Athlete of the Year 2024 -Voting starts today

Athlete of the Year 2024 -Voting starts today

published on 9 January

Lausanne, Switzerland – 9 January 2025: The voting period for The Athlete of the Year 2024 Award officially opens today at 12:00 GMT, inviting sports fans from around the world to celebrate and honour the year’s most exceptional athletes.

Check out the profile of the 22 nominees, including individual athletes, pairs and teams, representing a wide range of sports, are as follows:

Archery – Sara Lopez (COL)

Baseball Softball – Women's Softball Team (JPN)

Beach Handball – Lucie Marie Kretzschmar (GER)

Canoe – Mads Brandt Pedersen (DEN)

Cheerleading – Allison Hoeft & Sydney Martin (USA)

DanceSport – Phil Wizard (CAN)

Flag Football – Vanita Krouch (USA)

Floorball – Veera Kauppi (FIN)

Fistball - Isabella Lucchin (BRA)

Flying Disc – Kristin Lätt (born Tattar) (EST)

Gymnastics – Xuefeng Ma, Jingwei Shi, Minghe Zhang, and Junjie Shi (CHN)

Kickboxing – Rayimjonov Davlatbek (UZB)

Korfball - Lise Van Maldeghem (BEL)

Orienteering – Joey Hadorn (SUI)

Racquetball – Alexandra Herrera and Montserrat Mejía (MEX)

Roller Sports – Duccio Marsili (ITA)

Sambo – Seidou Njimouluh (CMR)

Sport Climbing – Veddriq Leonardo (INA)

Squash – Diego Elias (PER)

Tug of War – Mengmei Li (CHN)

Underwater Sports – Yaoyao Hu (CHN)

Wushu – Xin Tong (CHN)

Learn more about the nominees and their remarkable accomplishments by exploring their profiles hereVoting Rules are also available on the same page.

The final voting period will close on 31 January 2025 at 12:00 GMT. The athletes who finish in the top three will receive a trophy, a valuable prize, and extensive promotional opportunities.

Join us in honouring these incredible individuals by casting your vote and supporting your favourites! 

We wish the best of luck to all candidates! 

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.