Kelly Slater Wins Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award—Becomes Fifth Person to Win Five Laureus Awards

Prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award

Summary: Kelly Slater wins Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award, joining legends like Tom Brady, Federer & Biles.

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Kelly Slater Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

The winningest surfer in history and the undisputed GOAT of the sport, Kelly Slater added another trophy to his mantle in April when he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Laureus World Sports Awards. At an awards ceremony on April 21 in Madrid, Spain, the world’s best athletes gathered for what has come to be called the “Oscars of sports.” Unlike the other seven categories at the Laureus Awards, the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award isn’t awarded every year. In fact, it has only been awarded 19 times in the 25 years that the awards have been held, with other noteworthy recipients including Tom Brady, Billie Jean King, and soccer great Pele.

Slater’s History with Laureus Awards

Over the years, Slater has been a prolific winner at the Laureus Awards, taking home the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year award four times, in 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2012. The only other surfers to have won a Laureus Award are Layne Beachley (2004) and Steph Gilmore (2010), both of whom also won World Action Sportsperson of the Year.

Caroline Marks was nominated for the award in 2025 after winning Olympic Gold at Teahupoo, and in 2024 after winning the 2023 world title, but ended up narrowly losing out both years, with mountain biker Tom Pidcock winning this year.

Other Notable Laureus Winners

Slater’s fifth Laureus win in the form of his 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award put him in rare company. Serena Williams, Novak Djokovic, Simone Biles, and Roger Federer are the only other people to have won five Laureus Awards (with Federer holding the all-time record at six).

Along with Slater, Biles won her fifth in 2025 when she took home her fourth Sportswoman of the Year award (she has also won a Comeback of the Year award).

2025 Laureus Award Recipients

• Mondo Duplantis – Sportsman of the Year
• Real Madrid – Team of the Year
• Rebeca Andrade – Comeback of the Year
• Lamine Yamal – Breakthrough of the Year
• Yuyan Jiang – Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability
• Kick4Life – Sport for Good

History of the Laureus World Sports Awards

The Laureus Awards were created in 1999 by the founding patrons of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, with the first award ceremony celebrating the best of sporting achievement in 2000. The inaugural awards ceremony was held in Monte Carlo. Since then, the annual awards ceremony has also been held in:

• Lisbon and Estoril (Portugal)
• Barcelona, Seville, and Madrid (Spain)
• Saint Petersburg (Russia)
• Abu Dhabi (UAE)
• London (UK)
• Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
• Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)
• Shanghai (China)
• Berlin (Germany)
• Paris (France)

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