Nine days remain in The World Games Athlete of the Year race, and nothing has been decided yet! The 10 best candidates still in the race all have their fans voting for them, and a record number of votes – over 270,000 – has already been cast this year. On February 1stwe will know not only the winner, but also the runner-up and the best team!
This year 25 candidates in all have competed for The World Games Athlete of the Year title. At the moment, it seems that the Gymnastics world has decided that the Acrobatic Gymnasts Marina Chernova & Georgii Pataraia (RUS) should be named Athletes of the Year, but Powerlifters disagree. Last year, Powerlifter Larysa Soloviova ended as runner-up with only a couple of hundred votes less than the winner, Sport Climber Reza Alipourshenazandifar. Surely the Powerlifters do not want to see a repeat of this!
Behind the top two there are other candidates advancing rapidly in the list, notably Kickboxer Orfan Sananzade (UKR), Karate star Sandra Sanchez (ESP) and DanceSport couple Zhrakov & Kulikova (RUS).
Until January 31st, everyone can vote once per day for their favourites.
Current standings:
Marina Chernova & Georgii Pataraia, Gymnastics 67154
Jennifer Thompson, Powerlifting 64255
Orfan Sananzade, Kickboxing 30881
Svetlana Vinnikova, Muaythai 24357
Sandra Sanchez, Karate 11360
Greece Women’s Team, Beach Handball 10358
Zharkov & Kulikova, DanceSport 9929
Janja Garnbret, Sport Climbing 9836
Patrick Thomas, Fistball 7509
Dominique Fontenette, Flying Disc 7468
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.