When Nelly Korda won her first LPGA major at the KPMG PGA Championship in 2021 and went on to win Olympic gold in Tokyo in the following year, she became a household figure and was named to Forbes’ list of sports’ 30 Under 30 in 2022.
Korda, a seven-time LPGA winner, was ranked world No. 1 for much of the year before being surpassed by Jin Young Ko at the CME Globe Tour Championship. She is the first LPGA player to be nominated to the list since Lexi Thompson in 2019. Michelle Wie and Inbee Park have also appeared on the list in the past.
On the list, the 23-year-old Floridian joins fellow American gold medalists Simone Manuel, who became the first African-American woman to win an individual gold in swimming in 2016, gymnast Sunisa Lee, US water polo goalkeeper Ashleigh Johnson, and women’s ice hockey team member Kendall Coyne Schofield.
Dak Prescott of the Dallas Cowboys, Devin Booker of the Phoenix Suns, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays are all on the list.