Speed Climber Alipour First in Athlete of Year Vote

Iranian speed climber Reza Alipour leads the vote for Athlete of the Year by the International World Games Association.

According to Theworldgames.org, among 21 athletes, Alipour is on top with 1,200 votes (at 8 pm on Tuesday) -- a rather big gap between him and the second favorite, the Ukrainian woman weightlifter Larysa Soloviova with 1,050 votes.

Alipour won The World Games title in speed climbing last summer in Poland. His medal was the first ever gold medal for Iran at The World Games. He also holds the world record in this discipline.

The 23-year-old was one of the fastest speed athletes at the International Federation of Sport Climbing World Cup in 2017.

Athletes nominated by IWGA are voted by the public on its website and the voting will continue until January 15.

Founded in 1980, the International World Games Association is a non-governmental and non-profit-making international organization constituted under Swiss law.

It administers a quadrennial and multidisciplinary sports event, the World Games, which aspires to equal and exceed the importance of world championships organized by each federation individually.

The principal aim of the IWGA is to develop the popularity of the sports governed by its member federations, to improve their prominence through sporting achievements and help promote the traditional values of sport through the World Games.