American gymnast Simone Biles and Swedish pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis, two of the brightest stars from this year’s Olympics in Paris, are the AIPS Athletes of the Year 2024, as voted by 518 journalists from 111 countries.
The traditional end-of-year poll, organised by AIPS, is the most international poll dedicated to the debate regarding the athletes that dominated the sports world in the outgoing year.
Biles, who won three Olympic gold medals and one silver in Paris, garnered 703 points to win the Best Female Athlete of the Year award for the fifth time, ahead of Spain and Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati, who was recently named The Best FIFA Women’s Player for a second year in a row (337 points) and Saint Lucia’s first ever Olympic gold medallist in the 100m and silver medallist in the 200m, Julien Alfred in third with 263 points.
Following his record-breaking season, Duplantis also dominated the Best Male Athlete of the Year category with 603 points. The Swedish star, who finished second in the 2022 and 2023 editions of the AIPS poll, has finally secured the prestigious prize for the first time. Serbian tennis icon, Novak Djokovic, who at 37 became the oldest Olympic gold medallist in men’s singles and just the fifth tennis player to achieve the career Golden Slam, finished second with 368 points, while Slovenian Tadej Pogačar, who became the first male cyclist since 1987 to win the ‘Triple Crown’ of the men’s Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and world title in the same year, finished third with 294 points.
Simone Arianne Biles, born on March 14, 1997, in Columbus, Ohio, has now won the AIPS Female Athlete of the Year accolade five times in the last eight years and consecutively on two occasions (2016, 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024) after taking the Paris 2024 Olympics by storm to cement her status as the the world’s most decorated gymnast.
The 27-year-old icon dazzled on her Olympics return as she soared to four Olympic medals, including team, all-around and vault golds and a silver medal on the floor exercise, and banished the memories of Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021), where she abruptly quit the Olympic team final after suffering the ‘twisties’.
Boasting a total of 11 Olympic medals (seven gold, two silver, and two bronze medals) won across three Olympic Games: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, and Paris 2024, Biles made history in Paris as she became the most decorated American Olympic gymnast of all time.
Biles, who made her international debut in 2013, also owns 30 World Championship medals, including 23 world gold medals, and is widely regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time.
