On Monday, the nominees for the 2025 Laureus World Sports Awards were announced. The awards, which honor the most outstanding athletic achievements of the past year, will be presented on April 21 in Madrid, Spain, at the Crystal Gallery of the Cibeles Palace. This is the second year in a row Madrid has played host to the prestigious awards, which are frequently described as sport’s version of the Oscars. Additionally, this year marks the 25th anniversary of the awards.
Swimmers are nominated in four of the seven elite categories. In addition to the categories for elite athletes, there is the Laureus Sport for Good Award and the Laureus World Sports Academy Award.
Nominees for these awards are selected by a panel of over 1,300 international media representatives.
🤩 Here are the Nominees for the 2025 Laureus World Sports Awards.
🏆 Who do you think the Laureus World Sports Academy Members should select as the final Award winners?
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) March 3, 2025
After a sensational Olympics, Leon Marchand is nominated for World Sportsman of the Year, which Novak Djokovic won last year. Marchand won four gold medals—two in a single session—and one bronze medal at his home Games. He’s nominated alongside Carlos Alcaraz, Mondo Duplantis, Tadej Pogačar, and Max Verstappen. Notably, Jannik Sinner’s nomination was revoked last week due to his current three-month doping suspension. This is Duplantis and Verstappen’s third nomination, while Marchand, Alcarez, and Pogačar are all first time nominees.
Teenage sensation Summer McIntosh has been recognized in the World Breakthrough of the Year Category. McIntosh earned three golds and one silver at her second Olympics as she drove a historic performance for Team Canada in the Olympic pool. She’s one of three Olympic champions nominated for this award along with Julian Alfred and Letsile Tebogo. The other nominees in this category are Victor Webanyama, Lamine Yamal, and the Bayer 04 Leverkusen Men’s Football team. Last year, Jude Bellingham won this award.
Caeleb Dressel and Ariarne Titmus are nominated in the Comeback of the Year category. Dressel was nominated for World Sportsman of the Year in 2022. He completed his comeback to professional swimming this year, making his third Olympic team and helping the U.S. win gold in the 4×100 freestyle relay. Titmus returned from surgery to win four Olympic medals in Paris, including defending her 400 freestyle title. Rebeca Andrade, Lara Gut-Behrami, Marc Márquez, and Rishabh Pant are the other nominees for Comeback of the Year. Simone Biles, nominated for Sportswoman of the Year, earned this award in 2024.
Finally, Teresa Perales and Jiang Yuyan are nominated for Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability. Perales won her 28th Paralympic medal in Paris and was named the Best Female High Support Needs Athlete on the 2024 Para Swimming World Series. The 20-year-old Jiang Yuyan was the most decorated athlete at the 2024 Paris Paralympics, winning seven gold medals in the pool. Catherine Debrunner, Tokito Oda, Matt Stutzman, and Qu Zimo are nominated with Perales and Jiang. Wheelchair tennis player Diede de Groot won the award last year.
Complete List of Laureus World Sports Award Nominees
Laureus World Sportsman of the Year:
- Carlos Alcaraz — Tennis, Spain
- Mondo Duplantis — Athletics, Sweden
- Léon Marchand — Swimming, France
- Tadej Pogačar — Cycling, Slovenia
- Max Verstappen — Motor Racing, Netherlands
Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year:
- Simone Biles — Gymnastics, USA
- Aitana Bonmati — Football, Spain
- Sifan Hasson — Athletics, Netherlands
- Faith Kipyegon — Athletics, Kenya
- Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone — Athletics, USA
- Aryna Sabalenka — Tennis
Laureus World Team of the Year:
- Boston Celtics — Basketball, USA
- FC Barcelona Women’s Football Team — Football, Spain
- McLaren Formula 1 Team — Motor Racing, UK
- Real Madrid Men’s Football Team — Football, Spain
- Spain Men’s Football Team — Football, Spain
- USA Basketball Men’s National Team — Basketball, USA
Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year:
- Julien Alfred — Athletics, St Lucia
- Bayer 04 Leverkusen Men’s Football Team — Football, Germany
- Summer McIntosh — Swimming, Canada
- Letsile Tebogo — Athletics, Botswana
- Victor Webanyama — Basketball, France
- Lamine Yamal — Football, Spain
Laureus World Comeback of the Year:
- Rebeca Andrade — Gymnastics, Brazil
- Caeleb Dressel — Swimming, USA
- Lara Gut-Behrami — Alpine Skiing, Switzerland
- Marc Márquez — Motor Cycling, Spain
- Rishabh Pant — Cricket, India
- Ariarne Titmus — Swimming, Australia
Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year With a Disability:
- Catherine Debrunner — Para Athletics, Switzerland
- Tokito Oda — Wheelchair Tennis, Japan
- Teresa Perales — Para Swimming, Spain
- Matt Stutzman — Para Archery, USA
- Jiang Yuyan — Para Swimming, China
- Qu Zimo — Para Badminton, China
Laureus World Actions Sportsperson of the Year:
- Yuto Horigome — Skateboarding, Japan
- Chloe Kim — Snowboarding, USA
- Caroline Marks — Surfing, USA
- Aleksandra Miroslaw — Speed Climbing, Poland
- Tom Pidcock — Mountain Biking, UK
- Arisa Trew — Skateboarding, Australia
Laureus Sport for Good Award:
- Figure Skating in Harlem — Figure Skating | Racial Equity | USA
- Kick4Life — Football | Gender Equity | Lesotho
- Kind Surg — Surfing | Includion | Spain
- Liberi Nantes — Football | Social Inclusion | Italy
- Paris Basket 18 — Basketball | Gender Equity | France
- Street League — Multi-sport | Employability | UK
Why didn’t they nominate any super bowl champions….. I thought they have became world champions for winning that…
I lost interest with this damn award a long time ago.😂 imagine Ledecky being nominated for a record 5th time…and never won it. Wtf.
Never even heard of this award show before now
More clear evidence of the pro-American bias in the award.
It’s a shame that Summer couldn’t nominate the best female athlete, she was on par with Marchand last year, or even better, because she broke several world records, participated in the Paris Olympics and the SCM World Championships in Budapest, dominated her major projects, even non-major projects have the potential to shock, like the 800 meter freestyle. However Laureus World Sports Awards only one Breakthrough nomination? Summer is a real GOAT
Yes ! The world (of sport) is strange, already double world champion in 2022 and 2023 and world record holder, how would 2024 mark the revelation of Summer McIntosh? Her three INDIVIDUAL gold medals at the 2024 Olympic Games put her, among others, at least on par with Simone Biles who won “only” two for the Sportswoman of the Year trophy.
Otherwise for Léon, Caeleb and Ariarne, everything is nominal.
Milak is more deserving of a nomination for the Lawrence Best Comeback Award than Calab. Calab did not deserve to be nominated last year. The 100m freestyle did not qualify for the Paris Olympics and the 100m butterfly did not qualify for the semifinals. The 50m freestyle was not on the podium, and the only highlight was the 49.41 butterfly section in the medley relay. Pure by the United States men’s 100 meters freestyle thickness mixed to an Olympic gold medal, and he swam the last stick, at this time the United States has a great advantage, pure is mixed. Milak, on the other hand, came back with one gold and one silver in the Paris Olympics, and the results… Read more »
Yes maximum observance.
The Laureus Sports Awards, based in London, which have never hosted their ceremony in America, that hasn’t given an American their Sportsperson of the Year award since 2020, that has only 12/69 members of its academy as Americans, that has only 12/247 of its ambassadors as Americans, for an award that has basically zero footprint or general media coverage in America, definitely has a huge pro-American bias.
Let’s not pretend there isn’t nationality bias, although it’s not only towards Americans.
Coming from an Eastern European country with minority language is definitely a disadvantage for athletes because it’s hard for us to follow their stories. Had Milak come from an English-speaking country, we should’ve read a lot of tearful articles about his comeback. The bias is not on purpose. The bias exists objectively due to how discourse power works.
Absolutely agreed, but it’s a bit funny that the most successful “comeback” swimmer in 2024 didn’t get/didn’t get nominated for a single award for it (Swimswam gave it to Madden, this award nominated Dressel, who had a very mild comeback, and the Hungarian Male Athlete of the Year award has been given to Kos).
Three of six for Sportswoman of the Year are from athletics, yet the one who had the best year is not among them. Beatrice Chebet basically won everything all year, including undefeated against Kipyegon and Hassan during the Olympics. If Sydney McLaughlin gets it they should shut down the entire thing. She runs seldom but is entitled in abundance, including trying to barge into the Diamond League finals even though she hadn’t raced that circuit all year. Fortunately there was an outcry that kept her out.
I do not get breakthrough for Summer, she was already the best by far in 2023, and come back for Ariarne, 2023 is arguably as good as 2024.
yeah breakthrough for one but not the other is funny, both Summer and Leon didn’t medal in Tokyo and then won multiple golds both years at 2022/2023 Worlds so their timelines are pretty much perfectly synced. If anything, McIntosh finished higher individually in Tokyo and also broke an individual world record first
I don’t understand the Comeback for Titmus at all.
I hope Andrade wins that. The entire gymnastics community had already mourned her career never reaching what it could have after 3 ACL tears and then she goes on a medal tear that culminates with beating Biles for an individual gold.
Breakthrough for Summer only makes sense if you’ve paid zero attention to swimming since 2021 but clearly they paid attention to Marchand.
Commented before I read. Titmus’s abdominal surgery? Ok, I guess. That was a significant setback and she came back really well so I’ll allow it.
Really thought comeback means that you took a break for almost a year and then making a comeback in form for a big tournament
Well but only rebeca in any sport had 3 ACL tears (same knee also)