Laureus World Sports Awards

The Laureus World Sports Awards are awarded annually to sportspeople who have been outstanding during the previous year. The Laureus World Sports Awards were established in 1999 by Founding Patrons Daimler and Richemont and is supported by its Global Partners Mercedes-Benz, IWC Schaffhausen and Vodafone.

There is a two-part voting process to find the winners: Firstly, a Selection Panel of the world's leading sports editors, writers and broadcasters from over 80 countries votes to create a shortlist of six nominations in each category. The voting process is monitored by independent auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. The members of the Laureus World Sports Academy then vote by secret ballot to select the Award winners.

There are five categories voted for by the Laureus Media Selection Panel:
*Laureus World Sportsman of the Year
*Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year
*Laureus World Team of the Year
*Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year
*Laureus World Comeback of the Year

There are two categories voted for by Specialist Panels:
*Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year, chosen by a panel of the world's leading alternative sports journalists, and
*Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability, which is overseen by the Executive Committee of the International Paralympic Committee.

Three other honours are selected by the Founding Patrons and the Academy. These are the
*Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award
*Laureus Sport for Good Award
*Laureus Spirit of Sport (since 2005)presented at the Laureus Academy's discretion to people who have made an outstanding contribution to society through sport. The Academy can, if it wishes, also bestow additional Awards.

Each winner receives a "Laureus statuette" exclusively produced by Cartier. The universal nature of sport is celebrated by the representation of the five continents, which are engraved on the base. The statuettes are 30 cm high and weigh 2.5 kg. Each figure contains 670 g of solid silver with a 650 g gold finish base.

The 2007 gala was held on April 2nd in Barcelona, Spain. King Juan Carlos I of Spain was the guest of honour. The 2008 awards was held on February 18th in St Petersburg, Russia, attended by President Vladimir Putin and hosted by Cuba Gooding, Jr.

World No. 1 tennis player Roger Federer has won "Laureus World Sportsman of the Year" for the last four years consecutively. He is also the only sportsman to have won the prize four times in the history of Laureus World Sports Awards.

Winners by category

The list of nominees are compiled by a selection panel that consists of top sports media journalists from countries across the globe. They are invited by the Laureus Foundation and nominate finalists in February each year.

portsman and Sportswoman of the Year

2006

2003

2000

Laureus World Sports Academy Members

Active

The Academy was originally 40-strong, and as of early 2007, currently has 45 members. Those marked with an asterisk (*) after their names joined after the Academy was originally founded.

*Giacomo Agostini (Italy) - motorcycling
*Marcus Allen (USA) - American football
*Severiano Ballesteros (Spain) - golf
*Franz Beckenbauer (Germany) - football
*Boris Becker (Germany) - tennis
*Ian Botham (England) - cricket
*Sergey Bubka (Soviet Union/Ukraine) - athletics
*Bobby Charlton (England) - football
*Sebastian Coe (Great Britain) - athletics
*Nadia Comaneci (Romania) - gymnastics
*Deng Yaping (China) - table tennis
*Marcel Desailly * (France) - football
*Kapil Dev * (India) - cricket
*David Douillet (France) - judo
*Emerson Fittipaldi (Brazil) - motor racing
*Sean Fitzpatrick (New Zealand) - rugby union
*Dawn Fraser (Australia) - swimming
*Tanni Grey-Thompson (Great Britain) - paralympic athletics
*Marvin Hagler (USA) - boxing
*Tony Hawk (USA) - skateboarding
*Mike Horn * (South Africa) - adventurer-explorer
*Miguel Indurain (Spain) - cycling
*Michael Johnson (USA) - athletics
*Michael Jordan (USA) - basketball
*Kip Keino (Kenya) - athletics
*Franz Klammer (Austria) - skiing
*Dan Marino (USA) - American football
*John McEnroe (USA) - tennis
*Edwin Moses (USA) - athletics (current chairman)
*Nawal El Moutawakel (Morocco) - athletics
*Robby Naish (USA) - windsurfing & kiteboarding
*Ilie Năstase (Romania) - tennis
*Martina Navratilova (USA) - tennis
*Jack Nicklaus (USA) - golf
*Gary Player (South Africa) - golf
*Morné du Plessis (South Africa) - rugby union
*Hugo Porta (Argentina) - rugby union
*Viv Richards (West Indies) - cricket
*Monica Seles * (USA) - tennis
*Mark Spitz (USA) - swimming
*Daley Thompson (Great Britain) - athletics
*Alberto Tomba (Italy) - skiing
*Steve Waugh * (Australia) - cricket
*Katarina Witt (Germany) - figure skating
*Yasuhiro Yamashita (Japan) - judo

Deceased

*Sir Peter Blake (New Zealand) - yachting
*Bill Shoemaker (USA) - horse racing

Past members

*Pelé (Brazil) - football. Retired from the Academy in 2007.

External links

* [http://www.laureus.com/awards Official site]

ee also

*Sportsman of the Year
*Team of the Year
*Breakthrough of the Year
*Comeback of the Year
*Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability
*Action Sportsperson of the Year