OPINION: Tadej Pogacar and cycling were snubbed at Laureus Awards

The Laureus World Sports Awards took place yesterday, a celebration of athletic excellence that, for over two decades, has recognised the most dominant, inspiring and influential sportspeople on the planet. Often dubbed the “Oscars of sport,” the awards are meant to transcend disciplines and reward greatness wherever it appears.

Yet once again, cycling has been left in the shadows.

Despite delivering one of the greatest seasons the sport has ever witnessed, Tadej Pogacar failed to win the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award. Instead, the prestigious honour went to Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis, a world record-breaking pole vaulter and reigning Olympic champion.

Duplantis is, by all means, a phenomenal athlete. This article doesn’t aim to diminish his brilliance, no, he is a deserving winner. But it does beg the question: how can a season like Pogacar’s go unrewarded on a stage that claims to celebrate global sporting excellence?

In 2024, Pogacar wrote his name into the history books with a string of accomplishments that left cycling fans in awe and pundits scrambling for historical comparisons. His Giro d’Italia-Tour de France double was the first in 26 years, a feat last achieved by Marco Pantani in 1998.

Many doubted it could be done in the modern era. The races are more intense than ever, the depth of talent deeper, and the demands of a full cycling calendar unforgiving.

But Pogacar didn’t just complete the double, he dominated both races.

Across both Grand Tours, he racked up a remarkable 12 stage victories, seizing control of races in a way rarely seen in the 21st century. He rode aggressively, often launching long-range attacks and breaking his rivals with sheer panache. According to Pro Cycling Stats, he spent 91.3% of his time at stage races in 2024 in the leader’s jersey, a number that defies belief given the calibre of his opposition.

And even that wasn’t the end.

Pogacar went on to win the World Road Race Championships in Zurich, donning the coveted rainbow jersey and completing cycling’s mythical “triple crown” — victory at the Giro, the Tour, and the Worlds in a single season. Only two riders in history had done so before him: Eddy Merckx and Stephen Roche. That alone should place Pogačcr’s season among the greatest in all of sport, not just cycling.

Throw in victories at Monument classics Liège–Bastogne–Liège and Il Lombardia, and a podium finish at Milano–Sanremo, and it becomes increasingly difficult to argue that any athlete had a more complete, varied, and dominant year in their sport.

Yet despite all this, Pogacar was not the winner of the Sportsman of the Year. It’s not the first time cycling has been overlooked. In fact, no cyclist has ever officially won the Laureus Sportsman of the Year award, as whilst Lance Armstrong received it in 2003, but that was later rescinded in light of his doping admissions. Since then, cycling has registered five nominations in the category, but no victories.

In contrast, tennis leads all sports with a staggering 12 wins, largely due to the unprecedented era of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. Athletics and Formula One have also enjoyed regular recognition, and football too.

So why does cycling keep getting passed over?

There’s no denying that cycling still carries the scars of its darker days. The shadow of the EPO era, particularly the 1990s and early 2000s, lingers in the public imagination. Doping scandals like those involving Armstrong, Jan Ullrich, and countless others sullied the reputation of the sport for an entire generation.

Even today, despite improved testing and far greater scrutiny, the association remains. For some mainstream audiences, it’s difficult to shake the suspicion that what they’re witnessing might not be entirely clean. Laureus may be reluctant to throw its weight behind a sport that still, rightly or wrongly, suffers from a trust deficit.

But how long can the sport continue to be judged by the sins of its past?

In Pogacar, cycling has a new kind of icon. A rider who blends natural talent with charisma, humility, and a genuine love for the sport. He has never been linked to any wrongdoing, has never produced a suspicious test, and has always conducted himself with openness.

If anything, he represents everything that modern cycling is striving to be: transparent, exciting, and authentically human.

So of course, he has his doubters anyway.

Then there’s the uncomfortable question of visibility.

Cycling, while massive in parts of Europe, simply doesn’t have the same global media footprint as tennis, football, or Formula One. Despite being one of the most physically demanding sports in the world, cycling struggles to command attention in the US, China, and other key markets where global awards shows are shaped.

Pogacar’s exploits, while jaw-dropping to fans within the sport, didn’t dominate headlines in the way a Wimbledon win or the 100m Olympic final did. And in an era where viral clips, social media reach, and television exposure count for so much, perhaps the Laureus Awards are tilting more toward popularity than performance.

This year’s results seem to reflect that. As deserving as Mondo Duplantis is, was his 2024 season objectively more impressive than Pogacar’s? Did he reach deeper into the limits of human performance? Was his record-breaking vault more significant than winning all three of cycling’s most important prizes in a single year?

Perhaps I’m being biased as a cycling fan. Even still, Duplantis has broken the world record 11 times in his career which is of course stunning, but is it surprising now when he breaks it? No, certainly not as surprising as it was to see Pogacar dominate in such fashion in 2024.

Of course, in 2025, we expect Pogacar to win every race he starts. But in 2024, Pogacar was coming off the back of a 2023 season where he was crushed by Jonas Vingegaard. Add Pogacar’s comeback in 2024 to his list of accolades, and surely his season was the more impressive?

That’s open for debate, so leave your thoughts down below.

It’s hard not to see the Laureus omission as a snub, not just to Pogacar, but to cycling as a whole. And that’s disappointing, because the sport deserves more. It demands more from its athletes than perhaps any other: gruelling training blocks, endless travel, and three-week races where one bad day can derail an entire season.

Athletes like Tadej Pogacar are not just winners, they’re artists, tacticians, and survivors. They deserve to be recognised when they deliver seasons as monumental as 2024.

Credit must go to Tom Pidcock, who won the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year for his heroic comeback win in the Olympic mountain bike cross-country event. His victory was one of the defining moments of the Paris 2024 Games for Team GB, and proof that cycling talent is breaking through in other categories.

But for road racing, the grand stage of the sport, the wait for recognition continues.

If Pogacar’s 2024 season isn’t enough to win the top prize, then what is?

A Giro-Tour double, a rainbow jersey, monument classics, solo attacks that bordered on the mythical, all achieved with flair and grace. Yet somehow, still not enough.

The Laureus Awards are meant to reflect the pinnacle of athletic achievement. But in their refusal to acknowledge cycling’s finest modern ambassador, they’ve raised a troubling question: is it really about greatness anymore, or just about being seen?

Let us know in the comments, why you think that Tadej Pogacar was snubbed in the vote.