American gymnast Simone Biles was named the Sportswoman of the Year at the 2025 Laureus World Sports Awards as Swedish pole-vaulter Mondo Duplantis claimed the men’s honour.

The 25th anniversary Awards, held in Madrid on April 21, honoured the past, celebrated the present and inspired the future, with the biggest names from the world of sport, joined by celebrity sports fans, in a unique mix for which Laureus is renowned.

Biles pipped Kenya’s three-time 1500m Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon to the title after a spectacular show in the Olympics last August.

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-women’s 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 US 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.”

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,” Duplantis said. “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.”

The winners took home the Laureus 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.

The inaugural Laureus World Sports Awards were held in Monaco in 2000, with this year’s special anniversary edition of “the greatest show in sports” celebrating the growth of Laureus as a unique sporting movement – encompassing the world-famous Awards and the work of Laureus Sport for Good in over 40 countries.

Laureus World Sports Awards 2025 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

Kenenisa Bekele has withdrawn from the 2025 London Marathon.

The Ethiopian great, who was runner-up in London last year, has been suffering with niggling injuries that have interrupted his training ahead of Sunday’s TCS London Marathon 27, April.

“I am very disappointed. “I am very much looking forward to returning to the TCS London Marathon on Sunday, especially after how well I ran there last year,” said Bekele.

“However, a series of small niggles have prevented me from getting into the training block I require to be at my best and I have had to make the difficult decision to withdraw. I wish everyone who is running the TCS London Marathon on Sunday the very best of luck.”

Bekele is the third-fastest man in history over the marathon distance and a 17-time World Champion on the track and cross-country.

Kenya’s Alexander Mutiso Munyao won the men’s race in two hours, four minutes and one second last year, with compatriot Peres Jepchirchir victorious in a women’s-only world record of 2:16:16.

Bekele’s fiercest rival, Eliud Kipchoge, who became the first athlete to run a marathon in under two hours in 2019 and is widely regarded as the greatest distance runner in history, returns to the London Marathon for the first time since 2020.

The record four-time winner is joined in the elite men’s race by defending champion Munyao and Ethiopia’s Olympic champion Tamirat Tola.

Half marathon world record holder Jacob Kiplimo makes his debut after becoming the first person to run a half marathon in under 57 minutes in February.

World record holder Ruth Chepngetich and 2024 winner Jepchirchir have withdrawn from this year’s elite women’s race.

But a star-studded line-up still features two of the three fastest women in history in Olympic champion Sifan Hassan and Paris 2024 silver medallist Tigst Assefa.

The race winners will receive £41,000, while a £112,000 bonus will be paid to any man running under 2:02:00 or woman under 2:15:00.