Faith Kipyegon beaten to prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards
Reading Time: 3min | Tue. 22.04.25. | 08:34
The Laureus World Sports Awards nominees are selected by the global media, while the winners are determined by the 69 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy. The awards have been presented annually since 2000
World's most decorated gymnast Simone Biles was named the Sportswoman of the Year, beating three-time 1500m Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon to the Laureus World Sports Awards.
Swedish pole-vaulter Mondo Duplantis won the men's honour at the awards ceremony in Madrid on Monday, 21 April.
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Biles, who won gold medals in the team, all-around and vault competitions, as well as a silver on the floor exercise at the 2024 Paris Games to complete a triumphant comeback three years after withdrawing from events at the Tokyo Olympics, won the Laureus award for the fourth time, equalling the record held by tennis great and U.S. compatriot Serena Williams.
Kipyegon was vying for the award after a stellar 2024 season where she broke her own 1500m world record by seven hundredths of a second, running 3:49.04 before heading to the Summer Olympics.
In Paris, Kipyegon became the first athlete ever to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 1500m women's race, where she also set a new Games record.
In addition to the 1500m, she earned a silver medal in the women's 5000m, after successfully appealing a disqualification.
In September 2024, she won the 1500m at the 2024 Diamond League final in Brussels, Belgium, in a meeting record time of 3:54.75 before joining the first edition of Athlos, an all-woman track and field meeting at Icahn Stadium in New York City to take the win.
Other nominees for the World Sportswoman of the Year in 2025 included last year's winner, Spanish footballer Aitana Bonmati, tennis ace Aryna Sabalenka, and athletics stars Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the USA and Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands.
"I’m so happy to be here in Madrid and to receive my fourth Laureus Award," Biles said. "I won this Award for the first time in 2017, and Laureus has been a part of my story since then.
There might be a little girl watching someone like me on television and deciding she can do it, too."
Mondo Duplantis 🇸🇪 receives the Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award from Novak Djokovic.
— Track & Field Gazette (@TrackGazette) April 21, 2025
He is the first male field eventer to win the award, and only the 2nd male Track & Field athlete after Usain Bolt.pic.twitter.com/hUUIpQpW6n
Last year's winner, Novak Djokovic, handed Duplantis his first Laureus award after he was nominated in each of the last three years, becoming only the second track-and-field athlete to win it after Usain Bolt.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest pole vaulters of all time, Duplantis won a second straight Olympic gold medal in Paris, breaking his own world record for the ninth time, before shattering it once again in the Silesia Diamond League meeting the following month.
"I am incredibly honoured to have won my first Laureus, this is the ultimate award that we athletes want to win. I know because this is the fourth time I have been nominated, and that proves it’s harder to win a Laureus than an Olympic gold medal," Duplantis joked.
List of winners:
World Sportswoman of the Year: Simone Biles
World Sportsman of the Year: Mondo Duplantis
World Team of the Year: Real Madrid
World Breakthrough of the Year: Lamine Yamal
World Comeback of the Year: Rebeca Andrade
World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability: Jiang Yuyan
World Action Sportsperson of the Year: Tom Pidcock
Laureus Sport for Good: Kick4Life
Laureus Sporting Icon: Rafael Nadal
