© Laureas
MONACO – Olympic, World and U.S. all-around champion Simone Biles of Spring, Texas/World Champions Centre, is one of six women nominated for Sportswoman of the Year for the 2019 Laureus World Sports Awards. The world’s sports media selected the highest achieving men, women and teams from 2018 as the nominees for the 2019 Laureus World Sports Awards, the world’s pre-eminent international sports awards.
Biles, who ESPN the Magazine recognized as the most dominant athlete for 2018, triumphantly returned to competitive gymnastics in 2018, continuing her winning ways from 2013-16 without missing a beat. Here’s a quick recap of Biles’ amazing 2018.
- Extended her reign as the USA’s most decorated athlete by adding four additional gold plus one silver and one bronze to for a grand total of 25 World and Olympic medals. She also tied with Svetlana Khorkina for most World medals by a woman.
- With her 2018 all-around title, she is the first woman to capture four World all-around titles.
- Biles became the first woman to medal in all four event finals since Yelena Shushunova of the USSR at the 1987 Worlds.
- Her 2018 World medals are team, all-around, vault, and floor exercise gold; uneven bars silver; and balance beam bronze.
- Biles’ 14 World titles gives her the all-time record of World titles, surpassing Vitaly Scherbo of the Soviet Union, who won 12 from 1991-96.
- Biles led the U.S. Team to the team gold with an 8.766 margin of victory, the USA’s largest ever.
- In the all-around final, Biles won by 1.693 points, the largest margin for any of her World all-around titles.
- In Doha, she also picked up her first World vault title and uneven bars medal (silver).
- At the U.S. Championships, Biles became the first woman to win five U.S. all-around titles, four of which were consecutive, after returning to training eight months earlier. She also won all four event titles (vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise).
- In her first competition since the 2016 Olympic Games, Biles won the all-around, balance beam and floor exercise titles at the 2018 U.S. Classic.
Also in contention for the Sportswoman of the Year accolade are Simona Halep (Romania), tennis; Angelique Kerber (Germany), tennis; Ester Ledecka (Czech Republic), skiing/snowboarding; Daniela Ryf (Switzerland), ironman triathlon; and Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), skiing. Biles won the Sportswoman of the Year honors in 2017.
A complete list of all nominees is provided below.
The 2019 Laureus World Sports Awards are honoring sporting accomplishments from 2018. The 2019 recipients will be determined by votes from the 66 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy and announced at the 2019 Laureus World Sports Awards in Monaco on February 18. For more information, go to
awards.laureus.com
2019 Laureus Sports Award nominees
Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year
Simone Biles (USA), Gymnastics
Simona Halep (Romania), Tennis
Angelique Kerber (Germany), Tennis
Ester Ledecka (Czech Republic), Skiing/Snowboarding
Daniela Ryf (Switzerland), Ironman Triathlon
Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), Skiing
Laureus World Sportsman of the Year
Novak Djokovic (Serbia), Tennis
Lewis Hamilton (UK), Motor Racing
LeBron James (USA), Basketball
Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya), Athletics
Kylian Mbappé (France), Football
Luka Modric (Croatia), Football
Laureus World Team of the Year
European Ryder Cup Team, Golf
France Men’s Football Team
Golden State Warriors (USA), Basketball
Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team (Germany)
Norway Winter Olympics Team
Real Madrid (Spain), Football
Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year
Ana Carrasco (Spain), Motor Cycling
Sofia Goggia (Italy), Skiing
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway), Athletics
Naomi Osaka (Japan), Tennis
Geraint Thomas (UK), Cycling
Briana Williams (Jamaica), Athletics
Laureus World Comeback of the Year
Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan), Skating
Mark McMorris (Canada), Snowboarding
Bibian Mentel-Spee (Netherlands), Snowboarding
Vinesh Phogat (India), Wrestling
Lindsey Vonn (USA), Skiing
Tiger Woods (USA), Golf
Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability
Henrieta Farkasova (Slovakia), Skiing
Diede de Groot (Netherlands), Wheelchair Tennis
Brian McKeever (Canada), Cross-country Skiing
Oksana Masters (USA), Cross-country Skiing
Grigorios Polychronidis (Greece), Boccia
Markus Rehm (Germany), Athletics
Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year
Maya Gabeira (Brazil), Surfing
Anna Gasser (Austria), Snowboarding
Stephanie Gilmore (Australia), Surfing
Chloe Kim (USA), Snowboarding
Gabriel Medina (Brazil), Surfing
Shaun White (USA), Snowboarding