World champion Carlos Yulo and WTA-ranked Alex Eala headline a strong field of contenders for the 2025 Athlete of the Year honor to be awarded at the Philippine Sportswriters Association Awards Night.
Both athletes delivered defining performances in 2025, carrying the Philippine flag to new heights in their respective disciplines and emerging as the standard-bearers of a banner year for local sports.
Fresh off his historic two-gold haul in the 2024 Paris Olympics, Yulo reaffirmed his place among the world’s elite by capturing the vault gold at the 53rd FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Jakarta.
He also added a bronze medal in the floor exercise, further cementing his dominance on the global stage.
The 25-year-old gymnast earlier continued his medal surge at the Artistic Gymnastics Asian Championships in Jecheon, South Korea, where he ruled the floor exercise and collected three additional bronze medals to cap another stellar international campaign.
Eala, meanwhile, enjoyed a breakthrough year on the WTA Tour, becoming the first Filipina to crack the Top 50 of the world rankings at just 20 years old.
She opened 2025 with a semifinal run at the Miami Open, followed it up with a WTA 125 title in Mexico, and capped her season by ending the Philippines’ long gold-medal drought in tennis at the 2025 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.
Also in the running for the prestigious award are swimmer Kayla Sanchez, golfer Miguel Tabuena, and pool ace Chezka Centeno, all of whom authored milestone achievements in 2025.
Sanchez emerged as the most bemedalled Filipino athlete in the 33rd Southeast Asian Games, tallying three gold and five silver medals for a total of eight in her SEA Games debut.
Tabuena topped the biggest golf tournament ever staged in the country — the International Series Philippines — outdueling a world-class field that included major champions Dustin Johnson and Patrick Reed to claim the $360,000 top prize.
Centeno, on the other hand, crowned herself WPA Women’s 10-Ball world champion after edging compatriot Rubilen Amit in a thrilling all-Filipino final.
The PSA, the country’s oldest media organization, will stage its annual awards gala on February 2 at the Diamond Hotel.
Alongside Athlete of the Year, the night will also honor recipients of the President’s Award, Lifetime Achievement Award, Executive of the Year, and National Sports Association of the Year, as well as Major Awards, special citations, the Tony Siddayao Awards, and the Milo Junior Athletes of the Year.
