BERLIN – 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 2020 Laureus World Sports Awards. The world’s sports media selected the highest achieving men, women and teams from 2019 as the nominees for the 2020 Laureus World Sports Awards, the world’s pre-eminent international sports awards.
Biles won five gold medals at the 2019 World Gymnastics Championships – more than any gymnast at a single Worlds since 1958 – improving her career total to 25 World medals (19 gold, three silver, three bronze), two more than any gymnast in history. She has the mark for the most World gold medals at 19. During the 2019 Worlds in Stuttgart, Germany, Biles brought home the World title for the team, all-around, vault, balance beam and floor exercise. She also became the first woman to win each of the following at the World Championships – five World all-around titles (2013-15, 18-19), three World balance beam titles (2014-15, 19) and five World floor exercise titles (2013-15, 2018-19). Biles also completed two skills never performed by a female gymnast in competition, both of which are named in her honor: a double-double dismount on beam and a triple-double on floor.
At the 2019 U.S. Championships, Biles won her sixth all-around title, becoming the first woman in nearly 70 years to win six senior U.S. all-around titles. She now ties Clara Schroth Lomady, who won the all-around from 1945-46 and 1949-52, for the record. At the national championships, Biles was also crowned the vault, balance beam and floor exercise champion and the uneven bars bronze medalist.
Biles was named the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, Team USA’s Female Olympic Athlete of the Year and the People’s Choice Game Changer Award.
Also in contention for the Sportswoman of the Year accolade are Allyson Felix (track), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price (track), Naomi Osaka (tennis), Megan Rapinoe (soccer) and Mikaela Shiffrin (skiing). Biles won the Sportswoman of the Year honors in 2017 and 2019.
A complete list of all nominees can be found by clicking here.
The 2020 Laureus World Sports Awards are honoring sporting accomplishments from 2019. The 2020 recipients will be determined by votes from the 68 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy and announced at the 2020 Laureus World Sports Awards in Berlin on February 17. For more information, go to awards.laureus.com.