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.
At the age of 22, @iga_swiatek won the French Open for the third time in 2023. The title added to her previous victories at @rolandgarros (2020 and 2022) and to her @usopen title (2022).
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) February 26, 2024
The #Laureus24 World Sportswoman of the Year Nominee finished the year by securing a title… pic.twitter.com/pVRwaAZ9VI
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
Iga 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