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Rafael Nadal won the 2021 Laureus Sportsman of the Year award on Thursday, the second time in his career he has bagged the prestigious accolade. Nadal faced stiff competition from Robert Lewandowski, Lewis Hamilton, Joshua Cheptegei, LeBron James and Armand Duplantis, but the Spaniard ended up getting the most votes from the jury.
Rafael Nadal’s win was, naturally, met with accolades from several corners of the sporting world. The 34-year-old won his 13th French Open title last year to equal Roger Federer's all-time record of 20 Grand Slams, so he has been widely feted for a while now.
Even more impressive was the manner in which Rafael Nadal triumphed at Roland Garros in 2020. He didn't drop a set all tournament despite playing in unfavorable weather and court conditions, and his 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 thumping of Novak Djokovic in the final was the icing on the cake.
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In addition to the French Open, Rafael Nadal also won the Mexican Open in 2020 - which incidentally was another event where he didn't drop a single set. Overall, the Spaniard finished the year with a 27-7 win-loss record and two titles to his name.
But Rafael Nadal did have his low and not-so-high moments in 2020 too. He fell in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and the Rome Masters, while his Paris Masters run was cut short by Alexander Zverev in the semifinals.
Nadal managed to win only two of his four matches at the 2020 ATP Finals, and he also failed to take Spain to the ATP Cup title earlier in the year.
In short, it is clear that Rafael Nadal’s French Open triumph in 2020 was the only reason behind him winning the Laureus Sportsman of the Year award.
But was that one title enough for Nadal to be awarded the coveted prize ahead of Hamilton, Cheptegei, James, Duplantis and Lewandowski, or for that matter even Novak Djokovic - who many argue had a superior tennis season than the Spaniard in 2020?
To understand if Rafael Nadal truly deserved the award, let us have a look at how he fared in comparison to the other nominees:
Rafael Nadal vs the other nominees for the 2021 Laureus Sportsman of the Year award
Rafael Nadal vs Joshua Cheptegei
For the uninitiated, Joshua Cheptegei is a Ugandan long-distance runner known for his exploits in the 5-kilometer discipline. In 2020, Cheptegei set a new world record by completing the Monaco 5 km race in 12 minutes and 51 seconds.
Some might point out that the record has been broken four times since 2018, which is the year that the IAAF included it as a world record event. But Joshua Cheptegei didn't merely break it; he smashed the previous IAAF era mark by a full 31 seconds, which in athletics is a humongous margin.
More impressively, Cheptegei became only the second person in the history of this discipline to register a sub-13-minute time; Sammy Kipketer finished the race in 12 minutes and 59.5 seconds back in 2000. Again, Cheptegei's feat of 12:51 was considerably quicker than Kipketer's.
But is one race and world record enough to give him the title over Rafael Nadal, who played two weeks of world-class tennis at Roland Garros, you ask? Well, Joshua Cheptegei broke another world record in 2020 - in the 10 km discipline.
In October 2020, the Ugandan completed the 10000-meter race in Valencia in a record time of 26 minutes and 11 seconds. In doing so, Cheptegei broke a 15-year-old record - previously held by Kenenisa Bekele - by a margin of almost seven seconds.
Breaking a record is one of the toughest tasks in track and field events due to the finest of margins in which timings, jumps and throws are measured. But shattering two such records within a year is, by all means, an astounding feat.
Does it measure up to Rafael Nadal’s 13 French Open titles though? Certainly not, but it arguably has enough weight to compare with Nadal’s 2020 French Open victory on its own.
One caveat here, however, is that Joshua Cheptegei has greatly benefited from the advancements made by Nike with its shoe technology. The special shoes created by the footwear giant give modern runners a considerable advantage over their predecessors, and according to many that negates Cheptegei's achievements a tad.
Rafael Nadal vs Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton had an outstanding season in 2020. He won a whopping 11 of the 17 races that he took part in, and also equaled Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of seven Formula One Driver’s Championship titles.
That alone is good enough to counter the Nadal-equalling-Federer argument that many have provided to back up the Spaniard's victory. After all, if Federer’s all-time record matters so much, shouldn't Michael Schumacher's too?
Lewis Hamilton won a whopping 64.71% of all the races in 2020, placing him sixth in the all-time list. But what's even more impressive is that Hamilton is one of only four men since 1966 to have crossed the 60% figure.
The Brit's tally of 11 race wins isn't a small feat either. Only Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher have won more races in a season (13 each), but both took part in more races in those respective seasons (2013 and 2004).
Lewis Hamilton ended the 2020 season with 347 points in his kitty, which amounted to 78.51% of the maximum points possible. This is the fourth-highest count in Formula One history.
So did Rafael Nadal’s title wins at Acapulco and Roland Garros count for more than the 11 races won by Lewis Hamilton? Given that Formula One is a sport where there is always a chance of catastrophe - and even death, given the speeds involved - shouldn't the achievements there weigh more than those in tennis?
Rafael Nadal vs LeBron James
An argument given in support of Rafael Nadal’s Laureus triumph is his age. Many feel Nadal's achievements at the age of 34 are truly extraordinary, and that they make him the most deserving candidate for the prize.
But LeBron James was the same age when he guided the Los Angeles Lakers to their 17th Championship title in 2020. James finished with a commanding 25.3 points per game and a career-best average of 10.2 assists (684 in 67 games) in the season.
The Lakers small-forward also climbed to third position on the all-time list of scoring leaders, going past Kobe Bryant.
In the finals of the 2019-20 season, LeBron James scored a mammoth 169 points in six games, including a haul of 40 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists in Game 5. James’ feat earned him his fourth Finals MVP award, making him the second-oldest player to win the prize and the first to win it with three different teams.
While 2019-20 wasn't among James' best-ever seasons, it was definitely a special one given the sheer numbers that he produced.
Rafael Nadal vs Robert Lewandowski
Robert Lewandowski finished the 2019-20 season with 55 goals and 10 assists to his name. He scored the most goals in the Bundesliga (34), DFB Pokal (6) and the UEFA Champions League (15), making him the first footballer since Johan Cruyff (in 1971/72) to win the European treble while also being the top scorer in all three competitions.
Lewandowski even broke Cristiano Ronaldo's record of most away goals in a single edition of the Champions League.
But regardless of Lewandowski's incredible achievements, one of the points that counters his claim to the Laureus award is that he plays a team sport. In the 21-year history of the award, only one man has claimed the title of the Sportsman of the Year by playing a team sport - Lionel Messi in 2020.
In other words, the Laureus academy, which consists of 69 legendary voters, usually gives more importance to achievements in individual sports.
Rafael Nadal vs Armand Duplantis
Armand Duplantis created history in 2020 by breaking the all-time pole vault record twice during the calendar year.
The Swede first scaled the 6.17-meter mark in Poland to break the previous record of 6.16 meters held by Renaud Lavillenie. A week later, Duplantis broke his own record with a 6.18m vault in Glasgow, and in the process also broke the legendary Sergey Bubka’s outdoor vault record of 6.14m (set in 1994).
But while Duplantis' feat was truly astonishing, many believe pole vault is not a high-profile enough sport for the 21-year-old to be placed over Rafael Nadal.
Verdict: Rafael Nadal arguably edges everyone barring Lewis Hamilton
Rafael Nadal did enough to beat LeBron James given the fact that the Spaniard recorded a career landmark in 2020 while James didn't produce the best season of his career. The Spaniard also likely edged Robert Lewandowski simply because the Pole plays a team sport, making Nadal’s achievements more valuable in the eyes of the jury.
Rafael Nadal winning ahead of Armand Duplantis was a no-brainer to many. And while Joshua Cheptegei made a strong case for himself, the caveat with the Nike shoe technology was probably too tough to ignore.
But Lewis Hamilton's 11 race wins and a record-equalling seventh Championship title were, in my opinion, superior to Rafael Nadal's 2020 feats. The Brit won more in terms of sheer numbers while also thoroughly dominating his sport, which Nadal didn't do - Novak Djokovic was almost unanimously considered the best tennis player of 2020.
Did Rafael Nadal deserve to be nominated ahead of Novak Djokovic, and does Laureus have a tennis bias?
Novak Djokovic was by far the most successful tennis player of 2020 in terms of numbers. He had the joint-most Slams (Australian Open) and the joint-most Slam final appearances (Australian Open and French Open), and he also won three Masters 1000 events. In contrast, Rafael Nadal reached just one Slam final and won zero Masters 1000 titles.
Yes, Nadal did win a historic 13th French Open title to equal Roger Federer’s record of 20 Majors. But Djokovic also equaled a key but relatively unheralded tennis record - that of Pete Sampras' feat of finishing six years as World No. 1.
Novak Djokovic finished 2020 as the No. 1 player of the season, and isn’t that what Laureus advertises their award to be? The Sportsman of the Year? Djokovic was the most consistent and successful tennis player in 2020, and thus had a bigger claim to the list of nominees - if not the award itself - than Nadal.
Did Djokovic’s act of petulance at the US Open, which saw him getting disqualified, hamper his chances of getting nominated? It's hard to know for sure, but there may be something to that argument.
But looking beyond Novak Djokovic, the Laureus jury also seems to have a bias towards tennis. Out of the 22 men (Lance Armstrong's award has been rescinded) to have won the Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award so far, 11 have been shared by Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
In fact, the Big 3 have won 11 of the last 18 Laureus awards on offer, making many wonder whether other sports are given as much importance as tennis while deciding the winner.
That said, it is pertinent to note that the Laureus Academy, consisting of 69 legendary sportspersons, features just four tennis stars - Martina Navratilova, Monic Seles, Boris Becker and Li Na. It is these 69 people who decide the winner from the list of nominees, and as such, any bias - if any - probably stems from the upper echelons of the Laureus organization itself.
Whether he deserved the Laureus award or not, Rafael Nadal is unquestionably a champion for the ages
Rafael Nadal, in my opinion - and I'm sure in the eyes of many others - wasn't the most deserving winner of the 2021 Laureus Sportsman of the Year award. But make no mistake, Nadal had a stellar 2020.
We as a generation often tend to undermine Rafael Nadal’s dominance at the French Open. We simply see it as an annual phenomenon now, something that is as sure as death and taxes. And that points to exactly how dominant he has been on the Parisian claycourts; Nadal has been so good, that we end up taking his title runs for granted.
13 French Open titles is the most incredible record ever put together in tennis, and also ranks among the very top of all sporting records. Nobody can ever take that away from the Spaniard, and he’ll likely add to that number even further by the time he calls it a day.
Rafael Nadal is on course to finish his career as the single greatest tennis player of all time, and once he does so (and manages to stay there ahead of Novak Djokovic), there will be no question marks over his tennis achievements. In that context, Nadal winning the 2021 Laureus Sportsman of the Year - undeservedly, according to many - might end up being a minor footnote that has no real historical significance.
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