demonstrated when she returned to play tennis, only to find that the WTA had changed her world ranking from number 1 to 451, a clear punishment, whether intended or not, for her taking time off to have a baby. After public outcry, the WTA this week changed their rules regarding women returning from giving birth. Williams continues to improve the sport through her athleticism and her social stances.

Coach John Wooden taught me that sports wasn’t just about making us better athletes, but about making us better people. Compassion, kindness, and morality were more important than a championship season. Fame wasn’t an accomplishment, it was an opportunity to show our gratitude to the community that we are a part of by changing it for the better. That’s what these three exceptional athletes have done this year: left us better off because of their commitment to a sport and to society.