SEVILLE, Spain: The Winners of the 2022 Laureus World Sports Awards have been unveiled at a digital ceremony hosted from Seville. Leading an illustrious group of sports stars honoured by the Laureus World Sports Academy are Formula One world champion Max Verstappen and Jamaican Olympic sprint queen Elaine Thompson-Herah, who have been named Laureus World Sportsman and Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year.
The awards recognise the greatest sporting achievements of 2021, one of the highlights of which was the European Championship victory by the Italian Men’s Football Team who win their second Laureus Team of the Year Award as a result, while global tennis sensation Emma Raducanu receives the Laureus Breakthrough of the Year Award following her US Open victory at the age of 18.
The Laureus World Sports Academy also made special presentations to three giants of sport: Tom Brady, seven-time winner of the Super Bowl, is honoured with the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award; Robert Lewandowski receives the Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement Award for achievements including breaking Gerd Muller’s long-standing goalscoring record in the Bundesliga; and hugely popular motor cycle racer Valentino Rossi is presented with the Laureus Sporting Icon Award, after retiring in November at the end of a 25-year career.
Elaine Thompson-Herah, who defended her 100 and 200 metres Olympic titles in Tokyo, and also won a third gold in the 4 x 100m relay, has been described as the female Usain Bolt.
Emma Raducanu is a popular winner of the Laureus Breakthrough of the Year Award after becoming the first qualifier in tennis history to win a Grand Slam. She came through three rounds of qualifying and seven main draw matches at the US Open without dropping a set. It was only her second Grand Slam event.
Laureus World Comeback of the Year Winner is skateboard star Sky Brown, who suffered a skull fracture when she landed headfirst from a half-pipe in training in June 2020. She was unresponsive when she arrived at hospital, but recovered fully and was able to compete in the Olympics. Aged 13 years and 28 days, she finished third in the park final to win a bronze medal, making her Britain's youngest ever Olympic medallist.
Swiss wheelchair racer Marcel Hug is named Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability for the second time after winning four gold medals in the Tokyo Paralympic Games in the 800, 1,500 and 5,000 metres and marathon; he also set a world record in the 1,500m and a Paralympic record in the 5,000m. In a stunning 2021, Marcel also won the Berlin, New York and Boston marathons.
Britain’s Bethany Shriever is the Laureus Action Sportsperson of the Year after winning both Olympic and World Championship BMX gold medals in the same year. In Tokyo, she had to hold off two-time Olympic champion Mariana Pajon to win the gold medal. The 22-year-old teaching assistant had to raise £50,000 in crowd-funding ahead of Tokyo to finance her own qualification campaign after UK Sport cut its support.
Widely considered to be the greatest quarterback of all time, Tom Brady has been honoured with the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his amazing career. In 2021 he won a record seventh Super Bowl playing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in his tenth appearance. His first six wins were with New England Patriots.
Brady's brilliant career has been a superb example of remarkable longevity in a very tough sport. He is the only quarterback to win a Super Bowl in three different decades. At 43 years 188 days, he became the oldest to win the Super Bowl as starting quarterback and the oldest to be named Super Bowl MVP.
Brady commented: “Pelé was voted for this Award in 2000. Billie Jean King was voted last year. People I really looked up to. Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart. It is an incredible honour to achieve this tonight.”
One of football’s greatest strikers, Robert Lewandowski scored his 41st goal in the Bundesliga for Bayern Munich in the last minute of the last day of the 2020/21 season to surpass Gerd Muller’s record of 40 goals in a season, which dated back to 1971/72. To honour this achievement and celebrate Lewandowski’s social conscience, he has been presented with the Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement Award, an honour only previously given five times.
Poland captain Lewandowski, who played a pivotal role in Bayern’s ninth successive Bundesliga success and won the European Golden Shoe, has now scored more than 500 senior career goals for club and country.
Italian motor cycle legend Valentino Rossi retired at the end of the 2021 World MotoGP season. His record on the track and his personal magnetism will be hard to match. He won nine World Championships and recorded 115 wins and 235 podiums. He is the only rider to win world titles in the 125cc, 250cc, 500cc and MotoGP categories. This is his third Laureus Statuette. He won the Laureus Spirit of Sport Award in 2006 and the Laureus Comeback of the Year Award in 2011.
In line with the focus of Laureus on Sport for Good, the 2022 Awards also told the inspirational stories of people and organisations who work tirelessly to use the power of sport to improve people’s lives and highlighted the advocacy of sportsmen and sportswomen who have used their positions of influence to make a powerful impact on issues and conflicts which go beyond sport.
Established in 1997, the Real Madrid Foundation has used sport to improve the lives of one-and-a-half million people, mainly children, in more than 100 countries, through education, integration and mutual co-operation. It has trained numerous football and basketball coaches since its creation to promote the development of young people through sport and is honoured with the Laureus Sport for Good Society Award.
The Laureus Sport for Good Award goes to Chicago youth baseball programme Lost Boyz Inc. which is now redefining some of the city’s most dangerous neighbourhoods. The goal is to decrease violence, improve social and emotional conditions, and provide financial and academic opportunities among the youth in the South Shore community through baseball training and competition.
The Laureus Athlete Advocate of the Year Award goes to Gerald Asamoah and the Black Eagles. Schalke footballer Asamoah, who is a leading campaigner in the fight against racism, was among several German footballers who appeared in the 2021 documentary ‘Schwarze Adler’ [Black Eagles] which features the experiences of black players in German football.
The Laureus World Sports Awards winners are selected in a secret ballot by the 71 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy: the living legends of sport honouring the greatest athletes of today. The names of the winners were revealed in Seville in a digital Awards Show, hosted by Laureus Academy Member Lindsey Vonn, the great women’s skier.
The Laureus Awards showcases the work of Laureus Sport for Good, which uses the power of sport to end violence, discrimination and disadvantage, proving that sport can change the world. Today Laureus supports more than 250 programmes in around 40 countries.
Since its inception in 2000, Laureus has helped to improve the lives of more than six million young people.
Full list of winners:
Sportsman of the Year: Max Verstappen
Sportswoman of the Year: Elaine Thompson-Herah
World Team of the Year: Italy Men’s Football Team
World Breakthrough of the Year: Emma Raducanu
World Comeback of the Year: Sky Brown
World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability: Marcel Hug
World Action Sportsperson of the Year: Bethany Shriever
Lifetime Achievement: Tom Brady
Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement: Robert Lewandowski
Sporting Icon: Valentino Rossi
Sport for Good: Lost Boyz Inc.
Sport for Good Society: Real Madrid Foundation
Athlete Advocate of the Year: Gerald Asamoah and the Black Eagles
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