What a week of sport. Some great moments and a lot of stars making their cases for next year’s Laureus World Sports Awards.

1) Cycling – Mark Cavendish’s win in Paris on the final stage of the Tour de France was a moment to remember. Yes, the jersey winners had already been decided but the race for victory along the Champs-Elysees produced one of the most exhilarating pieces of sporting action this year. The build-up was dramatic as Team Columbia chased down a breakaway group along the streets of Paris at speeds of 60kph. The final sprint was devastating with Cavendish, led out by his Australian team mate Mark Renshaw, leaving his main rivals trailing out of camera-shot in a similar manner to Usain Bolt’s 100m sprint in Beijing a year ago.

You can watch the final minute here.

2) Baseball – Mark Buehrle’s ‘Perfect Game‘ for the Chicago White Sox came a very close second. A Perfect Game occurs when a pitcher scores a victory without allowing the opposition, in this case the Tampa Bay Rays, to reach a single base. Read more

1. Golf – Tom Watson didn’t win The Open Championship but he captured the hearts of millions around the world with an unbelievable performance at the age of 59. If Watson had won it would have been one of the sporting stories of the century, but his bogey at the 18th hole on the final day saw him slip in to playoff with Stewart Cink, which he eventually lost.

2. Cricket - After scraping a draw in Cardiff, the England cricket team managed to post their first win over the Australians at Lords since 1934. Read more

Welcome to the Laureus blog.  Let’s kick it off with a summary of the year’s Laureus winners:

Sportsman of the Year   -   Usain Bolt

Sportswoman of the Year   -   Yelena Isinbayeva

Breakthrough of the Year    -   Rebecca Adlington

Sportsperson with a Disability   -   Daniel Dias

Comeback of the Year    -   Vitali Klitschko

Team of the Year    –     China Olympic Team

Action Sportsperson of the Year   -   TBA

The nominees, voted for by the world’s press, included some of the great sportsmen and women of this generation and so selecting the winners once again was a very difficult task for our Academy. Unsurprisingly, many of the nominees were chosen for  their achievements in the Olympics and Paralympics.  But how to separate them? In the men’s category it was always going to be a two horse race between Bolt and Phelps, with the former’s phenomenal track  achievements outweighing the swimmer’s record-breaking medal haul. Surely these were two of the great Olympic performances of all time? Read more