A'ja Wilson wins AP Female Athlete of the Year following historic 4th WNBA MVP

A'ja Wilson stood atop the WNBA again in 2025, winning an unprecedented fourth MVP as her Las Vegas Aces earned a third championship in four seasons.

For that, she earned The Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year on Wednesday for the first time in her career. It's the second consecutive year a basketball player won the award after Caitlin Clark was honored in 2024.

“It’s an honor when you think about the group of women who have won before,” Wilson said in a phone interview. “Just to have my name be a part of it, I’m blessed.”

Wilson is only the fifth basketball player to be honored as the Female Athlete of the Year since it was first presented in 1931, joining Sheryl Swoopes (1993), Rebecca Lobo (1995), Candace Parker (2008, 2021) and Clark.

A group of 47 sports journalists from the AP and its members voted. Wilson received 17 votes, tennis star Aryna Sabalenka was second with nine and Paige Bueckers was third with five.

“The things she’s done on the court have never been done. To me, she’s in a category all her own,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said of Wilson. “People always ask who’s on your Mount Rushmore? I’m saying she’s on Everest — there’s nobody up there with her.”

Shohei Ohtani won the AP Male Athlete of the Year on Tuesday for the fourth time.

Hammon has been impressed with everything about Wilson in her four years coaching in Las Vegas.

“Her relatability, her being down to earth makes her a great superstar," Hammon said. "Her skill set is unmatched, but she’s also the easiest player to coach. To have that mixture of humility, grace and skill, there’s a reason why she’s doing things that have never been done."

This season was different for Wilson and the Aces, who had cruised to their previous two titles as a heavy favorite. This year, with a month to go, the Aces were sitting at .500 and were in danger of missing the playoffs after coming off a record 53-point loss against Minnesota.

Wilson rallied her team to wins in the final 16 regular-season games to secure the No. 2 seed, and Las Vegas went on to win the championship.

“This season I found myself through the adversity and mud we went through,” she said.

Despite her numbers being on par with her unanimous MVP season the year before, Wilson heard the chatter that she wasn't playing as well and that she wasn't the front-runner to repeat as the league's top player.

The 29-year-old used that as fuel on the court. She led the league with 23.4 points and 2.3 blocks per game.

“The way they talk about us, the way they talk about me, I'm ready for that, I'm ready for the noise,” Wilson said. “It's always going to be something. If we sit here and try to please everybody, we're going to go insane. I'm just going to continue to prove why I'm one of the greatest and why my team is part of a dynamic dynasty.”

Wilson raised her game even further in the playoffs, helping the Aces survive decisive winner-take-all games in the quarterfinals and semifinals. She then helped Las Vegas sweep Phoenix in the WNBA Finals, hitting the winning shot in Game 3.

“It’s fair to say the expectations for her are so sky high now, she’ll be compared to a degree to the unanimous MVP she was the year before,” ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo said. “Even though she wasn’t unanimous MVP this year, the journey she had this season was different and she was playing the best basketball of her career in the playoffs.”

“Every year, you wonder how she’ll get better, and she always does.”

Wilson became the first player in either the WNBA or NBA to win the MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Finals MVP and lead the league in scoring in the same season.

Wilson broke a tie with Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson, who all won the WNBA MVP three times. She plans to have another relaxing offseason as she won’t play overseas or in Unrivaled, the domestic 3-on-3 league.

Wilson became a free agent at the end of the season and could be in for a significant raise as the league and players union negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, but she is widely expected to return to the Aces.

She’s already crossed one thing off her bucket list, meeting her idol Beyonce at the Formula 1 race in Las Vegas last month.

“It was super cool, Beyonce is someone that I’ve always wanted to meet because I just admired her work,” Wilson said.

The Aces great is that way herself for so many. She launched a shoe and clothing line with Nike. Her shoe sold out minutes after it went on sale.

“It's amazing, something that I think about every day when I look around and see people just wearing my shoe. Every day it's a gentle reminder that you know it's a special moment that we're living in and I'm so grateful when I look back on it.”

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

FILE - Las Vegas Aces center A'ja Wilson reacts during the second half of Game 2 against the Seattle Storm in the first round of the WNBA basketball playoffs Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

FILE - Las Vegas Aces center A'ja Wilson (22) runs onto the court before Game 5 of a WNBA basketball playoff semifinals series between the Las Vegas Aces and the Indiana Fever, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - Las Vegas Aces center A'ja Wilson (22) grabs a rebound over Indiana Fever guard Aerial Powers (23) during the second half of Game 2 of a WNBA basketball playoff semifinals series Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - Las Vegas Aces center A'ja Wilson (22) holds up numbers to commemorate her WNBA career 5,000 points after the Aces defeated the Connecticut Sun in a WNBA basketball game Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in Las Vegas. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP, File)

FILE - Las Vegas Aces center A'ja Wilson, center right, holds up her MVP trophy after Game 4 of the WNBA basketball finals against the Phoenix Mercury, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri, File)

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — As Australia began enforcing a world-first social media ban for children under 16 years old this week, Denmark is planning to follow its lead and severely restrict social media access for young people.

The Danish government announced last month that it had secured an agreement by three governing coalition and two opposition parties in parliament to ban access to social media for anyone under the age of 15. Such a measure would be the most sweeping step yet by a European Union nation to limit use of social media among teens and children.

The Danish government's plans could become law as soon as mid-2026. The proposed measure would give some parents the right to let their children access social media from age 13, local media reported, but the ministry has not yet fully shared the plans.

Many social media platforms already ban children younger than 13 from signing up, and a EU law requires Big Tech to put measures in place to protect young people from online risks and inappropriate content. But officials and experts say such restrictions don’t always work.

Danish authorities have said that despite the restrictions, around 98% of Danish children under age 13 have profiles on at least one social media platform, and almost half of those under 10 years old do.

The minister for digital affairs, Caroline Stage, who announced the proposed ban last month, said there is still a consultation process for the measure and several readings in parliament before it becomes law, perhaps by “mid to end of next year.”

“In far too many years, we have given the social media platforms free play in the playing rooms of our children. There’s been no limits,” Stage said in an interview with The Associated Press last month.

“When we go into the city at night, there are bouncers who are checking the age of young people to make sure that no one underage gets into a party that they’re not supposed to be in,” she added. “In the digital world, we don’t have any bouncers, and we definitely need that.”

Under the new Australian law, Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove accounts of Australian children younger than 16.

Some students say they are worried that similar strict laws in Denmark would mean they will lose touch with their virtual communities.

“I myself have some friends that I only know from online, and if I wasn’t fifteen yet, I wouldn’t be able to talk with those friends,” 15-year-old student Ronja Zander, who uses Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok, told the AP.

Copenhagen high school student Chloé Courage Fjelstrup-Matthisen, 14, said she is aware of the negative impact social media can have, from cyberbullying to seeing graphic content. She said she saw video of a man being shot several months ago.

“The video was on social media everywhere and I just went to school and then I saw it,” she said.

Line Pedersen, a mother from Nykøbing in Denmark, said she believed the plans were a good idea.

“I think that we didn’t really realize what we were doing when we gave our children the telephone and social media from when they were eight, 10 years old," she said. "I don’t quite think that the young people know what’s normal, what’s not normal.”

Danish officials are yet to share how exactly the proposed ban would be enforced and which social media platforms would be affected.

However, a new “digital evidence” app, announced by the Digital Affairs Ministry last month and expected to launch next spring, will likely form the backbone of the Danish plans. The app will display an age certificate to ensure users comply with social media age limits, the ministry said.

“One thing is what they’re saying and another thing is what they’re doing or not doing,” Stage said, referring to social media platforms. “And that’s why we have to do something politically.”

Some experts say restrictions, such as the ban planned by Denmark, don’t always work and they may also infringe on the rights of children and teenagers.

“To me, the greatest challenge is actually the democratic rights of these children. I think it’s sad that it’s not taken more into consideration,” said Anne Mette Thorhauge, an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen.

“Social media, to many children, is what broadcast media was to my generation," she added. “It was a way of connecting to society."

Currently, the EU’s Digital Services Act, which took effect two years ago, requires social media platforms to ensure there are measures including parental controls and age verification tools before young users can access the apps.

EU officials have acknowledged that enforcing the regulations aiming at protecting children online has proven challenging because it requires cooperation between member states and many resources.

Denmark is among several countries that have indicated they plan to follow in Australia’s steps. The Southeast Asian country of Malaysia is expected to ban social media account s for people under the age of 16 starting at the beginning of next year, and Norway is also taking steps to restrict social media access for children and teens.

China — which manufacturers many of the world’s digital devices — has set limits on online gaming time and smartphone time for kids.

FILE - Caroline Stage, Danish Minister for Digitalization and representatives from the agreement parties attends a press conference about a new political agreement for better protection of children and young people online, in Copenhagen, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)