One MotoGP rider nominated for 'comeback' in major sports awards
MotoGP points leader up for prestigious award
Current MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez has been nominated in this year's Laureus Awards.
Factory Ducati rider Marquez, fresh from his sprint/grand prix double at the 2025 Thai Grand Prix to take his first lead in the championship since 2019, is up for honours in the Comeback of the Year category.
Read more: Marc Marquez spared his MotoGP rivals from a brutal beatdown in Thai GP
Marquez’s nomination is for his return to winning ways in 2024, having one without a victory since 2021.
The eight-time world champion suffered a serious arm injury at the 2020 Spanish GP, which ruled him out for the rest of that year and ultimately held back his career for the following two years.
Having found uncompetitive machinery at Honda in 2023 when he was back to full fitness, Marquez elected to quit his factory deal a year early to join the satellite Gresini squad on a year-old Ducati for 2024.
He went on to win three grands prix and finish third in the championship, while also strong-arming his way into a factory Ducati team seat for this season.
He has been nominated in the Comeback of the Year category alongside gymnast Rebeca Andrade, swimmer Caeleb Dressel, Alpine skier Lara Gut-Behrami, Cricketer Rishabh Pant and swimmer Ariarne Titmus.
Marquez was previously a nominee in the category in 2022, while he was twice a nominee for Sportsman of the Year in 2015 and 2020.
He won the Breakthrough of the Year award in 2014 for his championship-winning rookie season in 2013.
Marquez became the first factory team Ducati rider to win on their debut for the squad since Casey Stoner in 2007, the year the Australian went on to claim the first of his two MotoGP titles.
He holds an eight-point lead in the standings going into the second round of the 2025 season in Argentina, a race he has won three times in his MotoGP career.
