Photo: Chloe Kim/Instagram
Chloe Kim was awarded her third Laureus Action Sportsperson of the Year Award at the 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards ceremony in Madrid, Spain. The annual ceremony, which honors individuals around the world who make a significant impact in sports, establishes winners in several awards categories, which include Sportsman of the Year, Sportswoman of the Year, Team of the Year, Comeback of the Year, Breakthrough of the Year, and Action Sportsperson of the Year. Kim is the only female to win Action Sportsperson of the Year multiple times.
At just 25, Kim has two Olympic gold medals at the top of her resumé. She won halfpipe silver at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games, but it was her 2025 gold medals at the World Championships in Engadin (third career) and Winter X gold in Aspen (eighth career) that the foundation highlighted in an announcement of her Laureus win, noting that those accomplishments brought her to the level of Shaun White as snowboarding’s most decorated halfpipe competitors.
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The foundation referred to her year as “another season of boundary pushing performances that reaffirmed her status as the most influential snowboarder of her generation. In a community of athletes who compete at high speed, high altitude and high risk, it takes something truly spectacular to soar above all others and claim this Laureus.”
Notably, Kim’s honor as 2026 Action Sportsperson of the Year beat out two surfers celebrating their first Championship Tour world titles, 2025 champs Yago Dora and Molly Picklum. A surfing world champion has been nominated for the Action Sportsperson of the Year award almost every year since the ceremony began in 2000, with the exceptions of 2000, 2002 and 2005. Layne Beachley won the award in 2004 and Stephanie Gilmore won in 2010. Kelly Slater, meanwhile, was awarded a lifetime achievement award in 2025 to accompany his four Action Sportsperson of the Year Awards (2007, 2009, 2011, 2012). Kim is now second on the list with her third time taking home the honor, and at just 25-years old she still has more career accomplishments to add to her growing resumé.
