- Marc Marquez lost out to Carlos Alcaraz at the 2026 Laureus World Sports Awards.
- MotoGP’s Laureus drought continues despite Marquez’s historic comeback title.
- The growth of the series’ global profile remains key to future recognition.
On Monday, tennis superstar Carlos Alcaraz won the 2026 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award. But motorsport fans, and MotoGP in particular, would have felt hard done by another Spaniard missing out on the sporting Oscars yet again: Marc Marquez.
This was not only his best possible shot at global glory, but also a sad reminder that MotoGP is yet to become truly mainstream. Or at least, as mainstream as tennis, football, or F1.
A MotoGP era record-equalling seventh title to join Valentino Rossi, won in utterly dominant fashion with five rounds to spare. The oldest world champion in the MotoGP era and the first ever to win six years after their last title.
Those years included Marquez competing after an arm injury that would have ended most racing careers. Not to mention the turmoil of self-doubt and choosing to move on from the team where he had built his entire empire.
The resurgence that wasn’t enough
Marquez’s 2025 victory was easily the biggest comeback in MotoGP history, and right up there in any sport, period. That’s why it was perplexing to see him not even being nominated for the World Comeback of the Year award.
The fact that Marquez was nominated twice previously for it, in 2022 and 2025, may have had some bearing. But his rise to the top wasn’t complete back then, and neither did he win the award.
Which begs the question: if his return to racing competitively was good enough to be nominated, why wasn’t his championship win? Was it an oversight or a rules quirk? The Laureus Academy hasn’t explained its criteria publicly, so we may never know.
In some respects, Marquez contending only for the big prize could have worked in his favour. This was the first time since 2017 that no F1 driver was nominated for Sportsman of the Year, and the first time since 2010 that a MotoGP rider was the lone motorsport representative.
The field Marquez had to beat
Also on the list were cyclist Tadej Pogacar, pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis, tennis no. 1 Jannik Sinner, and footballer Ousmane Dembele. Despite his Ballon d’Or win, Dembele’s individual case was always weak given PSG’s collective brilliance. Besides, team-sport athletes have always had it tough at Laureus, unless you’re as good as Lionel Messi.
Duplantis, meanwhile, had another standout season, breaking the world record four times, including at the Tokyo World Championships. But having won the 2025 Laureus award, his omission wasn’t as glaring, especially in a non-Olympic year.
Pogacar arguably had the strongest credentials alongside Marquez, winning the Tour de France, the UCI Road World Championships, and the European title in 2025. But cycling faces the same mainstream visibility problem as MotoGP. A Laureus win for Pogačar would have had similar implications for the sport as Marquez’s case.
As a result, Alcaraz’s win seems even more like a result of tennis’s popularity. Male tennis players have won the award on 13 occasions out of 25 nominations. That’s a greater likelihood of winning than not. All other sports’ athletes put together have 14 wins, with athletics and Formula One distant second, having five apiece.
But 2025 specifically felt like the year when voters would have a conundrum within tennis. Both Sinner and Alcaraz split the Grand Slams two each. Moreover, the Italian won the ATP Tour Finals and wrestled back World No. 1 status from Alcaraz recently. A mandate division still wasn’t enough for a non-tennis athlete to sneak the trophy.
History repeating for MotoGP
Unfortunately, this shouldn’t be news for the MotoGP fandom, especially the old guard. If the Rossi heydays weren’t enough to push ‘The Doctor’ to win even once from five nominations, the ‘Ant of Cervera’ perhaps never stood a chance.
In the end, 2025 — like 2014 and 2019 — granted Marquez only a seat at the world sports table but not at its head. But this doesn’t hurt his reputation among racing aficionados one bit, let alone his own hunger for success.
For MotoGP, however, it’s bound to sting. The most high-profile rider in over a decade could have done absolutely no more by himself. Unfortunately, the sport’s profile matters as well, and that’s the biggest battle facing the series today. It might need a rivalry like Rossi versus Marquez again and a Drive to Survive-esque opening to streaming audiences.
For now, though, while Marquez’s sole triumph at Laureus remains for his 2013 breakthrough, the world’s top motorcycle racing series still searches for theirs.
