Rewarded in 2019, 2022 and 2023, Evenepoel was preferred this time to racing driver Thierry Neuville, the first Belgian to be crowned world rally champion, and to athlete Bashir Abdi, Olympic silver medalist in the marathon.
With four titles, he is alone third in the rankings of the annual referendum of Sportpress.be, the Belgian professional association of sports journalists, organized since 1967, behind the six crowns of Eddy Merckx (1969-74) and the five of the pilot of motocross Stefan Everts (2001-04 and 2006). They were 27 and 32 respectively when they were elected for the fourth time. The last consecutive hat-trick was achieved by another cyclist Philippe Gilbert (2009-10-11).
The pass of five for Nafi
Ten years after a first title, Nafi Thiam was elected Belgian Sportswoman of the Year 2024, during the Sports Gala organized on Sunday at the Skyhall of Brussels Airport. The heptathlete obtains this award for the fifth time. In 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2022, she had already won the annual referendum of Sportpress.be, the Belgian professional association of sports journalists.
JO 2024 – Athletics: Nafi Thiam, the iron lady of the heptathlon
This year, Thiam collected 911 points and beat the now double world Cycling champion Lotte Kopecky, winner in 2023 and awarded this year with the National Sports Merit Trophy, who obtained 828 points. Her fellow heptathlete Noor Vidts, world champion in the (indoor) pentathlon and bronze medalist at the European Championships and the Olympic Games, took 3rd place with 363 points.
The Namuroise becomes only third in the list of athletes having been most often rewarded with the title of Sportswoman of the Year behind the judoka Ingrid Berghmans (1980, 1982-1986 and 1988-1989) and the tennis player Kim Clijsters (1999 -2002, 2005, 2009-2011) which were acclaimed eight times. She also appeared on the podium of this referendum in 2nd place in 2018 and 2021 and in 3rd place in 2019. The athlete was chosen as Hope of the Year in 2013.
Nafi Thiam, 30, achieved the unique performance in the annals of Belgian sport and multiple events in athletics, men and women combined, of winning an Olympic title in three consecutive Games (2016, 2021 and 2024).
Nafi Thiam was absent from the Gala and did not communicate a reaction by video. His trophy was given to his mother Danièle Denisty.
Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe, world rally champions, are Team of the Year
Thierry Neuville, who is also present in this referendum for the individual title of Sportsman of the Year, was chosen with his co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe as Belgian Team 2024 during the Sports Gala organized by Sportpress, the Belgian professional association of sports journalists , Sunday at the Skyhall of Brussels National.
The WRC world rally champion duo was favored by very little, 565 points against 552, to the Belgian Tornados, the men’s 4x400m athletics relay. He added two titles (world indoor in Glasgow, European outdoors in Rome) and two other international finals to his list of achievements, including 4th place at the Olympic Games for the fourth time. The Tornados have obtained this trophy four times in the past (2009, 2010, 2011 and 2022).
The Belgian Cats, the women’s national basketball team, 4th in the Paris Olympic tournament and elected Team of the Year in 2023, complete the top three with 523 points
Never has a racing team been voted for in this annual referendum which has rewarded teams since 1997.
At the wheel of their Hyundai, Neuville, 36, and Wydaeghe, 32, are the first Belgians to win a world rally title. In 2024, they won two of the thirteen WRC championship events (Monte-Carlo and the Acropolis in Greece) and showed great consistency elsewhere.
Sven Vanthourenhout is Coach of the Year
Sven Vanthourenthout gave Belgian cycling its first Coach of the Year trophy, during the Sport Gala, organized each year by Sportpress, the Belgian Professional Association of Sports Journalists, on Sunday at the Skyhall of Brussels Airport.
The now former sports director of the men’s national elite and hopeful road cycling teams beat two athletics coaches: Michael Van der Plaetsen who accompanied Nafi Thiam during his third European and then Olympic coronation in heptathlon and Jacques Borlée, at the head notably the Belgian Tornados, the men’s 4x400m relay. Borlée is a former double winner and opened the list in 2011.
-Vanthourenhout collected 687 points against 481 for Van der Plaetsen and 362 for Borlée.
He succeeds the coach of the Belgian Cats, the women’s national basketball team, Frenchman Rachid Meziane, fourth this year.
Jarno Widar Hope of the Year
Cycling remains at the heart of Belgian sport. After the last five Sportsman of the Year titles (pending the sixth) shared between Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert, that of Sportswoman of the Year for Lotte Kopecky in 2023, Jarno Widar offered the “little queen” his 4th consecutive crown of Sportsman of the Year and the 7th in the last ten years.
The 19-year-old Lotto Dstny pocket climber succeeds Thibau Nys (2021), Cian Uijtdebroecks (2022) and Alec Segaert (2023).
Jarno Widar explains why he signed with Lotto… but not with the pros: “The World Cup in Rwanda was decisive”
The Limburger gathered 503 points around his name and was preferred to basketball player Ajay Mitchell, who became a player of the excellent Oklahoma City team in the NBA, the most competitive basketball championship in the world, who obtained 471 points , and to the Namur swimmer Sarah Dumont, double European junior champion, who collected 421 points.
Jarno Widar had a great 2024 vintage, with final victories in prestigious stage races among the Espoirs such as the Giro Next Gen, the Alpes Isère Tour and the Tour de la Vallée d’Aoste. At the Under-23 World Championship in Zurich, he finished seventh and was chosen Hope of the Year at the Crystal Bike award ceremony.
Widar will still ride with Lotto’s development squad in 2025 before moving to the pros in 2026.
Maxime Carabin for the double
Maxime Carabin was elected Paralympic Athlete of the Year 2024 during the Sport Gala, organized by Sportpress, the Belgian Professional Association of Sports Journalists, on Sunday evening at the Skyhall at Brussels Airport.
Paris 2024, Crazy Games (7/10) – Maxime Carabin’s double seen by his coach: “He didn’t work like a dog for nothing”
The 24-year-old wheelchair athlete from Liège was narrowly preferred during the annual referendum to two other double gold medalists at the Paris Paralympic Games last summer: wheelchair athlete Léa Bayekula, who won over 100 and 400 m in class T54 and dressage rider Michèle George who won a fourth consecutive Paralympic title in both the freestyle and individual events (Grade V).
Carabin collected 588 points to Bayekula’s 559 and George’s 541.
Maxime Carabin is, after Peter Genyn (2017-2018) and Joachim Gérard (2019-2020), the third Paralympic athlete to win two years in a row.
Soumagnard won the gold medals in the 100m and 400m in para athletics, category T52, in the French capital. In the spring, he won three world titles in Kobe, Japan, in the 100, 400 and 1500m and improved his world record in the 100m.
