Now we are under way! Online voting for Athlete of the Year 2023 opens at 12.00 GMT today, 10th January and continues until 31st January, when the winner will be determined. Sports fans, it’s now down to you to play your part – by voting for your favourites every day, and spreading the word on social media! Remember to use the hashtag #TheWorldGamesAOTY! Yearly, more than 500,000 votes are cast in the race for the title.
22 athletes have been put forward by their international federations, and they have one thing in common: they all achieved outstanding results in their sport in 2023. Some of them are well-known stars with long-standing achievement at the top of the tree, whilst others have come to the fore in 2023 – the big stars of the future. You can watch short videos of the athletes in action and read about their achievements here.
You choose 2 candidates every time you vote
From now until 22nd January, you can cast votes for the 22 candidates every 24 hours on www.theworldgames.org. Every time you vote, you must choose two candidates; two votes go to your first choice and one to your second choice. If you try to give votes to one candidate only, the vote will not be registered. The number of votes cast for each candidate is updated continually on the voting page.
The final round – the fight narrows to the ten best
At 12.00 GMT on 22nd January, the field will be reduced to the 10 highest-ranked candidates at that time, and they will re-start in the final round with 0 votes. From then until 12.00 GMT on 31st January, the voting procedure will be the same: you must choose a first- and second-choice candidate every time you vote. Again, votes per candidate will be updated and displayed continually as voting progresses.
Support your favourites on social media!
Do share on social media: your passion for your favourite athlete and your sport deserve wider attention! Voting is being promoted on all social media platforms of The World Games (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tiktok and Weibo), and previous years have shown that spreading your enthusiasm can bring a big wave of support from other voters. So don’t leave it to everyone else – get involved!
The winner receives a trophy and a valuable prize and a lot of good publicity – and to make sure that everything is fair, the International World Games Association will scrutinize the voting process closely and deal with any anomalies that appear. All voters shall act in accordance with fair play in sport!
The World Games is a multi-sport event staged every four years by the International World Games Association, organised with the support of the International Olympic Committee. The World Games 2022 was held in Birmingham, Alabama, USA, 7-17 July 2022. 3,600 athletes from 34 sports and 100 countries took part in the Games. The 12th edition of The World Games will be held in Chengdu, CHN, 7-17 August 2025.
