What’s the story
Nominees for the Laureus sportsman of the year have been revealed and six superstars from all around the sporting world have made the cut. Namely, Usain Bolt, Stephen Curry, Mo Farah, LeBron James, Andy Murray and Cristiano Ronaldo have made it to the list.
Last year’s winner, Novak Djokovic, announced the names of the nominated athletes through a video posted on Laureus’s official Twitter account.
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In case you didn’t know...
The Laureus World Sports Awards, which started in 2000, acknowledge sporting brilliance, both individual and combined, in the past year. The awards are presented in seven different categories. The categories being, Sportsman of the Year, Sportswoman of the Year, Team of the Year, Comeback of the Year, Breakthrough of the Year, Action Sportsperson of the Year and Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability.
While the nominees for the former five are chosen by the Laureus Nominations Panel, which comprises of professional sports editors, writers and broadcasters, the contenders for latter two are picked by specialist panels.
The heart of the matter
All the six athletes who have been nominated for the prestigious award had an incredible 2016. They were quite clearly, creme de la creme of men’s sports. While Usain Bolt completed a historic triple-triple of gold medals in the Olympics by winning the 100m, 200m and 4X100m gold medals at the Rio Games, Mo Farah achieved the double-double by winning the gold medals in the 5000m and the 10,000m runs.
Stephen Curry, the Golden State Warriors star, became the first player to be unanimously voted NBA’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). He won the accolade for the second year running as he helped his team to the NBA Finals, where he lost to LeBron James’s Cleveland Cavaliers. James, the small forward from Ohio, was named NBA Finals’ MVP as he dragged his side single-handedly from a 3-1 deficit in the seven-match finals to the pinnacle of the NBA 2015-16 season.
Andy Murray, or Sir Andy Murray as we should call him now, had a stellar 2016 where he won the Wimbledon, the gold medal at Rio Olympics, reached the finals of Australian and French Open and finished the year as the no.1 player in the circuit.
Similarly, the Sultan of Stepover, Cristiano Ronaldo ruled the world of football in 2016. While on one hand, he won the Un Decima (11th Champions League title) for Real Madrid, on the other he helped the Portuguese football team to their first ever major international tournament triumph as the Selecao overpowered hosts France in the Euro 2016 final. Ronaldo also won the FIFA Club World Cup with Los Blancos and the Ballon d’Or. He was also named the FIFA Player of the year.
Also Read: Cristiano Ronaldo in 2016: A comprehensive review
What next?
The awards will be presented to the winners on February 14 in Monaco this year. The winner is picked through a secret ballot voting by the members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, which includes the likes of Franz Beckenbauer, Boris Becker, Sir Bobby Charlton, Michael Johnson, Sachin Tendulkar, Martina Navratilova et al.
Sportskeeda’s take
The Laureus awards also termed as the ‘Oscars for Sports’, honour the greatest of sportspersons in a calendar year and help the budding athletes around the world get inspiration from the legends of various sports around the globe. Moreover, the proceeds from the awards function go to the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which helps over 150 foundations and community projects in various countries.
Talking about the nominations, many can put forth a case for Michael Phelps and argue why he should have made the sportsman of the year list. It is because he has been nominated in the World Comeback of the Year section of the awards.
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