Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year

Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year
Novak Djokovic, 2024 winner
Awarded for"The sportsman who best demonstrates supreme athletic performance and achievement"[1]
LocationMadrid (2024)[2]
Presented byLaureus Sport for Good Foundation
First awarded2000
Currently held bySerbia Novak Djokovic
(5th award)
Most awardsSerbia Novak Djokovic
Switzerland Roger Federer
(5 awards each)
Most nominationsUnited States Tiger Woods
Argentina Lionel Messi
(8 nominations each)
WebsiteOfficial website

The Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year is an annual award honoring the achievements of individual men from the world of sports. It was first awarded in 2000 as one of the seven constituent awards presented during the Laureus World Sports Awards.[1] The awards are presented by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, a global organisation involved in more than 150 charity projects supporting 500,000 young people.[3] The first ceremony was held on 25 May 2000 in Monte Carlo, at which Nelson Mandela gave the keynote speech.[4] As of 2020, a shortlist of six nominees for the award comes from a panel composed of the "world's leading sports editors, writers and broadcasters".[1] The Laureus World Sports Academy then selects the winner who is presented with a Laureus statuette, created by Cartier, at the annual awards ceremony held in various locations around the world.[5] The awards are considered highly prestigious and are frequently referred to as the sporting equivalent of the "Oscars".[6][7][8]

The inaugural winner of the award was the American golfer Tiger Woods who finished the 1999 season with eight wins, a feat not achieved since 1974, including the PGA Championship.[9][10] He went on to become the most dominant player of his era,[11] earning a second Laureus Award the following year, and five further nominations between 2002 and 2008. The 2003 winner of the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year was the American road cyclist Lance Armstrong. He had been nominated the previous year, and earned further nominations in 2004, 2005 and 2006. Following Armstrong's 2013 admission of doping,[12] all his Laureus awards and nominations were rescinded.[13] Tennis players dominate the winners list, with eleven awards, while athletes and Formula One drivers have won four times, and golfers twice. Excluding Armstrong, the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsman of the Year has been won by just nine individuals since its inception. Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic hold the record for the most awards with five each.[14] Lionel Messi and Tiger Woods have the nominations record (8).

  1. ^ a b c "The awards". Laureus. Archived from the original on 18 March 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  2. ^ "Messi & Argentina World Cup team win Laureus awards". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 21 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
  3. ^ Snook, Ian (20 April 2016). "It's more than just an award". Taranaki Daily News. Archived from the original on 20 November 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017 – via Stuff.co.nz.
  4. ^ Sugden, John; Tomlinson, Alan (30 April 2017). Sport and Peace-Building in Divided Societies: Playing with Enemies. Taylor & Francis. p. 163. ISBN 9781136292330. Archived from the original on 18 October 2017.
  5. ^ "Did you know?". Laureus. Archived from the original on 18 March 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  6. ^ Lewis, Aimee (15 February 2017). "Usain Bolt and Simone Biles dominate at 'Sport's Oscars'". CNN. Archived from the original on 8 March 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  7. ^ "Nico Rosberg mit dem Sport-Oscar geehrt". Die Welt (in German). 15 February 2017. Archived from the original on 18 October 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  8. ^ "Schumacher wins sporting 'Oscar'". BBC Sport. 14 May 2002. Archived from the original on 8 November 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  9. ^ Diaz, Jaime (January 2005). "The Truth about Tiger". Golf Digest. Archived from the original on 15 April 2007. Retrieved 12 May 2007.
  10. ^ "Woods is PGA Tour player of year". The Topeka Capital-Journal. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 3 April 2010. Retrieved 10 May 2009.
  11. ^ Zhao, Xiaojian; Park, Edward J. W., eds. (26 November 2013). Asian Americans: An Encyclopedia of Social, Cultural, Economic, and Political History. Greenwood Press. p. 1204. ISBN 978-1598842395. Archived from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  12. ^ Carroll, Rory (18 January 2013). "Lance Armstrong admits doping in Oprah Winfrey interview". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 July 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2017.
  13. ^ Fletcher, Patrick (12 January 2017). "Laura Kenny and Rachel Atherton nominated for Laureus Awards". Cyclingnews.com. Archived from the original on 16 January 2017. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference L18 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).