The recent announcement of Kelly Slater as Laureus World Action Sportperson of the Year was the last of this year’s Awards presentations. So here’s our final summary of the 2009 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 - Kelly Slater
From now on we’ll be having a regular look at the contenders for next year’s Awards. Feel free to give us your own selections…
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
