Armand Duplantis was crowned the 2025 Laureus Sportsman of the Year in Madrid on Monday evening (21).
The Swedish pole vault world record-holder is the first male track and field athlete to win one of global sport’s most prestigious awards since Usain Bolt in 2017 and compliments his award as Male Athlete of the Year at the European Athletics Golden Track Awards in October.
The award crowns an incredible 12 months that have seen Mondo reshape the landscape of pole vaulting.
Still aged just 25, his 2024 season was nothing short of breathtaking. He won his third successive European Athletics Championships at Roma 2024, then went on to defend his Olympic title at Paris, soaring to a world record 6.25m.
It was the second time he set the world record during the year, and he went on to add a further 1cm in Silesia before the season end. He has since raised the record further, to 6.27m in Clermont-Ferrand during the indoor season in February and won his third successive World Indoor Championships title in Nanjing, China.
The other nominees this year were tennis player Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, swimmer Leon Marchand of France, cyclist Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia and Formula 1 driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands.
Other award winners included USA gymnast Simone Biles (Sportswoman of the Year), Real Madrid (Team), Spanish football player Lamine Yamal (Breakthrough), Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade (Comeback), Chinese Para swimmer Jiang Yuyan (Sportsperson with a Disability), British cyclist Tom Pidcock (Action Sportsperson), American surfer Kelly Slater (Lifetime Achievement), Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal (Icon) and Lesotho’s Kick4Life (Sport for Good).
Chris Broadbent for European Athletics