Athlete Leo Neugebauer is Germany’s athlete of the year. The 25-year-old decathlon world champion prevailed in the sports journalists’ election ahead of swimmer Florian Wellbrock and professional cyclist Florian Lipowitz. A biathlon star won among the women.
Neugebauer received 2,343 points in the election and was honored at the gala in the Kurhaus in Baden-Baden.
A year after winning Olympic silver in Paris, Neugebauer crowned his sporting career to date with the World Championship gold medal in Tokyo. He is following in the footsteps of Niklas Kaul, who also won World Cup gold in 2019 and was voted Sportsman of the Year a few months later.
Swimmer Wellbrock won four gold medals in the open water at the World Swimming Championships in Singapore and scored 1,377 points in the election.
Professional cyclist Lipowitz, who finished the Tour de France in third place behind Tadej Pogacar from Slovenia and Denmark’s Jonas Vingegaard, came third in the voting. With 1,140 points, he was well ahead of swimmer Lukas Märtens (786) and Nordic combined swimmer Vinzenz Geiger (669).
Preuß leaves last year’s winner behind
Biathlon world champion Franziska Preuß won among women. The 31-year-old won four World Championship medals this year and secured the title ahead of her predecessor Darja Varfolomeev from rhythmic gymnastics.
In addition to World Cup gold in the pursuit, Preuß also won precious metal in the sprint and in two relays and also won the overall World Cup. At the gala in the Kurhaus in Baden-Baden, she follows, among others, Magdalena Neuner (2007, 2011, 2012), Laura Dahlmeier (2017) and Denise Herrmann-Wick (2023), who had already secured the award as biathletes.
With 1,749 points, Preuß was just ahead of Varfolomeev (1,701), who prevailed in the 2024 Olympic year. The 19-year-old won five gold medals at this year’s World Championships in Rio de Janeiro. Third place went to swimming world champion Anna Elendt, who was well behind with 880 points. Combiner Nathalie Armbruster (861) and luger Julia Taubitz (728) completed the top five.
Sophie Dziadek wins novelty
For the first time this year, a Special Olympics Female Athlete of the Year was named at the Athlete of the Year Gala. Speed skater Sophie Dziadek from Bavaria won the election initiated by Deutsche Telekom. The 18-year-old was chosen by a jury that included football star Thomas Müller, national handball player Julian Köster and former ski racer Felix Neureuther.
Neureuther, ambassador for Special Olympics Germany, also gave the laudatory speech for Dziadek on Sunday evening in the Kurhaus in Baden-Baden. “It is high time for Special Olympics athletes to be on this stage as a matter of course,” the 41-year-old had previously said. Special Olympics is the world’s largest sports movement for people with intellectual disabilities.
Ten athletes from various sports had previously been nominated for the award as part of the 79th edition of the Sportsman of the Year. The election is intended to recognize the sporting achievements of people with intellectual disabilities and create more visibility. Christiane Krajewski, President of Special Olympics Germany, described Dziadek’s honor as a “historic step.” The short tracker herself said: “I hope that many people will learn how strong and diverse we Special Olympics athletes are.”