AIPS Media
American gymnast Simone Biles and Swedish pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis, two of the brightest stars at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris, are the 2024 AIPS Athletes of the Year, as voted by 518 journalists from 111 countries.
The traditional end-of-year poll, organized by the AIPS, is the most international survey dedicated to the debate on the athletes who dominated the world of sport over the past year.
Biles, who won three gold medals and one silver in Paris, scored 703 points to win the title of best female athlete of the year for the fifth time, ahead of Spanish and Barcelona midfielder Aitana Bonmati, recently named FIFA’s best female player for the second year in a row (337 points) and Saint Lucia’s first Olympic gold medalist in the 100m and silver medalist in the 200m, Julien Alfred, who occupies third place with 263 points.
After 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 both the 2022 and 2023 editions of the AIPS poll, finally secured the prestigious award for the first time. Serbian Tennis icon Novak Djokovic, who at 37 became the oldest Olympic men’s singles champion and only the fifth tennis player to achieve the career Golden Slam, finished second with 368 points, while as Slovenia’s Tadej Pogačar, who became the first male cyclist since 1987 to win the “Triple Crown” of the men’s Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the world title in the same year, finished third with 294 points.
AIPS BEST FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR Simone Arianne Biles, born March 14, 1997 in Columbus, Ohio, has won the AIPS Female Athlete of the Year five times in the last eight years and consecutively twice (2016, 2018 , 2019, 2023, 2024) after taking the Paris 2024 Olympic Games by storm and cementing her status as the world’s most decorated gymnast.
The 27-year-old icon dazzled in her return to the Olympics, winning four Olympic medals, including team, all-around and vault gold, as well as a silver in the floor exercise, and chased away memories of Tokyo 2020 (organized in 2021), where she abruptly left the Olympic team final after suffering the “twisties”.
With a total of 11 Olympic medals (seven gold, two silver and two bronze) won in three Olympic Games: Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, Biles made history in Paris by becoming the most decorated American Olympic gymnast of all time.
Biles, who made her international debut in 2013, also has 30 World Championship medals, including 23 gold medals, and is widely considered the greatest gymnast of all time.
Here is the Top 10
1. Biles Simone – Gymnastics 703
2. Bonmatí Aitana – Football 337
3. Alfred Julien – Athletics 263
4. Hassan Sifan – Athletics 226
5. Marta – Football 196
6. Ledecky Katie – Nation 187
7. Shiffrin Mikaela – Ski alpin 176
8. Mahuchikh Yaroslava – Athletics 165
9. Chebet Beatrice – Athletics 157
10. Swiatek Iga – Tennis 144
AIPS BEST MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR In 2024, Swede Armand “Mondo” Duplantis, born November 10, 1999 in Lafayette, Louisiana (United States), continued his meteoric rise as a dominant force in pole vaulting.
He defended his titles at the World Indoor Athletics Championships, the European Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games and broke world records with 6.24m, 6.25m and 6.26m in the during an undefeated season, both indoors and outdoors.
At the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Duplantis broke his ninth world record at 6.25m, having already won gold with a jump of 6.00m, becoming the first consecutive pole vault champion among men since the 1950s. Two weeks later, the 25-year-old Swedish star broke the world record for the tenth time in his career at the Silesian Diamond League meeting in Poland. He broke the world record for the first time in February 2020.
He also has the eight best jumps of the 2024 season, including the championship record of 6.10m which gave him a third consecutive European outdoor title in Rome in June and the meeting record of 6.11m at the ‘Allianz Memorial van Damme in Brussels, where he won his fourth consecutive Diamond League trophy.
Duplantis started pole vaulting at an early age and, under the guidance of his father Greg, has been breaking records since the age of seven.
Here is the Top 10
1. Duplantis Armand – Athletics 603
2. Djokovic Novak – Tennis 368
3. Pogačar Tadej – Cyclisme 294
4. Marchand León – Swimming 246
5. Vinícius Junior – Football 226
6. Alcaraz Carlos – Tennis 220
7. Yamal Lamine – Football 211
8. Sinner Jannik – Tennis 180
9. López Mijain – Lutte 172
10. Rodri – Football 144
AIPS Members from the following 111 countries participated in the 2024 survey:
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chile, China, Cyprus, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Korea, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Cuba, Denmark, Egypt, Ecuador, Spain, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Great Britain, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan , Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Morocco, Mauritania, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Norway, New Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Sudan, Sweden , Switzerland, Suriname, Chinese Taipei, Czech Republic, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, USA, Venezuela, Yemen
