Sport’s most prestigious Awards brings the biggest stars in the world together in Madrid, seen by global audience of millions
MADRID became the capital city of sport this week as the Laureus World Sports Awards celebrated its 25th anniversary by gathering the greatest athletes not only of the past 12 months, but of the 21st Century.
Simone Biles and Rebecca Andrade – friends, rivals and Olympic champions from the world of gymnastics – were both winners here; both sides of Spanish football’s great duopoly were represented on the winners’ podium, as Real Madrid and Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal were honoured; and Olympic and Paralympic heroes including Mondo Duplantis, Tom Pidcock and Jijang Yuan added a Laureus to their laurels. Standing alongside the world’s greatest athletes were leaders from the inspirational Lesotho-based football programme Kick4Life, recipients of the 2025 Laureus Sport for Good Award.
Nobody does it better than Simone Biles
25 years after the inaugural Laureus World Sports Awards were held in Monaco in 2000, this special anniversary edition of the greatest show in sports was also a celebration of the growth of Laureus as a unique sporting movement – encompassing the world-famous Awards and the year-round work of Laureus Sport for Good in over 40 countries.
The Awards evening launched a multi-media wave of posts, coverage and broadcast around the world, as athletes, media and bloggers reacted to this year’s winners – each presented with ‘The Laureus’ – the coveted statuette awarded to the winner in each category and the prize the greatest athletes in the world value above all other Awards – voted on by the 69 sporting legends of the Laureus World Sports Academy.
And this year that body awarded two additional statuettes, honouring 22-time Grand Slam tennis champion Rafael Nadal and Kelly Slater, an 11-time world champion in surfing.
The Olympic and Paralympic Games were at the heart of the sporting year in 2024 – and this year’s list of Laureus winners includes several athletes who added a Laureus to their collection of gold.
It was fourth time lucky for the greatest pole-vaulter of all-time, Mondo Duplantis. He was awarded the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award after being nominated in each of the last three years and is the second track-and-field athlete to win this Award, after four-time winner Usain Bolt.
Still just 25 years old, the Swede shows no signs of loosening his grip over the competition following another historic year. After winning his second World Indoor Championship gold medal in March, Duplantis broke his own world record for a remarkable ninth time in 2024 on the way to gold in Paris, before shattering it again at the Silesia Diamond League meeting the following month. Duplantis received his Award from last year’s winner, Novak Djokovic.
Simone Biles’ breathtaking displays in the French capital saw her named Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year for the fourth time, equalling the record held by tennis great and compatriot Serena Williams – they both also have one Comeback of the Year Award.
Biles called the Paris Games her ‘redemption tour’ after taking a break from the sport, and the most decorated gymnast in history produced a stunning performance, picking up three golds and a silver. One year after winning that Comeback of the Year Award, her redemption is complete.
Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year, Simone said: “I’m so happy to be here in Madrid and to receive my fourth Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award.
“I won this Award for the first time in 2017 and Laureus has been a part of my story since then, and I share their belief that sport has the power to change the world. That might be a little girl watching someone like me on television and deciding she can do it, too. Or it could be the incredible work Laureus Sport for Good has undertaken for the past 25 years, all over the world.
“I’d like to thank the legendary members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, who vote for the winners. It must be an almost impossible job, but their unique personal experiences of sport at the highest level gives them an understanding of what it takes to be the very best. Their generation has inspired us athletes standing here before you. That is why the Laureus Awards truly are the ‘Athletes Awards’ and I am proud to have added to my ‘Laureus’ collection.”
Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade completed her inspirational return from career-threatening injuries at the Paris Games, and she is this year’s recipient of the Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award.
Andrade considered quitting the sport in the wake of a series of soul-crushing injuries – including three anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries – and agonising rehabilitations. Her long road back to the top was complete when she won gold in the floor competition – a moment memorialised forever by the image of her long-time rival Biles bowing to her as she stood at the top of the podium.
Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award winner, Rebeca, said: “This beautiful Laureus Statuette represents a huge amount of hard work, of struggle and pain, and also great happiness and one of my most cherished memories – standing on top of the Olympic podium again.
“In the 25-year history of these Awards that have become the ultimate prize for athletes, these stories of resilience have inspired generations of young people. Previous winners of the Comeback of the Year have included some of the greatest athletes of all time, from my fellow Brazilian, Ronaldo, to Simone last year.
“And just as our stories reach every corner of the world, we stand here alongside Laureus Sport for Good as they bring together projects from across the globe which use sport to improve the lives of children and young people.
“Individual sports can be isolating, but Paris showed that camaraderie can exist between competitors, and I was so proud to compete alongside last year’s winner of this Award, Simone Biles. Simone and I are the only two gymnasts to win a Laureus Award and I hope our stories can inspire anyone who has experienced injuries and setbacks to keep fighting through the many obstacles placed in front of them on the long road to recovery.”
Teen sensation Lamine Yamal was the recipient of the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award after emerging as one of football’s global superstars.
As part of the Spain team which won Euro 2024, he became the youngest player to score in the European Championships as well as the youngest to feature in the final and was named Best Young Player of the tournament. He is only the second footballer to win this Award, after Jude Bellingham, the Real Madrid midfielder who won it last year.
Bellingham did not go unrecognised tonight, either. Real Madrid are quite simply a winning machine and were honoured with the Laureus World Team of the Year Award after a season in which they won La Liga for a record 36th time, delivered a 15th UEFA Champions League/European Cup title, and defeated rivals Barcelona 4-1 in the Supercopa de España. The club continued to sweep aside all before them at the beginning of the 2024-25 season, winning both the UEFA Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup, an achievement which saw Carlo Ancelotti become Madrid’s most decorated manager.
For 25 years, the Laureus World Sports Awards have seen the greatest athletes in the world share the stage with Laureus Sport for Good programmes that fulfil the mission defined by the founding patron of Laureus at the first Awards: to use the power of sport to change the world.
Kick4Life is one of over 300 Laureus Sport for Good projects all over the world making a difference in their communities, and they were presented with this year’s Laureus Sport for Good Award in Madrid. Kick4Life uses football to reach at-risk children in Lesotho, promoting health education, life-skills development, gender rights and employability. The inspirational organisation, which was also nominated for this Award in 2022, has reached more than 250,000 young people since it was founded in 2005.
Nominees for the Laureus World Sports Awards are decided by the world’s media, and the winners are voted on by the 69 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy – the ultimate sporting jury. This year the Academy also included two discretionary Awards.
