10 best continue in the AotY race

10 best continue in the AotY race

published on 16 January, 2019

Of the 25 excellent candidates for The World Games Athlete of the Year 2018, the best of the best now continue in the race until 31st January. The 10 candidates with the most votes so far have still the chance to become The World Games Athlete / Team of the Year, and receive fame and great prizes for their achievement!

The race has been a huge success so far: more than 150,000 votes have been cast, and the leaders, Marina Chernova & Georgii Pataraia (RUS), Gymnastics, and Jennifer Thompson (USA), Powerlifting, have both clocked up more than 32,000 votes. Two years ago only 9,000 votes were cast at this point, and the leader and later the Athlete of the Year, Sofia Olofsson, had 2,470 votes. Now, the ones that just missed the final race despite great efforts have more than that number! Aikido’s Renato Filippin in spot 11 has an amazing number of votes, 4,748, and the candidates from Boules Sport, Roller Sports and Tug of War also have more than 2,500 votes.

Ten candidates remain to fight for their spot in The World Games Athlete of the Year race. You can vote here for your favourite once per 24 hours until 31 January. The winner will be announced on February 1.

10 top Candidates for The World Games Athlete of the Year:

Marina Chernova & Georgii Pataraia (RUS) Gymnastics

Dominique Fontenette (USA) Flying Disc

Janja Garnbret (SLO) Sport Climbing

Greece Women’s team (GRE) Beach Handball

Sananzade Orfan (UKR) Kickboxing

Sandra Sanchez (ESP) Karate

Patrick Thomas (GER) Fistball

Jennifer Thompson (USA) Powerlifting

Svetlana Vinnikova (RUS) Muaythai

Dmitry Zharkov & Olga Kulikova (RUS) DanceSport

 The World Games is a multi-sport event staged every four years by the International World Games Association under the patronage of the International Olympic Committee. The 11th edition of The World Games will be held in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, 15-25 July 2021. 3,600 athletes from over 30 sports and 100 countries will take part in the Games.

The International World Games Association (IWGA) is a non-profit-making international sports organisation recognised and supported by the International Olympic Committee. The IWGA comprises 40 International Member Sports Federations. It administers and promotes The World Games (TWG), a multi-sport event held every four years that features around 35 sports on its programme. The next edition of TWG will be in Chengdu (CHN) from 7-17 August 2025. 5,000 participants from more than 100 countries are expected to take part in this 12th edition. The latest Games were hosted by Birmingham, Alabama (USA).

For more information, please contact the IWGA Media and Communication team:
[email protected], Tel: +41 21 311 12 97, or visit our website.