The World Sailor of the Year Awards were launched in 1994 by World Sailing (formerly the International Sailing Federation) to reward individual sailors for outstanding achievements in the sport. The awards have been sponsored by Rolex since 2001.

Year	Male winner(s)	Female winner(s)
1994	Peter Blake Robin Knox-Johnston	Theresa Zabell
1995	Russell Coutts	Isabelle Autissier
1996	Jochen Schümann	Lee Lai Shan
1997	Pete Goss	Ruslana Taran Elena Pakholchik
1998	Ben Ainslie	Carolijn Brouwer
1999	Mateusz Kusznierewicz	Margriet Matthijsse
2000	Mark Reynolds Magnus Liljedahl	Shirley Robertson
2001	Robert Scheidt	Ellen MacArthur
2002	Ben Ainslie	Sofia Bekatorou Emilia Tsoulfa
2003	Russell Coutts	Siren Sundby
2004	Robert Scheidt	Sofia Bekatorou Emilia Tsoulfa
2005	Fernando Echavarri Anton Paz	Ellen MacArthur
2006	Mike Sanderson	Paige Railey
2007	Ed Baird	Claire Leroy
2008	Ben Ainslie	Alessandra Sensini
2009	Torben Grael	Anna Tunnicliffe
2010	Tom Slingsby	Blanca Manchon
2011	Iker Martínez Xabier Fernández	Anna Tunnicliffe
2012	Ben Ainslie	Xu Lijia
2013	Mathew Belcher	Jo Aleh Polly Powrie
2014	James Spithill	Martine Grael Kahena Kunze
2015	Peter Burling Blair Tuke	Sarah Ayton
2016	Santiago Lange	Hannah Mills Saskia Clark
2017	Peter Burling	Marit Bouwmeester
2018	Pavlos Kontides	Carolijn Brouwer Marie Riou
2019	Marco Gradoni	Anne-Marie Rindom
2020	not assigned
2021	Tom Slingsby	Hannah Mills Eilidh McIntyre
2022	Ruggero Tita	Caterina Banti
2023	Tom Slingsby	Kirsten Neuschäfer
2024	Diego Botin Florian Trittel	Marit Bouwmeester

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