World champion in the decathlon, overall World Cup winner in biathlon and European champion in basketball: these successes convinced the jury to choose her in Baden-Baden.
The “Athletes of the Year” were chosen for the 79th time in Baden-Baden on Sunday (December 21, 2025). Decathlete Leo Neugebauer triumphed among the men, biathlete Franziska Preuß won among the women, and the German basketball men prevailed among the teams.
Athlete of the Year: Decathlete Leo Neugebauer
The choice for athlete of the year was clear: With 2,343 votes, Leo Neugebauer (VfB Stuttgart) was named Sportsman of the Year 2025. He clearly won ahead of swimmer Florian Wellbrock (1,377 votes) and cyclist Florian Lipowitz (1,140 votes). The award was presented to him by his father Terence Neugebauer. Neugebauer, who was in Baden-Baden two years previously as “Newcomer of the Year,” spoke of a “full circle moment.”
Neugebauer’s 2025 sporting year was shaped by his victory at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Here the 25-year-old won his first gold medal in the decathlon. The images from Tokyo will remain unforgettable, as the man from Stuttgart staggered to the finish line in celebration after putting his last strength into the final 1,500 meters on the track. “I feel fantastic,” he shouted afterwards over the stadium microphone. A year after winning Olympic silver in Paris, the decathlete celebrated the first major title of his career.
Athlete of the Year: Biathlete Franziska Preuß
There was a tighter race in the election for Female Athlete of the Year: Franziska Preuß won the award by just 48 votes (1,749 votes). Last year’s winner and gymnast Darja Varfolomeev came in second (1,701 votes). Swimmer Anna Elendt came third (880 votes).
Franziska Preuß won the overall biathlon World Cup at Holmenkollen in Oslo.
Preuß became individual world champion for the first time in her career at the Biathlon World Championships in Lenzerheide. After perfect shooting, she clearly won the pursuit race. The 31-year-old also secured victory in the overall World Cup thanks to her strong performance in 2024/2025.
Team of the Year: National basketball team of men
The German basketball players and their triumph at the European Championships will also remain unforgotten. Two years after the World Cup title in Manila, Dennis Schröder’s team won the final in Riga against Turkey.
In September, the German basketball men won the European Championship title.
The team is currently world champion and European champion for the first time and won the “Team of the Year” award with 2,638 votes, well ahead of the men’s national hockey team (1,367 votes) and the women’s 4×100 meter relay team (1,051 votes).
First award for an athlete with intellectual disabilities
At the traditional election for “Athlete of the Year” in Baden-Baden, the “Special Olympics Female Athlete of the Year” award – for people with intellectual disabilities – was also awarded for the first time on Sunday. The award went to short track athlete Sophie Dziadek. In 2025, the now 18-year-old won a gold and a silver medal in the short track at the Winter World Players in Turin.
Short track athlete Sophie Dziadek
The laudation for the Female Athlete of the Year from the Special Olympics was given in the Bénazetsaal of the Kurhaus in Baden-Baden by former alpine ski star Felix Neureuther.
Memory of the late biathlete Laura Dahlmeier
But it wasn’t just great achievements that were celebrated on Sunday evening. The Backnanger singer Gregor Meyle remembered Olympic champion Laura Dahlmeier with a song. The former biathlete died in an accident in the Karakoram Mountains in Pakistan this summer. She was alpine-style climbing Laila Peak with her rope partner on July 28 when she was struck by a rockfall. Dahlmeier was 31 years old.
3,000 sports journalists and Sports journalists have chosen
Around 3,000 members of the “Association of German Sports Journalists” were eligible to vote in the run-up to the election. The list of suggestions was compiled by the athletes of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and the German Disabled Sports Association (DBS).
