Nominations For 20th Anniversary Laureus World Sports Awards Announced

• Nominees
  unveiled in seven categories following vote of over 1000 global sports media,
  with legends of Laureus World Sports Academy to select winners
• Winners
  announced at landmark 20th anniversary Laureus World Sports Awards, which will celebrate a ‘Sport Unites Us’ theme in
  Berlin on February 17
• Apply for media
  accreditation for the 2020 Laureus Awards at laureus.com/accreditation
• For more
  information and the full list of Nominees, click here

BERLIN, GERMANY�- Media OutReach - January 16, 2020 – The
world’s sports media have cast their votes and the Nominees for the landmark 20^th
Anniversary Laureus World Sports Awards have been confirmed. The greatest
sportsmen, sportswomen and teams now have just over a month to wait to see if
they have won a prestigious Laureus Statuette at the world’s pre-eminent
international sports Awards Ceremony in Berlin on February 17.

The Nominations List of Laureus World Sports Awards 2020

 

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 are Eliud Kipchoge, the first
athlete to run a marathon in under two hours and golf legend Tiger Woods,
who won his 15^th Major Championship at The Masters.   

 

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 great 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.

 

FIFA Women’s World Cup champions United States Women’s Football Team
and UEFA Champions League winners Liverpool FC are the football nominees in
the Laureus World Team of the Year
category. 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.

 

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 leukaemia,
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 15^th and 16^th
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.

 

Sports fans can also have a say in the 20^th anniversary
Laureus World Sports Awards through the Laureus Sporting Moment: 2000 — 2020
public vote, which will celebrate the transformational power of sport and reinforce
Laureus’ 20^th anniversary message that ‘Sport Unites Us’. The Laureus Sporting Moment
Award shortlists 20 sporting stories from the last 20 years that have
left their mark on the world, exemplifying sporting values such as fair play,
sportsmanship, humanity, overcoming adversity, dedication and the power to
unite through sport — all key values of the Laureus movement. Sports can vote
for their favourite of the 20 shortlisted moments now at laureus.com/vote.

 

The Laureus World
Sports Awards, which recognise sporting achievement during 2019, are the
premier honours on the international sporting calendar. The winners, as voted for by the 68 members of the Laureus World Sports
Academy, will be unveiled at the 2020 Laureus World Sports Awards in Berlin on
February 17.

 

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’. From sports stars to sports fans and the young people in
Laureus Sport for Good programmes around the world: Sport Unites Us.

 

For more information on the Nominees and to stay updated in the build-up
to the 2020 Laureus World Sports Awards, visit laureus.com/world-sports-awards and follow #Laureus20 on social platforms. To apply for media
accreditation for the Awards, visit laureus.com/accreditation.

NOTES TO EDITORS