Giving back through sport

The Laureus Awards is more than simply a high-profile and glittering awards ceremony recently staged for the second consecutive year in neighbouring Abu Dhabi. That is simply the part the world sees. Behind the razzmatazz is the organisation's bedrock ... the Sport For Good Foundation, writes David Axtell.

FOR those who have not heard of Laureus before I will simply quote two of those present at the awards ceremony.

Rafael Nadal, winner of the Sportsman of the Year Award, called this 'the most prestigious award in sport', while Morgan Freeman, himself the recipient of an Oscar and Golden Globe, went one step further, hailing it as 'one of the most important and prestigious award ceremonies in the world'.

I should warn you before I start that I make absolutely no apologies for plenty of name-dropping. Laureus is, after all, a gathering of the greatest sportsmen and women ... and guests. However, it is so much more than that.

To demonstrate, there were two main events that brought the whole Laureus community together. The first was the Sport for Good breakfast where we gathered to hear firstly, in general terms, of the global progress of Laureus in its use of sport to change the world for the better, and then looking specifically at two specific areas.

We were first invited to listen to Moses Mutuli who has graduated from his humble surroundings in a tiny village in Kenya to become a qualified life actuary with two Masters Degrees working for Deloitte in London. He recalls times when his parents could not afford to even clothe him and credits Laureus with giving him hope and an opportunity to succeed.

He has now engineered a return to South Africa with Deloitte where he hopes to give back to his community to provide other children with the same chances from which he has so richly benefited.

In the same presentation we also learned from the founder of Lazy Town, former Icelandic gymnastics champion, Magnus Scherving, how the concept was formed (if you've never heard of it, ask your kids) and how Sporticus is taking his fight against obesity and poor eating habits to 128 different countries and the positive impact this has had on the consumption of fruits and vegetables.

While these statistics are mightily impressive they were almost outdone by Gary Player, all 75 years of him, who performed a variety of fitness activities on stage, possible partly due to the 1,000 sit-ups he does daily.

Breakfast provided the opportunity to mix one-to-one with Oscar 'Blade Runner' Pistorius and Dame Kelly Holmes who spoke passionately to me about Laureus and the 2012 London Olympics.

The delightful Charmaine Crook who represented Canada at five consecutive Olympics and was one of the driving forces behind the recent Vancouver Winter Olympics was an intriguing breakfast companion who spoke about the work she does to encourage youngsters to engage in sport, both practically and through writing about it.

The other event drawing everyone together was a seven-a-side charity football match held on the lawn of the Emirates Palace that raised money for both Laureus and the Emirates Foundation, offered 10,000 euros for every goal scored and 5,000 euros for every save made.

The teams mixed current stars including Edgar Davids, Patrick Viera and Ronald De Boer with those recently retired such as Gianfranco Zola and Steve McManaman with those who will rely on the older generation to remember the titles they won, including Manuel Sanchis (nine Spanish titles with Real Madrid) and Andreas Brehme (World Cup winner with Germany in 1990).

Before kick-off Zola joked: "This will be the only time I will be on a pitch with Patrick (Viera) and he won't kick me!"

The match was a friendly affair and raised a total of 500,000 euros for Laureus and two million dirhams for the Emirates Foundation. Bobby Charlton's team won 12-11 with a golden goal scored by Fernando Cuoto of Portugal to defeat a team led by Bora 'Miracle Man' Milutinovic.

Overall, it was a fascinating sight to watch sports stars mingle, either seeking out others to renew old acquaintances or to establish connections for the first time.

It was slightly refreshing to know that some of the most decorated sportsmen and women in the world were as star-struck as I was. I am unashamed to say that I went with a mission to secure the autograph of skateboard legend Tony Hawk, although I was rather surprised that I was beaten to it by tennis legend Ilie Nastase who was securing autographs on a bag-full of shirts and caps.

There were numerous additional activities in the run-up to the main events. Hawk raced Kelly Slater and Kelly Holmes down the sand-dunes in the Empty Quarter, while Hugo Porta showed his experience and all-round sporting versatility to defeat a variety of sports stars, past and present, to clinch the golf challenge title at the Saadiyat Course.

In addition to the above, among my numerous personal highlights was a chat with Wladimir Klitschko ahead of the opening ceremony where he revealed that David Haye had refused to fight him on July 2. Over the next two days I watched the whole story quickly unfold in the international media as Haye's camp initially refuted these claims while pouring scorn on Klitschko's next opponent, Dereck Chisora, only for Wladimir to respond in kind!

Wladimir struck me (not literally) as a thoroughly nice bloke, coming across as genuine and softly-spoken. He is also extremely tall, although I am not sure who was closest to the overhead lights between him and Croatian high-jumper Blanca Vlasic. I'm not sure of the official height statistics but perhaps the high heels made a difference. On Blanca that is!

I also had the opportunity to 'fill in' and speak to Glen McGrath for UK radio in an interview that was due to be syndicated to a number of other stations. Another personal highlight was having the opportunity to chat to H Porta about the way they are using hockey in Argentina to fight obesity.

The awards ceremony was a glittering event hosted by Kevin Spacey that was broadcast live around the world.

Regional interest among the winners came in the form of Colin Montgomerie (on behalf of the European Ryder Cup team who won the Spirit of Sport Award), Zinedine Zidane (Lifetime Achievement) and May El-Khalil who founded and continues to organise the Lebanon marathon and uses it to act as a unifying force.