2012 gave us one of the most exciting Olympic games in recent history. So which athletes dominated the web in 2012? Was it an Olympic champion? A soccer player? Lebron? Wikipedia offers an accurate representation of how the internet searched in 2012 so based off their list of the 1,000 most searched terms of the year as given to us by tech wiz Johan Gunnarsson, we can tell you who was the king athlete of the web in 2012.
athletes
30. Maria Sharapova - 2,875,802 Searches
29. Novak Djokovic - 2,889,492 Searches
28. Gina Carano - 3,029,843 Searches
27. Eli Manning - 3,060,101 Searches
26. Anderson Silva - 3,082,539 Searches
25. Rafael Nadal - 3,097,727 Searches
24. Floyd Mayweather Jr. - 3,105,218 Searches
23. Lance Armstrong - 3,115,958 Searches
22. Kevin Durant - 3,155,650 Searches
21. Ryan Lochte - 3,237,493 Searches
20. Fernando Torres - 3,497,962 Searches
19. Shaquille O'Neal - 3,556,216 Searches
18. Peyton Manning - 3,868,667 Searches
17. Brock Lesnar - 4,087,370 Searches
16. Manny Pacquiao - 4,259,617 Searches
15. Tom Brady - 4,282,306 Searches
14. David Beckham - 4,312,651 Searches
13. Billy Beane - 4,544,980 Searches
12. Tim Tebow - 4,702,006 Searches
11. Roger Federer - 4,930,159 Searches
10. Kobe Bryant - 5,390,896 Searches
9. Muhammad Ali - 5,688,117 Searches
8. Usain Bolt - 5,716,703 Searches
7. LeBron James - 5,945,025 Searches
6. John Cena - 6,307,830 Searches
5. Michael Jordan - 7,039,325 Searches
4. Michael Phelps - 7,243,614 Searches
3. Jeremy Lin - 7,541,761 Searches
2. Cristiano Ronaldo - 8,405,888 Searches
