The Nominees for the Laureus World Sports Awards have been announced – beginning the countdown to the greatest show in sport.
The 2025 edition will be a stunning celebration of the greatest athletic achievements of the past 12 months, featuring heroes from the Paris Olympics, Grand Slam champions, world-record breakers and more. 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the Laureus World Sports Awards and this year’s event will seek to honour the past, celebrate the present and inspire the future.
Over the past quarter-century, ‘The Laureus’ statuette has become the most prized Award of its kind among elite sportsmen and sportswomen, and the Laureus World Sports Awards are today recognised as ‘The Athletes’ Awards’ – voted on by the 69 sporting legends of the Laureus World Sports Academy and celebrated at a unique annual event where the greatest athletes on the planet can connect, interact and share with each other in ways that happen only at Laureus.
The sporting year of 2024 was illuminated by the incredible spectacle of the Paris Olympics – so it is fitting that two stars of the Games will compete for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award. The face of the Paris Games was Léon Marchand, who carried the hopes of the home nation on his shoulders as he won four golds in the pool. Mondo Duplantis won a second Olympic pole vault gold and raised his own world record a further two times. Spanish superstar of men’s tennis and winner of two Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic silver medal Carlos Alcaraz is also nominated alongside Max Verstappen, who secured his fourth straight Formula One World Championship in 2024, and Tadej Pogačar, who became only the third man to win the triple crown of the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and the world championship in the same year.
Last year’s winner of the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award, Aitana Bonmatí, is shortlisted again alongside a three-time winner, Simone Biles. Biles also won the Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award last year and after winning three golds – including a second all-around title – plus a silver, she is nominated for an Award she won in 2017, 2019 and 2020. In 2024, this Award went to Bonmatíand she is nominated again after a second successive Ballon d’Or and a season that included a treble of Champions League, Liga F and the Copa de la Reina with Barcelona. Sifan Hassan won bronze at both 5,000 and 10,000 metres, plus marathon gold, in Paris. Faith Kipyegon became the only three-time Olympic champion in the 1,500 metres and added silver in the 5,000m. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s world-record breaking run to gold in the 400 metres hurdles was followed up with gold in the 4 x 400 metres relay. And women’s tennis has an undisputed No.1 after Aryna Sabalenka won the Australian Open and US Open to reach the top spot in both singles and doubles.
Three stars from the Paris Games are nominated for the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award. Julien Alfred won a first-ever Olympic gold for the Caribbean Island of St Lucia and Botswana celebrated its first Olympic gold thanks to Letsile Tebogo’s win in the men’s 200m. In the pool, teenager Summer McIntosh won three golds – in the 200 metre butterfly and 200 and 400 metre individual medleys – and a silver. Bayer 04 Leverkusen ended Bayern Munich’s 11-year streak of Bundesliga titles with a first-ever unbeaten league campaign to win the first title in the club’s 120-year history. Lamine Yamal was the winner of the Kopa Trophy as the best player under the age of 21, the star of Euro 2024 for Spain and the talisman for Barcelona at the age of 17. And Victor Wembanyama took the NBA by storm in his rookie season, unanimously named NBA Rookie of the Year and finishing second in the Defensive Player of the Year voting.
It’s almost Spain v USA for the Laureus World Team of the Year Award. Only the McLaren Formula One Team break up the head-to-head, but they more than merit their place after ending a 26-year wait to win the Formula One World Constructors’ Championship – the longest-ever gap between titles. Spain’s dominance in football is reflected by nominations for FC Barcelona Women’s Football Team, who won the treble of Champions League, Liga F and Copa de la Reina; Real Madrid, winners of La Liga and, for an incredible 15th time, the Champions League; and the Spain Men’s Football Team who became the first team ever to win the European Championship with victory in every match and no penalty shoot-outs. For football in Spain, read basketball in the USA. The Boston Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 106-88 in Game Five of the finals to claim a record 18th NBA title; and the all-star USA Basketball Men’s National Team won Olympic gold in a fevered atmosphere against the host nation in Paris.
Nominees have been selected in six Laureus categories following a vote in December 2024 of the 1,300 members of the Laureus Global Media Panel and, in the case of the Award for Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability, a vote by the International Paralympic Committee. And alongside the elite categories, the Laureus Sport for Good Award will go to one of the exceptional six shortlisted grassroots sport for development programme identified by Laureus.
Laureus Sport for Good was founded 25 years ago, in 2000 – inspired by the words of Nelson Mandela at the first Laureus World Sports Awards. Today, it is a global leader in the sport for development sector, supporting and connecting over 300 sports-based programmes in more than 40 countries. Each year, the 69 Members of the Laureus Academy honour one such programme with the Laureus Sport for Good Award. The 2025 shortlist includes: Kick4life, a South Africa-based charity which uses football to reach at-risk children and young people in Lesotho; Figure Skating in Harlem – based in the New York neighbourhood of the same name – uses figure skating to help girls grow in confidence, leadership and academic achievement; In Spain, Kind Surf employs surf therapy to support young people at risk of social exclusion due to intellectual disabilities. Liberi Nantes, based in Rome, Italy, started off as a football club built around the children of refugees and political asylum seekers and now offers a range of activities including touch rugby, hiking and Italian language teaching through sport; Paris Basket 18 began as a neighbourhood basketball club and now has an extensive outreach into its community (it is named after the 18th arrondissement of Paris, an area of the city which contains social and economic inequity). In the UK, Street League uses the power of sport to help young people aged 14-30 secure employment and training opportunities.
Two swimmers at opposing ends of the age spectrum are included in the shortlist for the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award. Spain’s Teresa Perales claimed the 28th Paralympic medal of her career when she won the 50 metres freestyle S5 bronze. The 48-year-old also came away from Paris with two world records, while 19-year-old Chinese Para swimming sensation Jiang Yuyan won an incredible seven gold medals from seven events. Tokito Oda won the wheelchair tennis singles final in Paris, coming from match point down to beat World No.1 Alfie Hewett. American Matt Stutzman also made history in Paris as he became the first armless Para archer to win a gold medal. Catherine Debrunner won gold in five events and also won the 2024 Berlin and London Marathons for the second straight year. China’s Qu Zimo won three gold medals in the BWF Para Badminton World Championship in Thailand, and two more golds in Paris.
The Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award honours athletes who have overcome extraordinary adversity to realise their dreams. At the Paris Olympics, Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade won gold in the floor exercise, silver in the all-around and vault and bronze in the team event – a stunning success which belied a tortuous struggle with anterior cruciate ligament injuries. Caeleb Dressel took eight months away from the pool to prioritise his mental health before winning two golds and a silver in relay events in Paris. Eight years separated Lara Gut-Behrami’s first World Cup title in the 2015/16 season and her second. Spanish motor cyclist Marc Márquez’swin in the Aragon Grand Prix ended a 1,000-day victory drought after an arm injury in 2020 that required four operations and led him to contemplate retirement. Rishabh Pant returned to play for the India Test team 629 days after a life-threatening car crash and in his comeback Test he equalled M.S. Dhoni for most centuries made as India’s wicket keeper. In September 2023, Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus was diagnosed with a tumour on an ovary. After successful surgery, she recovered to become the first woman in nearly a century to defend the Olympic 400m freestyle title.
Two skateboarders who won gold at the Olympic Games are nominated for the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year Award. In the men’s street competition, Yuto Horigome defended the title he won at his home Olympics in Tokyo. Last year’s winner Arisa Trew won the skateboard park gold medal, making her Australia’s youngest ever Olympic champion. US surfer Caroline Marks won her gold in Tahiti – 9300 miles from Paris – where the surfing competition was staged. British mountain biker Tom Pidcock overcame a puncture to become only the second man to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the cyclo-cross discipline. Polish speed climber Aleksandra Miroslaw set two world records in a stunning qualifying session before claiming gold. US Snowboarder Chloe Kim – winner of the Laureus Action Sportsperson of the Year Award in 2019 and 2020 – returned to competitive action with a seventh X-Games superpipe gold medal win. Kim has now tied Kelly Clark’s record of most X-Games wins.
The full list of nominees:
LAUREUS WORLD SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD
Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) Tennis – Won the French Open, Wimbledon and the Olympic silver medal
Mondo Duplantis (Sweden) Athletics – retained Olympic pole vault title; has now broken world record 10 times
Léon Marchand (France) Swimming – won four individual gold medals at the Paris Olympics
Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) Cycling – 25 wins, including Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and World Championship
Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Motor Racing – won a fourth successive Formula One World Championship
LAUREUS WORLD SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD
Simone Biles (USA) Gymnastics – impressive return to Olympic stage with three golds and a silver in Paris
Aitana Bonmatí (Spain) Football – second straight Ballon d’Or Feminin as Barcelona won Champions League, Liga F
and Copa de la Reina
Sifan Hassan (Netherlands) Athletics – bronze in 5,000m and 10,000m plus marathon gold in Paris
Faith Kipyegon (Kenya) Athletics – became the only three-time Olympic champion in 1,500 metres in Paris
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA) Athletics – Olympic golds in 400m hurdles and 4 x 400m relay
Aryna Sabalenka Tennis – won Australian and US Opens; became World No.1 in singles and doubles
LAUREUS WORLD TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD
FC Barcelona Women’s Team (Spain) Football – won Champions League, Liga F and the Copa de la Reina
Boston Celtics (USA) Basketball – claimed a record 18th NBA title, one more than their old rivals LA Lakers
McLaren Formula One Team (UK) – secured their first World Constructors’ Championship since 1998
Real Madrid (Spain) Football- won 15th Champions League/European Cup, La Liga and Supercopa de España
Spain Men’s Football Team – became most successful team in European Championship history with fourth win
USA Basketball Men’s National Team – claimed USA’s fifth straight Olympic gold to emulate the famous Dream Team
LAUREUS WORLD BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR AWARD
Julien Alfred (St Lucia) Athletics – won 100m in debut Olympics to take home St Lucia’s first-ever Olympic gold
Bayer 04 Leverkusen (Germany) Football – Bundesliga champions for first time in their 120-year history after
unbeaten season
Summer McIntosh (Canada) Swimming – won three individual golds and a silver in Paris
Letsile Tebogo (Botswana) Athletics – won 200m gold medal, Botswana’s first-ever Olympic gold medal
Victor Wembanyama (France) Basketball – San Antonio Spurs centre won the NBA Rookie of the Year
Lamine Yamal (Spain) Football – named Best Young Player as Spain won the European Championships
LAUREUS WORLD COMEBACK OF THE YEAR AWARD
Rebeca Andrade (Brazil) Gymnastics – battling back from injury, she won Olympic gold, two silvers and bronze
Caeleb Dressel (USA) Swimming – overcame mental health issues to win two relay golds and a silver in Paris
Lara Gut-Behrami (Switzerland) Alpine Skiing – won overall World Cup title for first time since 2015/16 season
Marc Márquez (Spain) Motor Cycling - returned from serious injury to win three Grand Prix in 2024
Rishabh Pant (India) Cricket – 629 days after a life-threatening car crash, returned to play for India Test team
Ariarne Titmus (Australia) Swimming – defended her Olympic 400m freestyle title less than year after being diagnosed with a tumour
LAUREUS WORLD ACTION SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR AWARD
Yuto Horigome (Japan) Skateboarding – landed best trick of street competition to secure back-to-back Olympic golds
Chloe Kim (USA) Snowboarding – won her seventh X-Games superpipe gold medal
Caroline Marks (USA) Surfing – 22-year-old won the Olympic surfing gold in Tahiti
Aleksandra Miroslaw (Poland) Speed Climbing – set two world records on her way to Paris gold
Tom Pidcock (UK) Mountain Biking – won back-to-back Olympic titles in the cyclo-cross discipline
Arisa Trew (Australia) Skateboarding – became Australia’s youngest-ever Olympic champion, aged 14
LAUREUS WORLD SPORTSPERSON OF THE YEAR WITH A DISABILITY AWARD
Catherine Debrunner (Switzerland) Para Athletics – won five gold medals and a silver at the Paris Paralympics
Teresa Perales (Spain) Para Swimming – won bronze in Paris, to take her Paralympic medal haul to 28
Tokito Oda (Japan) Wheelchair Tennis – came from match point down to become youngest-ever Paralympic singles winner
Matt Stutzman (USA) Para Archery – became first-ever armless para-archery champion to win Olympic gold
Jiang Yuyan (China) Para Swimming – most-decorated athlete at Paralympics, she won seven golds from seven events
Qu Zimo (China) Wheelchair Badminton – won three golds at World Championship, then two more in Paris
LAUREUS SPORT FOR GOOD AWARD
Programmes nominated by a specialist selection panel; Laureus Academy select the winner
Kick4life (Lesotho) Football x Gender Equity – uses football to reach at-risk children and young people
Figure Skating in Harlem (USA) Figure Skating x Racial Equity – help girls transform their lives through figure skating
Kind Surf (Spain) Surfing x Inclusion – uses surf therapy to support young people at risk of social exclusion due to intellectual disabilities
Liberi Nantes (Italy) Football x Social Inclusion – offers wide range of sporting activities for refugees and political asylum seekers
Paris Basket 18 (France) Basketball x Gender Equity – focuses on development of women’s sport, and also promotes social integration
Street League (UK) Multi-sport x Employability – uses the power of sport to help young people aged 14-30 prepare for employment and training opportunities
