Simone Biles And Rebeca Andrade Crowned At 2025 Laureus World Sports Awards
Two of the biggest names in women's artistic gymnastics have reached the top of the podium once again: Simone Biles (USA) and Rebeca Andrade (BRA). The two Olympic Champions received honors at the 2025 Laureus World Sports Awards held Monday in Madrid, Spain.
Event organizers designate the Laureus World Sports Awards as 'the most prestigious honours in sports,' intended to celebrate 'the greatest athletes in the world.' The Laureus World Sports Academy determines the winners annually, with 69 'sporting legends' casting their votes to determine victors.
Among those casting their votes were Olympic Champion Nadia Comăneci (ROU), the first athlete to score a perfect ten in women's gymnastics, and four-time Olympic Champion, men's gymnast Li Xiaopeng (CHN).
Biles was nominated for Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year, along with Aitana Bonmatí (ESP) – Football, Sifan Hassan (NED) – Athletics, Faith Kipyegon (KEN) – Athletics, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA) – Athletics, and Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) – Tennis.
For the third time in her career, Biles won the award. She had previously won the title in 2016 and in 2020, both honoring her Olympic achievements in the respective years.
The Laureus Academy provided a statement highlighting Biles' accomplishments:
'(Biles) called the Paris Games her 'Redemption Tour' after withdrawing from the Tokyo Olympics and taking a break from the sport, and she delivered in stunning fashion," the Academy states.
'As well as clinching the second all-around gold medal of her illustrious career, she won gold in team and vault – where she performed her celebrated Biles II, a Yurchenko double pike – and silver in the floor exercise.'
MADRID, SPAIN - APRIL 21: American artistic gymnast Simone Biles (L), Romanian former gymnast Nadia ... More Comaneci (C) and Brazilian artistic gymnast Rebeca Andrade attend Laureus World Sports Academy awards in Madrid, Spain on April 21, 2025. (Photo by Burak Akbulut/Anadolu via Getty Images)
"Her lifetime total of 11 Olympic medals and 30 World Championship medals makes her the most decorated gymnast in history. She has won the prestigious Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award three times and last year won the Comeback of the Year Award.'
The only woman to challenge Biles for the 2024 Olympic all-around title claimed an award of her own on Monday. Brazil's Rebeca Andrade, the country's most decorated gymnast and two-time Olympic Champion, was honored with the award for Laureus World Comeback Of The Year.
Andrade won the award over fellow nominees Caeleb Dressel (USA) - Swimming, Lara Gut-Behrami (SWI) - Alpine Skiing, Marc Márquez (ESP) - Motor Cycling, Rishabh Pant (IND) - Cricket, and Ariarne Titmus (AUS) - Swimming.
Andrade's success in Paris is particularly astounding given her extensive injuries. The Academy cited Andrade's three major knee injuries as reasoning for her nomination, along with concerns that she would not return to full health in time for Paris.
Instead, Andrade exceeded expectations, leading Brazil to its first time medal in history and claiming three individual medals, including a gold medal on floor exercise.
'With a history of anterior cruciate ligament injuries, Andrade has suffered several setbacks in her career, forcing her to consider giving up gymnastics," the Academy states on its website.
'The brilliant Brazilian had won a gold and silver medal at the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021, but she scarcely competed in 2024 and there was concern whether she would make it to Paris. However, her resilience and determination paid off and she won gold in the floor exercise, silver in the all-around and vault, and bronze in the team event."
"Having won a career total of six Olympic and nine World Championship medals, she is the most decorated Brazilian and Latin American gymnast of all.'
PARIS, FRANCE - AUGUST 5: Rebeca Andrade of Team Brazil (L) and Simone Biles of Team United States ... More (R) look on for results during the Women's Balance Beam Final on day ten of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Bercy Arena on August 5, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by André Ricardo/Eurasia)
After an unprecedented run in the sport of gymnastics, retirement remains an open question for the 23-time World Champion from the Houston area.
"I've accomplished so much, there's almost nothing left to do, rather than to just be snobby and to try again and for what? I'm at a point in my career where I'm humble enough to know when to be done." Biles told Sports Illustrated earlier this year.
While the 28-year-old has not ruled out a shot at the 2028 Olympics—her first on home soil—she has stated a desire to experience a life outside gymnastics, especially alongside her husband Jonathan Owens, a safety for the Chicago Bears.
Conversely, her close friend and competitor Andrade remains in the gym, training for more international accolades. Sporting 10.8 million followers on Instagram, Andrade's success has catapulted her from gymnastics star to celebrity.
Despite her newfound celebrity status, the 25-year-old from Sao Paulo confirmed her commitment to training at today's event. She has her sights set on the World Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia, in the fall.
'I'm going to train for this Worlds, I hope everything goes well and I get good results,' she told Olympics.com. Though Andrade vows that she is 'not even talking about being on the podium," any title is within reach for one of the sport's all-time greats.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Former Minnesota Wild Forward Joins Muskegon Of USHL As Assistant Coach
The Muskegon Lumberjacks of the United States Hockey League (USHL) announced on Friday the hiring of former Minnesota Wild forward Pat Maroon as assistant coach.
CNET
2 hours ago
- CNET
Beijing's 'Robot Olympics' Are Off and Running (and Falling)
China just turned a pair of Olympic venues into a playground for robots. The inaugural World Humanoid Robot Games, running from Aug. 15-17, opened Friday with soccer, sprints, kickboxing and table tennis, as well as a healthy number of face-plants. The games feature 280 robot teams from 16 countries and hundreds of bipedal bots vying for medals and whatever passes for bragging rights to robots. Events are split between two 2022 Winter Olympics landmarks: China's National Stadium and the National Speed Skating Oval. On the schedule: track and field, football (soccer to Americans), table tennis, and "scenario" trials such as medicine sorting, cleaning services and industrial handling—the kind of practical skills that robot-makers actually care about. Humanoid robots compete in the 5 vs. 5 soccer event on day one of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. VCG/Getty images The highlight reel revealed more chaos than control: robots colliding mid-match, sprinters crumpling mid-stride and kickboxers needing a reboot. But there were bright spots, too. Some bots popped back to their feet unassisted and even finished middle-distance runs as handlers puffed behind them. There was even a 1,500-meter race. Tickets ran 128–580 yuan (about $18–$81). The robot athletes are supplied by a combination of academia and industry, including China's Unitree and Fourier, with squads also from the US, Germany, Brazil, Japan and more. Organizers pitch the weekend as data collection under pressure, with sports forcing the robots to demonstrate balance, vision and decision-making, all of which later will translate over to the robot's work in factories, logistics and as home helpers. Humanoid robots run in the 1500-meter race at the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing. Kevin Frayer/Getty images China is using the Games to showcase its bet on embodied AI -- software linked to machines that can navigate human spaces. The country has poured billions of dollars into robotics and is planning a 1-trillion-yuan ( about $137 billion) fund for startups as part of a push to counter an aging-workforce crunch and compete in advanced manufacturing. Rules vary by event, but organizers say competitions span autonomous control and remote operation: either way, no mid-match "player swaps" for fresh robots are allowed. That means lots of stress testing on robot batteries, heat management and recovery behaviors in real-time chaos. The Associated Press has streamed some of the Games if you want to check it out. The event runs through Aug. 17.
NBC News
3 hours ago
- NBC News
It was supposed to change pro track. Now, short on cash, it owes athletes millions.
As summer began in 2024, former Olympic gold-medal sprinter Michael Johnson stood in a downtown Los Angeles restaurant that had been rented out for a big announcement. Johnson said he had secured $30 million in funding for a new track league, promising payments never before seen in track and field. In a sport where even top stars earn modest livings by the standards of professional athletes, Grand Slam Track represented a huge windfall. More than one-third of that promised funding would be earmarked for prize money alone, a pool of more than $3 million per meet. And the biggest winners at each of its four meets would pocket $100,000 per meet — five times as much as first place earned on track's other global circuit. Additionally, 48 competitors who signed contracts with the circuit could earn an annual base compensation, plus a cut of revenue from group licensing. Yet just 14 months after Johnson's grand announcement, and four months after the group held its first meet in Jamaica, Grand Slam Track has yet to pay many of its athletes and vendors, and Johnson acknowledged Friday that the cash crunch — what one source said was around $13 million in unpaid money to athletes alone — poses an existential threat to the fate of the circuit returning for a second season. 'The cruelest paradox in all of this is we promised that athletes would be fairly and quickly compensated. Yet, here we are struggling with our ability to compensate them,' said a statement signed by Johnson that was posted on social media Friday. Johnson also maintained that he is 'confident about the future of Grand Slam Track.' NBC News spoke with four agents who represent multiple athletes still owed money by Grand Slam Track, who spoke on condition of anonymity to retain relationships with organizers. Three expressed serious doubts the circuit would be able to drum up enough funding from investors and confidence from athletes to return for a second season, in 2026. A fourth said he was willing to give the benefit of the doubt, for now. 'My message to our athletes is, look, it's not good,' that agent said. 'But on the other hand, their intent is to pay and we're going to wait for them to pay us. Otherwise, they won't have a future.' Agents, coaches and meet organizers in track and field said their concerns about Grand Slam's trouble go far beyond receiving the money owed from the three meets it hosted this spring in Jamaica, Florida and Philadelphia. If Grand Slam Track were ultimately successful in drawing strong ratings and crowds, there was a hope that such demand could entice more outside investors with deep pockets to pour money into a sport that often operates on shoestring budgets compared to other professional leagues. 'It feels like to a lot of people that this will be a massive deterrent to future endeavors,' said Paul Doyle, a prominent athlete agent who founded and has also operated a pro track circuit, the American Track League, since 2014. 'It wasn't all negative. I feel for them in that sense that they're in a tough spot.' On the day Johnson announced Grand Slam Track in 2024, he was bullish but also admitted the venture would take time to generate money. 'If I had an investor who said, 'Well, I need it to be profitable in Year 2,' I would not take their money because that's impossible,' Johnson said in 2024. 'It's just not going to happen. Our investors have come on and said, 'Hey, we believe in the long-term viability of this.'' That viability has been under scrutiny ever since Grand Slam Track canceled its fourth and final meet, scheduled for June. It emailed athlete representatives in July notifying them that earnings from their first meet, held in Jamaica in April, would be paid by that month's end. On Aug. 4, a spokesperson for Grand Slam Track said that it was 'anticipating investor funds to hit our account imminently, and the athletes are our top priority.' As of Friday's announcement, however, Grand Slam had only paid athletes for the appearance fees they were owed in Jamaica, but not any prize money. Johnson, in his statement, suggested that the funding shortfall was due to a change in circumstances 'in ways beyond our control.' Johnson previously told Front Office Sports that an investor had pulled funds. 'Due to our strong desire to make this right as quickly as possible, we offered dated payment timelines and have been unable to meet them,' Johnson said in Friday's statement. 'Understandably, this has led to frustration, disappointment, and inconvenience to our athletes, agents, and vendors. I know this damages trust. I know this makes some wonder if our vision can survive. That is why we are not just addressing the immediate problem; we are putting systems and partnerships in place to make sure it never happens again.' 'While I am no stranger to setbacks and overcoming obstacles, as an athlete, professionally, and personally, this current situation of not being able to pay our athletes and partners has been one of the most difficult challenges I've ever experienced,' the statement added. Prize money payments that take weeks to arrive are not unusual in track and field; if anything, they are the rule. In extreme cases, athletes have said that prize money payments have taken more than a calendar year to hit their accounts. Prize money from March's world indoor championships in China still has yet to arrive, one agent said. Delays largely stem from drug testing, because meets typically wait to pay until knowing an athlete was clean. Results generally take 10-30 days to return. In contracts with its 'racers,' Grand Slam Track stated that drug testing would be completed within 21 days of each meet, and that an athlete's promotional fee and earned prize money would be paid within 10 days of learning the doping results, according to a source. Delays are commonplace. But what made Grand Slam Track different, one agent said, was that there was a belief it already had its announced $30 million in funding waiting in escrow, ready to pay as obligated. Instead, they now wait for emailed updates from Grand Slam organizers. 'You're not getting anything directly answered,' one agent said. ''Our goal is to pay.' Well you can pay, but when? That doesn't sit well with anyone.'
