Swiatek, Gauff, Vondrousova nominated for 2024 Laureus World Sports Awards

Three of 2023’s Grand Slam champions — Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff and Marketa Vondrousova — have been nominated for 2024 Laureus World Sports Awards.

The Laureus World Sports Awards are international prizes given out annually since 2001 to honor the top athletes from all fields in various categories. Swiatek is one of six nominees for World Sportswoman of the Year — her second straight nomination for the award — while Gauff and Vondrousova landed on the ballots for World Breakthrough of the Year and World Comeback of the Year, respectively.

Also nominated in the category of World Sportsperson with a Disability was Dutch wheelchair tennis player Diede de Groot, who won her third straight calendar-year Grand Slam in 2023. She has not lost a singles match at any of the four majors since Roland Garros in 2020.

Swiatek, who in Paris won her fourth Grand Slam title last spring and finished the year as World No.1 for the second time after winning the season-ending WTA Finals in Cancun, is joined on the Sportswoman of the Year ballot by Balon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí of the World Cup-champion Spanish soccer team, skier (and Swiatek’s good friend) Mikaela Shiffrin, and three stars of athletics — Jamaican Shericka Jackson, American Sha’Carri Richardson and Kenyan Faith Kipyegon.

With her victory at the US Open, Gauff became the youngest American woman to win at her home Grand Slam tournament since Serena Williams in 1999. She’s joined on the Breakthrough of the Year ballot by soccer players Jude Bellingham, Linda Caicedo and Salma Paralluelo, as well as swimmer Qin Haiyang and Josh Kerr from athletics.

Vondrousova bounced back from 2022 wrist surgery to become the first unseeded woman in the Open Era to win Wimbledon. The the Czech is joined on the Comeback of the Year ballot by gymnast Simone Biles, soccer player Sébastien Haller, basketball player Jamal Murray, rugby player Siya Kalisi and track and field athlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony to be held in Madrid on April 22.

Nominees

Sportswoman of the year

Aitana Bonmati (Spain: football

Faith Kipyegon (Kenya): athletics

Sha’Carri Richardson (USA): athletics

Mikaela Shiffrin (USA): skiing

Every Swiatek (Poland): tennis

Breakthrough of the year

Jude Bellingham (GB): football

Linda Caicedo (Colombia): football

Coco Gauff (USA): tennis

Qin Haiyang (China): swimming

Josh Kerr (UK): athletics

Salma Paralluelo (Spain): football

Comeback of the year

Simone Biles (USA): gymnastics

Sébastien Haller (Ivory Coast): football

Katarina Johnson-Thompson (UK): athletics

Siya Kolisi (South Africa): rugby

Jamal Murray (Canada): basketball

Marketa Vondrousova (Czech Republic): tennis

Sportsperson of the year with a disability

Simone Barlaam (Italy): swimming

Danylo Chufarov (Ukraine): swimming

Diede de Groot (Netherlands): tennis

Luca Ekler (Hungary): athletics

Nicole Murray (New Zealand): cycling

Markus Rehm (Germany): athletics