Records fall and the medal count rises for Golden Generation
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The shortlist for the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award is full of athletes who have redefined their sports.
Whichever of our six fantastic Nominees for the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award leaves Madrid with the Laureus, that beautiful statuette will not be lonely on their mantle: these are athletes whose legacies are being built in real time, in gold, while we watch.
On International Women’s Day, we celebrate stories of athletes who inspire women and girls all over the world, both with their exceptional achievements in the sporting arena and the examples they set away from it.
Each of them added to those stories in 2025 and these chapters were recorded not only in video and newsprint but in the medals around their necks and the trophies in their arms as they continued to compile careers that stand alone amongst their peers. Each of them has risen to the very pinnacle of their sport; several stand as the best to ever compete in it; only one of them will win the Laureus in Madrid on April 20.
On International Women’s Day, we celebrate stories of athletes who inspire women and girls all over the world, both with their exceptional achievements in the sporting arena and the examples they set away from it.
Each of them added to those stories in 2025 and these chapters were recorded not only in video and newsprint but in the medals around their necks and the trophies in their arms as they continued to compile careers that stand alone amongst their peers. Each of them has risen to the very pinnacle of their sport; several stand as the best to ever compete in it; only one of them will win the Laureus in Madrid on April 20.
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Aitana Bonmatí saw her glittering year reflected back to her on the sparkling surface of another FIFA Ballon d’Or trophy. 2025 saw Bonmatí once again climb to the summit of women’s football, becoming the first woman in history to win a hat-trick of that famous prize. She was instrumental for FC Barcelona, the difference-maker that helped the Blaugrana seal another Liga F, Copa de la Reina and Supercopa treble despite emerging threats in an increasingly competitive domestic pack. There were tough moments along the way: a heart-breaking loss in the UEFA Women’s Champions League final; hospitalisation with viral meningitis a week before Spain’s European Championship opener (Bonmatí recovered to score Spain’s semi-final winner in extra time less than a month later); and finally in December, a leg break that presented a brand new challenge for 2026 to the undisputed MVP of women’s football.
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Melissa Jefferson-Wooden set the Tokyo track ablaze at the 2025 World Athletics Championships. In the 100m final, the Championship record fell as Jefferson-Wooden clocked an extraordinary 10.61 seconds: history’s fourth-fastest recorded time. But the 24-year-old wasn’t about to rest on her laurels with a sprint gold medal double on the line. In the 200m final, a thundering start from former World Champion Dina Asher-Smith didn’t faze her American rival, as Jefferson-Wooden reeled her in and sailed into the distance, recording a world-leading time and finishing nearly half a second ahead of silver. She had targeted the ‘Triple Crown’ during an interview in October and a 4x100m relay gold ensured that she became only the second woman in history to achieve the feat, leaving Japan with three gold medals around her neck.
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What is there left to aspire towards, when you’re already the most decorated athlete in your sport? For Katie Ledecky, the pursuit of greatness never stops: going into the World Aquatics Championships five career medals ahead of Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström couldn’t dampen her desire to win. Ledecky opened her Championship account with a bronze in the 400m freestyle, before winning the 1,500m freestyle – an event for which Ledecky holds 24 of the top 25 fastest times – with five seconds to spare. A 4x200m freestyle silver was the perfect preparation for her best performance, on the penultimate day of the Championships. Facing young speedsters Summer McIntosh and Lani Pallister in the final of the 800m freestyle, the veteran put on a masterclass, setting a Championship record and finishing less than two tenths of a second ahead of her Australian rival Pallister in second. She now holds 23 world championship gold medals, three behind Michael Phelps’ record. In October, Ledecky returned to the Eppley Recreation Centre Natatorium in Maryland – venue for her 1000-yard freestyle American record time set in 2015 – for a renaming of one of world swimming’s most prestigious events. The Nation’s Capital Invitation was renamed the Katie Ledecky Invitational, honouring one of the greatest athletes to ever enter the pool.
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Faith Kipyegon wrote some history of her own in 2025. The 32-year-old – nicknamed ‘The Smiling Destroyer’ – lived up to that moniker. After her Kenyan teammates Beatrice Chebet and Peres Jepchirchir won the 10,000m and women’s marathon titles respectively, Kipyegon stepped up to the mark for her 1500m final in a bid to become the first female distance runner to win four world titles. In July she had become the first woman in history to break 3:49.00; to that world record she added another historic mark, winning a fourth world championship and leave those watching in no doubt that Kipyegon is one of the greatest distance runners we have seen.
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Skill is not the only attribute that makes a World No.1 athlete. Another mark of greatness is the ability to sustain peak performance – and Aryna Sabalenka has shown a level of consistency which ends any debate about the identity of the top player in women’s tennis. Sabalenka never relinquished the No.1 spot throughout 2025 and finished the year stronger than ever. In the US Open, she added a fourth career Grand Slam singles title, defending her championship in straight sets against Amanda Anisimova. There were also WTA1000 wins for Sabalenka in Madrid and Miami, but the true mark of her supremacy in the women’s game is that if you won a big title in 2025, the chances are you had to beat her in the final. That was the case in Australia and France (Sabalenka also reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon) and at the season-ending WTA Finals.
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Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone was untouchable over 400m hurdles, breaking the world record six times, winning two Olympic golds and one world title – plus two nominations for the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award. In 2025 she chose a new challenge, moving to the 400m. In Tokyo, she set a new US record in the semi-finals. Then, two days later, the World Championships 400m record fell. McLaughlin-Levrone’s run of 47.78 seconds was the second-fastest 400m time ever recorded by a woman and she became the first woman in history to win world titles in 400m and 400m hurdles. However, McLaughlin-Levrone wasn’t finished there, and she anchored Team USA to gold.
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On International Women’s Day, the Laureus World Sports Awards shines its light on a golden generation of inspirational women who finished 2025 on top of the world.
