MADRID: American gymnast Simone Biles, voted Sportswoman of the Year at the Laureus Sport Awards ceremony in Madrid, said she remained uncertain about whether she would compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. The 28-year-old, a seven-time Olympic champion who won three gold medals in Paris last year — in the team, all-around and vault competitions, as well as a silver on the floor exercise — to complete a triumphant comeback three years after withdrawing from events at the Tokyo Olympics, won the Laureus award for the fourth time. That equalled the record held by tennis great and US compatriot Serena Williams. “I’m so happy to be here in Madrid and to receive my fourth Laureus Award,” Biles said at Monday’s ceremony. “I won this Award for the first time in 2017 and Laureus has been a part of my story since then. There might be a little girl watching someone like me on television and deciding she can do it, too. “I’m really enjoying my time off before I decide if I want to go back to the gym and compete. A lot of people think it’s just a one-year commitment but it truly is the four years leading up to the Olympics. It’s in LA it’s back in the States, which is so exciting. But if I’m going to compete again, I’m not so sure. But I will be at the Olympics, whether it’s on the floor or in the stands.” Swedish pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, the double Olympic champion and world record holder, was named Sportsman of the Year. Last year’s winner Novak Djokovic handed Duplantis his first Laureus award after he was nominated in each of the last three years, becoming only the second track-and-field athlete to win it after Usain Bolt. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pole vaulters of all time, Duplantis won a second straight Olympic gold medal in Paris, breaking his own world record for the ninth time, before shattering it once again in the Silesia Diamond League meeting the following month. The 25-year-old took the award ahead of tennis great Novak Djokovic, Formula One world champion Max Verstappen and French swimmer Leon Marchand. “I am incredibly honoured to have won my first Laureus, this is the ultimate award that we athletes want to win. I know because this is the fourth time I have been nominated and that proves its harder to win a Laureus than an Olympic gold medal,” Duplantis joked. Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade won the Comeback of the Year award after completing her inspirational return from career-threatening injuries at the Paris Games to win the gold medal in the floor competition. Teenage football sensation Lamine Yamal, who helped Spain win the European Champ-ionship last year at just 17, won the Breakthrough of the Year, the sixth footballer to win that award. Real Madrid, who won their 15th Champions League and La Liga, took the team award. The world action sportsperson award went to Tom Pidcock, the British mountain biker who overcame a puncture to become only the second man to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the cyclo-cross discipline. Yuyan Jiang was the world sportsperson of the year with a disability. Rafael Nadal, who retired from tennis last November at the age of 38, was given a Sports Icon award and surfer Kelly Slater a Lifetime Achievement award. Nadal, winner of 22 Grand Slam trophies, including 14 at Roland Garros, retired from the sport after his final match at the Davis Cup in Malaga in November and insisted he doesn’t “miss tennis”. “The truth is that I don’t miss tennis. Zero. I don’t miss it at all,” Nadal told reporters. “But not because I finished tired of tennis or fighting against tennis, not at all. I finished my career happy and if I could have, I would have carried on, because I loved what I was doing. “It was my passion and that’s been the case all my life. It’s just that when you realise that physically you can’t do it any more... you try to close that chapter. And I closed it.” The Laureus World Sports Awards nominees are selected by the global media, while the winners are determined by the 69 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy. The awards have been presented annually since 2000. Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2025