Justine Henin of Belgium holds the throphy after her women's singles final match against Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, the United States, Sept. 8, 2007. (Xinhua Photo/Hou Jun) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- American NFL star quarterback Brett Favre and Belgian tennis great Justin Henin were awarded the titles of 2007 United States Sports Academy Male and Female Athletes of the Year after a worldwide online vote presented by msnbc.com and USATODAY.com.

    Favre, who is enjoying one of his best seasons, has led the Green Bay Packers to a 12-3 record and a first-round bye in the playoffs. This season he broke former Miami Dolphin Dan Marino's NFL record for career passing yards (61,405), career touchdown passes (440 and counting) and Marino's NFL record for most career passes. Favre continues to add to his NFL record 252 consecutive games played (272 counting playoffs.) The 38-year-old Favre has engineered 38 fourth-quarter winning rallies in his career.

    Henin was named Academy Female Athlete of the Year after a year in which she lost only four of 67 singles matches. She won 10 tournaments in 2007 including two majors, making the 25-year-old Belgian the first player since Martina Hingis in 1997 to record double-digit victories in a season. Henin also became the first woman to pass 5 million U.S. dollars in season earnings.

    Tiger Woods finished second in the men's voting, while New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady finished in third. Venus Williams took second in the women's voting just ahead of Natalie Coughlin.

    The ballot was open to voting from Dec. 1 to 25. Overall, the ballot received hundreds of thousands of votes from sports fans around the globe. The Academy Athlete of the Year presented by msnbc.com and USATODAY.com is the culmination of the Academy's yearlong Athlete of the Month program, which recognizes the accomplishments of men and women in sports around the globe.

    (Agencies)