Cross-country skier Jonna Sundling has been awarded the 2025 Jerring Prize after receiving the most votes from the Swedish public. She beat football club Mjällby in the final and outpaced favorites like Armand Duplantis. Sundling, absent from the event, pledged to defend Sweden's colors at the Olympics in Italy.
At the Sports Gala in Stockholm's Globen arena, Jonna Sundling was awarded the Jerring Prize, the prestigious public-voted honor for 2025. With 214,832 votes, she defeated Mjällby AIF's 110,591, while Daniel Ståhl placed third with 56,726. Pre-event favorites like pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, cross-country skier Ebba Andersson, and table tennis player Truls Möregårdh were eliminated early in the voting.
Sundling, 31, from Umeå and representing Piteå Elit, had a stellar 2024 with three World Championship golds in Norway, including sprint, sprint relay, and the long relay, where Sweden's women's team swept all six possible golds. She also secured three World Cup wins last season and three so far this year. The prize was presented by Radiosporten's Bengt Skött and Prince Carl Philip, but Sundling accepted it via video link from Seiser Alm in Switzerland, where she is preparing for the Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo.
"I am very overwhelmed to receive one of the finest prizes one can get in Sweden," she said. "This feels about like winning a sprint at the World Championships in Trondheim, just as big." She thanked the public, her national team, coaches, clubs, and family, especially her parents. Ahead of the Olympics, she pledged: "I will do everything I can to defend the blue-yellow colors."
Armand Duplantis, who won the Jerring Prize in 2020 but missed it in 2024 and 2025 despite Olympic, European, and indoor World golds plus three world records, claimed Male Athlete of the Year and accepted the Leader of the Year award for his parents, Greg and Helena Duplantis. Sundling also won Female Athlete of the Year, Daniel Ståhl took Achievement of the Year, and Mjällby secured Team of the Year—historic as the first team honored solely on national merits. Other winners included Jacob Hölting Nilsson and Elmer Andersson as Rookies of the Year in beach volleyball, Anders Gärderud with a lifetime achievement award, and Marika Domanski Lyfors with the Sports Mirror Prize.
