IWGA announces 10 finalists for The World Games Athlete of the Year 2024

IWGA announces 10 finalists for The World Games Athlete of the Year 2024

published on 20 January

Lausanne, Switzerland – 22 January 2025: The International World Games Association (IWGA) is excited to unveil the ten (10) shortlisted athletes, pair and team who have advanced to the final round of voting for The World Games Athlete of the Year 2024.

This milestone marks an exciting phase in the competition, as the vote tallies are reset to zero, giving every finalist an equal chance of claiming the prestigious title.

Over the first phase of voting, Sport Climbing star Veddriq Leonardo from Indonesia led the standings in first place with 22861 votes, followed by Wushu legend Xin Tong (CHN) as the runner-up with 12533 votes, and Kristin Lätt (EST)from Flying Disc in third place with 11575 votes. However, with the vote counts now reset, it’s anyone’s game as the competition approaches its thrilling conclusion.

The 10 finalists are:

  1. 1. Veddriq Leonardo (INA) – Sport Climbing - 22861
  2. 2. Xin Tong (CHN) – Wushu - 12533
  3. 3. Kristin Lätt (EST) – Flying Disc - 11575
  4. 4. Duccio Marsili (ITA) – Roller Sports - 9094
  5. 5. Vanita Krouch (USA) – American Football - 8856
  6. 6. Allison Hoeft and Sydney Martin (USA) – Cheerleading - 7598
  7. 7. Isabella Lucchin (BRA) – Fistball - 6270
  8. 8. Diego Elias (PER) – Squash - 6141
  9. 9. Veera Kauppi (FIN) – Floorball - 6080
  10. 10. Xuefeng Ma, Jingwei Shi, Minghe Zhang and Junjie Shi (CHN) – Gymnastics - 5712

With the initial round of voting now complete, fans worldwide can continue to vote for their favourites until 31 January 2025 at 12:00 GMT, when the winner, runner-up and bronze medallist will be revealed.

Let your voice be heard! Head to The World Games website and cast your vote now (2 votes every 24 hours).

Voting details:

  • Voting closes on 31 January 2025 at 12:00 PM GMT.
  • The final medallists will be announced immediately after the voting period ends.
  • Real-time vote tallies will continue to be displayed throughout the campaign.

The top three finalists will receive a trophy, a valuable prize, and significant global promotion.

For more information about the voting rules and to see the athletes profile, please visit this page.

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.