Paris Olympics bronze medalists Nesthy Petecio and Aira Villegas of boxing will be honored once again as recipients of the Athletes of the Year award for the second Women in Sports Awards this Saturday at the Century Park.

The announcement was made by Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) All-Women’s Sports Awards secretary and head Rachel Dumuk during the weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) forum Tuesday at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex Conference Hall as Petecio and Villegas were the highest-performing female athletes in 2024.

“We consider them outstanding, but these are given to the best achievement performance in the previous year per sport. So, practically, we are giving a level field to all the sports wherein each sport is expected to have an outstanding athlete,” Dumuk said.

“The most bemedalled out of them would be the major awardee.”

This will be the second time in a row that the Athlete of the Year honors will be shared after Sarina Bolden of football and Alex Eala of tennis were feted last year.

Petecio and Villegas were shoo-ins for the biggest award in Philippine women’s sports after shining in the Summer Games.

Petecio clinched the bronze medal in the women’s 57-kilogram division and made her the first Filipino boxer to be a multi-medalist in the Olympics as she followed up her silver medal finish in the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games.