NAIROBI — Triple Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon is among elite athletes who have been nominated for this year’s Laureus World Sports Award.
Kipyegon is up for the World Sportswoman of the Year award following a stellar season in which she made history as the first female athlete to win three consecutive Olympic titles in the 1500m.
The 31-year-old clocked 3:51.29 to clinch her third crown at last year’s summer games in Paris, following on from her previous triumphs in Rio de Janeiro (2016) and Tokyo (2021).
The feat came less than a month after she had set the same city alight by smashing her own world record by clocking 3:49.04 at the Paris Diamond League.
It came a year after she had claimed her third world title in the three-and-a-quarter-lap race in Budapest, where she timed 3:54.87 for the win.
Others contesting the same award include seven-time Olympic gymnast champion Simone Biles (United States), Olympic marathon champion Sifan Hassan (the Netherlands), four-time Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (United States), tennis superstar Aryanna Sabalenka (Belarus) and Spanish footballer Aitana Bonmati – who won the award last year.
Should she clinch it, Kipyegon will become the second ever Kenyan to win the award since Vivian Cheruiyot in 2012.
The awards ceremony are set for April 21 in Madrid.
Dion Pepper
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