Brazilian Para swimmer Gabriel Araujo wins 2026 Laureus Award

Brazilian Para swimmer Gabriel Araujo received the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award for his excellent 2025 season, which included a hat-trick of golds on the World Para Swimming Championships in Singapore.

On the Laureus stage on the Palacio de Cibeles in Madrid on Monday night (20 April), Araujo celebrated his award in the way in which that has grow to be his trademark on Paralympic and World Championships podiums: by dancing.

“I would like to thank God and my family for everything we are building. Being here is a dream, thanks to my coach for all the support. I hope this award will be the first of many and we continue to make history. Let’s dance,” stated Araujo, who obtained his award from Paralympic fencing champion Beatrice Vio and FC Porto President, Andre Villas-Boas.

The Brazilian delivered his speech to a standing ovation from an viewers that included a number of the best athletes of all time, amongst them gymnastics legends Nadia Comaneci and Simone Biles, tennis star Novak Djokovic, 14-time Paralympic swimming champion Daniel Dias, and soccer icons Cafu and Luis Figo.

It was Araujo’s first nomination and marked the sixth Laureus Awards win for a Para swimmer, in addition to the second consecutive victory for the game, following China’s Jiang Yuyan final yr. Previous Para swimming winners had been South Africa’s Natalie du Toit in 2010 and Brazil’s Daniel Dias, who holds the report for probably the most Laureus wins by a Para athlete with three statuettes in 2009, 2013 and 2016.

Araujo – or Gabrielzinho, as he’s recognized in his residence nation – additionally grew to become the primary Brazilian Para athlete to win the award since Dias in 2016.

This yr’s different nominees had been Para swimmers David Kratochvil of Czechia and Simone Barlaam of Italy, Swiss wheelchair racer Catherine Debrunner, Ecuadorian Para athletics star Kiara Rodriguez, and USA Para ice hockey participant Kelsey DiClaudio, the primary feminine athlete from her sport to be shortlisted for the awards.

The Laureus World Sports Awards honours the best and most inspirational sporting achievements annually and showcases the work of Laureus Sport for Good to a worldwide viewers.  

First staged in 2000, the Laureus World Sports Awards is the one world sports activities occasion which honours the best sportsmen and ladies throughout all sports activities.