Anna Kournikova is the most popular sports star of 2001, according to searches by Lycos users.

This is the second straight year at #1 for the Lycos Sports spokeswoman, and we're quite proud of her. It is not every athlete who gets a computer virus named after her.

As we have noted in the past, sports leagues and events may do very well online but searches for individual athletes pale in comparison to musicians, models, and TV stars. This year, however, four athletes cracked the overall top 200. Last year it was only two, Anna K. and Michael Jordan.

While our weekly top 10 which appears at Lycos Sports considers only active athletes, we've also considered retired and deceased athletes for this list.

Here are the Top 20, with last year's rank in parentheses:

1. Anna Kournikova (1)
2. Dale Earnhardt (15)
3. Allen Iverson (5)
4. Michael Jordan (2)
5. Martina Hingis (6)
6. Kobe Bryant (10)
7. Tiger Woods (4)
8. Vince Carter (3)
9. Tony Hawk (7)
10. Jackie Robinson (8)

11. Muhammad Ali (13)
12. Venus Williams (-)
13. Mike Tyson (9)
14. David Beckham (-)
15. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (-)
16. Derek Jeter (18)
17. Babe Ruth (12)
18. Jennifer Capriati (-)
19. Serena Williams (20)
20. Lance Armstrong (-)

REQUIEM: The death of Dale Earnhardt put the popular NASCAR driver atop the Lycos 50, making him the only athlete ever to finish #1 for a week. Earnhardt became only the second search term to ever debut at #1 (the first was 1999's Hurricane Floyd). Searches for Intimidator memorabilia and the controversial Earnhardt autopsy photos continued all year.

LOVE-LOVE: While the NFL continued to be the most popular league online, women's tennis has the most popular stars. Last year three made the top 20, but this year five different women's tennis players make our list. The biggest growth came from Venus Williams, who saw searches double and passed her sister in online popularity.

SKIN IS IN: Female athletes also continued to make waves by showing skin. Among the female athletes popular at times this year were volleyball star Gabrielle Reece, who posed for Playboy, WNBA star Lisa Harrison, who thought about it but decided against it, and British squash player Vicky Botwright, who played a tournament in a thong.

THE WORD IS BIRD: Arizona pitcher Randy Johnson (#24) made the Lycos 50 in April thanks to Internet searches for video of his pitch killing a bird. He ended the year with more searches than Ichiro Suzuki (#25) and far more than fellow SI Sportsman of the Year and World Series star Curt Schilling.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (#14)

COMEBACK OF THE YEAR: Jennifer Capriati (#17)

HOT IN 2000, NOT SO HOT IN 2001: Hothead John Rocker, skater Katarina Witt, swimmer Ian Thorpe, and basketball star Jason "White Chocolate" Williams.

STRANGELY ABSENT: Barry Bonds had the greatest season in the history of baseball, yet gets fewer searches than the men who used to hold the record -- 62 percent less than Babe Ruth, 38 percent less than Mark McGwire, even 10 percent less than Roger Maris. Shaquille O'Neal is another superstar athlete who is still not very popular online. O'Neal's teammate Kobe Bryant received six times as many searches in 2001.

ONES TO WATCH 2002: Andy Roddick is ready break the grip of women on the list of top tennis stars... Michelle Kwan and Sarah Hughes are set to represent American in figure skating at the 2002 Olympics.

ONES TO WATCH 2001: We predicted lots of searches for tennis star Jelena Dokic, who finished #23.

In addition, we've also done a list of this year's top 12 most-searched sports teams. You'll find that to the right as a bonus list. The list demonstrates that longtime fan support is more important than recent success when it comes to Internet searches (the Seattle Mariners are an exception to this). Teams with deep fan bases, like the Dallas Cowboys, get far more searches than more successful teams like the Super Bowl champ Baltimore Ravens.

In addition, the list shows the international reach of Lycos, with two English soccer sides getting more searches than any NBA team.

Tomorrow, come back for two Web's Most Wanted lists on one day -- the top TV shows and movies of 2001. And stay tuned for lists of the top athletes, by sport, in 2001, coming soon to Lycos Sports.