Four-time Olympic champion Simone Biles has been awarded the Laureus World Comeback of the Year prize following a two-year hiatus from the sport.
The American gymnast had a 2023 to remember as she returned to the sport after taking a break for mental health reasons following the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The 27-year-old is a three-time winner of Sportswoman of the Year award (2017, 2019, 2020) and adds another statuette to her collection with the Comeback of the Year Award.
She is expected to try to add to her Olympic medal collection at this summer’s Paris Olympic Games.
Meanwhile, Arisa Trew became the first female skateboarder to win Laureus Action Sportsperson of the Year.
Trew, the 13-year-old Australian skateboarding star, made history in 2023 when she became the first female skater to land a 720 (two full rotations) in vert skateboarding.
Trew successfully pulled off the trick at the Tony Hawk Vert Alert in Utah.
One of the event’s hosts, Tony Hawk, who is a member of the Laureus World Sports Academy, was the first skateboarder to land the trick in 1985.
Meanwhile, Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati has been named the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year and Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham has won the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award.
The 69 sporting legends whose votes decide the award winners presented the prizes in Madrid.
Usain Bolt, the greatest sprinter of all time, presented the Sportswoman of the Year Award to Bonmati.
Last year’s winner of the Breakthrough of the Year Award, Carlos Alcaraz – a Real Madrid fan – handed the Laureus for that category to Bellingham.