The Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards, in association with Citi, have been celebrating the best of women’s sport for 37 years — from the grassroots inspirations to those at the top of their game winning Olympic gold medals.

This year’s shortlists include the likes of Keely Hodgkinson, who won 800m gold in Paris, the Paralympic great Dame Sarah Storey and teenage skateboarder Sky Brown.

The awards also celebrate the finest athletes in disability sport, supported by our partners Citi, and honour the selfless heroes whose unsung work has helped get women and girls develop their sporting passions.

The England goalkeeper Mary Earps won the main award last year, while previous recipients include the great and good of British sport, from Dame Kelly Holmes to Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill to Dame Denise Lewis.

After the public nomination of sportswomen in all categories, a group of expert judges including Ennis-Hill, Lewis, Rebecca Adlington, Stuart Broad, Karen Carney, Annabel Croft, Baroness Grey-Thompson and Gabby Logan have helped choose the shortlists.

Now it’s time for you to have your say. Grassroots Sportswoman of the Year and Team of the Year are voted for by the public, Sportswoman of the Year and Disability Sportswoman of the Year are decided by the judges, and Young Sportswoman of the Year by combining both the expert judges’ votes and the public votes.

Ben Taylor, editor of The Sunday Times, said: “These awards are a testament to the incredible achievements of women in sport over the past year. From world-class athletes who shone at global events like the Olympics, to champions on local pitches and courts, every nominee has made a significant impact. This year, we’re excited to expand the scope of the awards even further, ensuring that women’s contributions to sport at every level are recognised and celebrated.”

Make your vote here 

Grassroots Sportswoman of the Year

For individuals who have actively engaged with people in their community through sport

Elaine Brown, the director of volleyball at the GORSE Academies Trust, is known throughout the Leeds sporting scene for her commitment to inclusivity and equality. She has implemented a volleyball programme across 16 schools and is providing access to the sport for more than 11,000 children. She teaches students of all ages and backgrounds, including the Yorkshire Girls’ team, and is an assistant coach for England Men’s Volleyball. Elaine also runs an annual beach volleyball trip for more than 300 students, and arranged for some of the top athletes to compete at the Cornacchia World Cup in Italy — for many their first time away from home abroad. She organises LGBTQ+ events and is passionate about bringing greater diversity to the sport.

Val French is a retired PE teacher and volunteer for British Cycling’s Breeze Programme, where she is committed to helping women get involved in cycling for fun, friendship and fitness. She is the first volunteer to lead more than 1,000 rides through the programme (cycling more than 18,100 miles in the process), having supported the initiative since its inception in 2011, and has provided access to the sport for more than 5,000 women along the way. Her journey hasn’t always been smooth, with two knee replacements, two shoulder replacements and a snapped achilles tendon. However, her determination to get out on her bike remains undimmed, and each time she has recovered and returned to the cycling community she built.

Rachel Mitchell and Karen McPherson coach Kew Park Rangers, a grassroots collective of football teams for young people. After a string of defeats left the under-14s at the bottom of the division, Karen helped to unite the team, and they moved up two divisions to win the Surrey under-14 cup last year. She goes above and beyond as a coach, giving up her time not only for training and matches, but also arranging social events to bring everyone together. Rachel has coached the under-13 team to success and instilled in them a strong sense of respect and community. She prioritises inclusivity and participation, making sure girls can take part even if they’re not the strongest or most experienced.

Jayne Morris is the sailing coordinator at Salcombe Yacht Club, where her tireless enthusiasm for the sport has resulted in record numbers of nominations for this award. At Salcombe Yacht Club, she inspires people of all ages to try sailing, imbuing every session, from weekly beginner sessions to more advanced ones, with her infectious love of the sport. Jayne has always had great enthusiasm for the Cadet schemes at the club and sought to give time to individuals to help them find their confidence. Jayne remains committed to increasing the number of boats and sessions, as well as helping to run the extensive sailing Programme at the Club. Not just interested in access for young people, she started the popular Ladies that Launch initiative for women who are new or returning to sailing, which was so popular that she launched the parallel Buoys Aloud initiative for men. As a coach, Jayne encourages those of all levels of ability to grow and pursue their sailing goals, committed to making the club inclusive and accessible to all. She is always thinking about ways to introduce newcomers. Jayne has helped the local Sea Scouts with their sailing activities for some twenty years.

Anne Onwusiri is a committed rugby coach, dedicated to making the sport more accessible to women of colour. Onwusiri runs the Black Girls Ruck podcast, a project started in lockdown which has helped more women to access and understand the world of rugby. Under the slogan, “If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not listening,” they engage with a range of topics on the podcast, including eating disorders, sex and injury. Their interest in getting more black women involved began when they joined the Hackney Ladies team, finding a majority of players were white despite being in a diverse area of London. Alongside friend and team captain Lamees Idris, Anne has tried a range of initiatives to encourage people from all identities and backgrounds to get involved, including a hardship fund for those with financial barriers.

Young Sportswoman of the Year

Awarded to inspirational sportswomen who are aged 21 or under on January 1, 2024

Sky Brown, 16, became Britain’s youngest ever summer Olympian in Tokyo three years ago, before building on her success to win another bronze in Paris this summer, despite a dislocated shoulder. She does not have a coach, instead learning tricks from YouTube and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk. Brown qualified for her first Olympics aged 12, despite fracturing her skull in a fall the previous year.

Cat Ferguson, 18, has had a year of back-to-back successes, becoming a junior world champion and winning gold across her four cycling disciplines: team pursuit, omnium, time-trial and road race. Ferguson, whose rise to success has been rapid, having only won her first national title three years ago, has been invited to join the Movistar Team later this year, while continuing to race for her British junior team.

Phoebe Gill, 17, has been breaking records since she first burst on the scene, including the under-17 800m British record. She won the 800m at the British Athletics Championships to qualify for the Paris Olympics, having already broken the European under-18 800m record (which had stood for 45 years) this year, followed by a strong performance in Paris, where she finished fourth in her semi-final.

Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, 19, won her first Olympic medal in 2024, returning from Paris with a bronze in the 10m synchronised diving (with partner Lois Toulson). She competed in her first Olympics aged 16 in Tokyo, and, having amassed a host of junior medals, had a breakthrough year in 2022, with double European gold, two golds and a silver at the Commonwealth Games, and gold at the World Juniors.

Mika Stojsavljevic, 15, is one of Britain’s most promising tennis stars, having won the Junior US Open this year and the girls’ doubles title at the Under-18 Junior National Championships. Having reached the quarter-finals of Junior Wimbledon in 2023, this year her success has gone a step further, becoming the first British player to win the junior US Open title since 2009.

Bly Twomey, 14, won bronze in both Singles WS7 and (with Fliss Pickard) the Doubles WD14 on her Paralympic debut, becoming Britain’s youngest-ever medal winner in table tennis. Twomey only started para table tennis in 2021, within a year being selected for the British development squad. She won her first international medal at the C7 singles Polish Open and is now ranked fourth in the world.

Citi Disability Sportswoman of the Year

Awarded to an outstanding performer in a disability sport

 

Charlotte Henshaw MBE won two gold medals in Paris, triumphing in the women’s VL3 para canoe before defending her KL2 title. She started her sporting career in swimming, winning silver and bronze medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016. However, she has proved to be a dominant force in para canoe since switching, becoming Paralympic champion in her category in her first Games in the sport — her fifth overall.

 

Lauren Rowles MBE broke records with her success in Paris, becoming the first three-times Paralympic gold-medal winner in rowing when she won the PR2 mixed double sculling gold medal, having triumphed at the two previous Games in Rio and Tokyo. Before rowing, Lauren was a wheelchair racing athlete at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. She is also studying for a law degree alongside her sporting achievements.

 

Dame Sarah Storey DBE won gold at the Paralympics for the C4-5 road race and the C4 road cycling time-trial, bringing her medal tally to 30 — 19 of which are gold. She has competed at nine Paralympic Games (her first being Barcelona 1992), as a swimmer at the first four (winning 16 medals, including five golds) before turning to cycling from 2008, winning another 14 medals, all gold, to date. No wonder she is Britain’s most successful Paralympian of all time.

 

Maisie Summers-Newton MBE came home from Paris with two gold medals and one bronze — winning the 200m medley by 5.6 seconds. Having started swimming internationally in 2018, Maisie has dominated since, winning medals at every subsequent World Para Swimming Championships, including three golds in 2022 and two golds and a silver in 2023. These successes propelled her to Paris, where she defended her titles in the SM6 100m breaststroke and 200m medley.

 

Sophie Unwin came home from Paris with four medals to her name (with tandem partner and pilot Jenny Holl): two golds, a silver and a bronze. She was competing in her second Paralympics, having only begun para cycling in 2020. It has been an upwards trajectory ever since, winning multiple gold medals at the Road and Track World Championships, before storming to victory in Paris this summer.

 

Team of the Year

Awarded to one of Britain’s most successful women’s sporting teams

GB Quadruple Sculls won an astonishing gold medal in a photo finish against the Dutch quad. Their 0.15-second Olympic victory — the first in quad sculls for Britain — made the crew the reigning world, European and Olympic champions. Crew member Lola Anderson captured the public imagination when she revealed how her terminally ill father had saved her ripped-out diary pages from 2012, in which she had written about her Olympic dreams, to encourage her to keep training after he died.

The Red Roses again proved themselves to be the dominant force in women’s rugby in 2024, becoming the world’s No1 team and winning yet another title and grand slam in the Six Nations. They then retained their WXV1 championship title in October, defeating the hosts Canada in the final — and sealing a 20th straight win in the process. They haven’t lost a match since the World Cup final, to New Zealand, in 2022.

GB Artistic Swimmers Izzy Thorpe and Kate Shortman made history in Paris when they won Britain’s first medals for artistic swimming, bringing home the silver. They began swimming together when they were nine years old — introduced by their mothers who also competed in artistic swimming together. The pair had considered calling it a day due to lack of funding but decided to give it one more shot, and finally got the recognition they deserved in Paris.

Team GB’s 4×100 relay team delivered the best result for Britain in this race since 1956, winning silver. In the Olympic final, Dina Asher-Smith ran the first leg in a sensational 11.02sec, followed by Imani-Lara Lansiquot, Amy Hunt, and Daryll Neita, missing gold by only 0.07sec. The group showed exceptional teamwork throughout the race, and their bond was demonstrated when team-mates Desiree Henry and Bianca Williams, who ran in the heat, joined them on the podium.

Chelsea Women’s FC won their fifth consecutive Women’s Super League title in gripping fashion, pipping Manchester City on goal difference to give Emma Hayes a victorious farewell. The epic and ultimately doomed push for the Quadruple appeared to have left Chelsea shattered by April but, after a rare City slip-up, they won their last three games by an aggregate of 15-0 to claim the crown. The season culminated with a 6-0 hammering of Manchester United at Old Trafford, which delivered Hayes’s 14th and final trophy of her 12 transformative years as Chelsea head coach.

The Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year

Awarded to your overall favourite sportswoman of 2024

Georgia Bell won bronze in the 1,500m at the Paris Olympics and silver in the same race at the European Championships in Rome. Despite an injury causing her to take a step back, she was inspired by the Tokyo Olympics and gave running another chance. It’s lucky that she did, because she has hit her stride and gone from strength to strength: Bell is the British record-holder for the 1,500m and holds the third-fastest 800m time by a British woman.

Laura Collett MBE and her horse, London 52, won gold in the team eventing (with Rosalind Canter and Tom McEwen) and bronze in the individual eventing at the Olympics. Her journey has not always been easy: after an accident in 2013 where her horse fell on top of her, she was left hospitalised in an induced coma with multiple broken bones, and injuries to her optic nerve which left her blind in one eye. However, Collett was back on her horse within 11 days.

Emma Finucane became the first woman in 60 years to win three medals for Team GB at a single Olympic Games; gold in the team sprint, and bronze in the Keirin and individual sprint. The 21-year-old had already become Britain’s first female European sprint champion, followed by her Olympic hat-trick to match the record previously set by Mary Rand in 1964. Her Olympic team (Finucane with Katy Marchant and Sophie Capewell) broke the world record for the team sprint three times.

Keely Hodgkinson won Olympic gold and European Championship gold in the 800m this year, and also broke Dame Kelly Holmes’s 800m British record, which had stood since 1995. Despite having to overcome a range of challenges, including a mastoidectomy which left her 95 per cent deaf on one side, Hodgkinson has gone from strength to strength, winning silver at the Tokyo Olympics and in the 2022 and 2023 World Championships, before going one better on two occasions this year.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson won silver in Paris, finally adding an Olympic medal to a string of other international successes. KJT, as she is widely known, has risen through the heptathlon ranks since her Olympic debut in 2012. After an achilles injury flared up at Rio 2016, Johnson-Thompson has made a strong comeback, winning gold at both subsequent Commonwealth Games and the World Championships last year.