#SportUnitesUs Jill Ellis is Proud of USWNT’s nomination for Team of the Year.
The Laureus World Sports Awards, which recognize sporting achievement during 2019, are the premier honors on the international sporting calendar.
The world’s sports media have cast their votes and the Nominees for the landmark 20th Anniversary Laureus World Sports Awards have been confirmed.
The greatest male and female athletes and teams do not have to wait long to see if they have won a prestigious Laureus Statuette at the world’s pre-eminent international sports Awards Ceremony in Berlin, Germany on February 17.
FIFA Women’s World Cup champions U.S. Women’s Soccer Team and UEFA Champions League winners Liverpool FC are the football nominees in the Laureus World Team of the Year category.
- The Awards will honor the greatest sports achievements of 2019, as well as celebrate the power of sport in transforming the lives of millions of young people around the world.
“Sport has the power to change the world; to unite people in a way that little else does.”
Nelson Mandela – said twenty years ago.
In the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year category, FIFA Women’s World Cup Golden Ball and Golden Boot winner Megan Rapinoe is joined by gymnastic’s Simone Biles, track and field stars Allyson Felix and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the first Asian tennis player to be ranked No. 1 in the world, Naomi Osaka and US skiing great Mikaela Shiffrin.
Joining them are six-time Formula 1 Drivers and Constructors World Champions Mercedes AMG Petronas, Rugby World Cup champions South Africa, the first Canadian team to win the NBA Championship Toronto Raptors and two-time FIBA World Cup winners Spain Men’s Basketball Team.
These awards celebrate uniting, inspiring and changing the lives of young people around the world.
Three-time Laureus Award winner and world No. 1 tennis star Rafael Nadal is in contention for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award alongside six-time Formula 1 World champion Lewis Hamilton, six-time World MotoGP champion Marc Márquez and six-time FIFA World Footballer of the Year Lionel Messi.
Also nominated is Eliud Kipchoge, the first athlete to run a marathon in under two hours and golf legend Tiger Woods, who won his 15th Major Championship at The Masters.
Teenage tennis sensation Coco Gauff is joined in the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year category by Canadian tennis player and the first woman to win the US Open on her debut Bianca Andreescu, Colombia’s first-ever Tour de France winner Egan Bernal, Rugby World Cup trailblazers Japan Men’s Rugby Team, former unified heavyweight boxing champion Andy Ruiz Jr and US swimming star Regan Smith.
The Laureus World Comeback of the Year Nominees personify the true spirit, determination, and tenacity of athletes who have overcome hurdles to return to the playing field. Andy Murray, who won his first ATP title in 31 months at the European Open following two hip operations, is in contention alongside UEFA Champions League semi-final comeback kings Liverpool, unusually nominated in two categories.
Also nominated are 19-year-old German Formula 3 driver Sophia Flörsch, who returned to racing after her car hit a fence at 170mph during a race in 2018, Australian rugby star Christian Lealiifano who returned to represent his country in the Rugby World Cup after battling leukemia, basketball star Kawhi Leonard, who overcame injury to help the Toronto Raptors to their first NBA Championship and US swimmer Nathan Adrian who recovered from testicular cancer to win his 15th and 16th world titles.
Six of the highest achieving para-athletes of 2019 make up the Nominees for the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award.
Cuba’s Omara Durand, the world’s fastest female Paralympian in 2019, is joined by Dutch wheelchair tennis star Diede de Groot, US Paralympic skier and cyclist Oksana Masters, Dutch para-cyclist and para-triathlete Jetze Plat, Swiss marathon star and T54 800m world record breaker Manuela Schär and British seven-time para-swimming World Championships 2019 gold medallist Alice Tai.
In the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year category, world surfing champions Italo Ferreira and Carissa Moore are joined by 2019 Action Sportsperson winner and snowboarding world champion Chloe Kim and 11-year-old Brazilian skateboarder Rayssa Leal, the youngest Nominee for the 2020 Laureus Awards. Also in contention for the Action Award are US skateboarding world champion Nyjah Huston and Canadian snowboarding star and slopestyle X-Games gold medallist Mark McMorris.
It was at the inaugural Laureus World Sports Awards in 2000 that Laureus Patron, Nelson Mandela, spoke the words which sparked the creation of the worldwide Sport for Good movement. 20 years on, these words still guide Laureus today – ‘Sport has the power to change the world; to unite people in a way little else does.
How does the voting work?
Reflecting on the past 12 months, members of the Laureus Nominations Panel (more than 1200 sports journalists, broadcasters and influencers from over 100 countries) are currently selecting their greatest sporting triumphs of the year in five categories: Sportsman, Sportswoman, Team, Breakthrough and Comeback.Following the Nominations Panel vote, a specialist panel of action sports media will select the six Nominees for Action Sportsperson of the Year and the International Paralympic Committee will submit six Nominees for Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability.
The 68 sporting legends of the Laureus World Sports Academy will then vote for the overall winners, to be announced on stage at the 2020 Laureus World Sports Awards in Berlin on February 17.
