Olympic champions Simone Biles and Mikaela Shiffrin and world champions Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson are among the nominees for the Laureus World Sports Awards honoring 2023 achievements.
The awards, in their 25th year, will be handed out at a show on April 22 in Madrid. Winners are selected by a panel of 69 Laureus World Sports Academy members, many legendary athletes.
Biles is nominated for Comeback of the Year after she won four gold medals and one silver at October’s world championships after taking nearly two years off from competition after the Tokyo Games.
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Biles was previously nominated for Comeback of the Year in 2022, after she returned from the twisties to earn Olympic balance beam bronze. British skateboarder Sky Brown won that year.
Biles has won Sportswoman of the Year three times, second-most in history behind Serena Williams.
Shiffrin and Richardson are among the nominees for Sportswoman of the Year. Last year, Shiffrin broke the Alpine skiing World Cup career wins record en route to her fifth World Cup overall title. Shiffrin was previously nominated for the award in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2023.
Richardson earned her first Laureus nomination after winning 100m gold, 200m bronze and 4x100m relay gold at August’s world track and field championships.
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Fellow world champion runners Shericka Jackson of Jamaica and Faith Kipyegon of Kenya are also nominees.
Lyles was nominated for Sportsman of the Year for the first time after he swept 100m, 200m and 4x100m golds at worlds. The nominees also include Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis, soccer stars Lionel Messi of Argentina and Erling Haaland of Norway and Novak Djokovic, who won three of the four tennis Grand Slams in 2023.
Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability nominees include Paralympic gold medalists Simone Barlaam of Italy (swimming), Diede de Groot of the Netherlands (wheelchair tennis) and Markus Rehm of Germany (track and field).
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Athletes likely to compete at the Paris Olympics are also nominees for Breakthrough of the Year (including tennis player Coco Gauff, swimmer Qin Haiyang and runner Josh Kerr) and Action Sportsperson of the Year (including surfer Caroline Marks and skateboarder Rayssa Leal).