The winners of the 2013 Laureus World Sports Awards have been unveiled at a globally-televised awards ceremony in Rio de Janeiro.
Among the highlights was a third Laureus award for Jamaican sprint giant Usain Bolt, a triple success for British sport with honours for Jessica Ennis, Andy Murray and Sebastian Coe, and a special new award for Michael Phelps, the most successful Olympian of all time.
The Laureus World Sports Awards are the premier honours on the international sporting calendar. The winners are chosen by the Laureus World Sports Academy, the ultimate sports jury, made up of 46 of the greatest living sportsmen and sportswomen.
The majority of the winners came from the highly-successful 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.
Bolt was acclaimed Laureus World Sportsman of the Year after his remarkable performance at the Olympics when he repeated his success in Beijing by winning gold medals in all three sprint events in London – 100 metres, 200m and 4x100m relay.
I opted for Bradley Wiggins although it was always a close-run decision between him and Lightning!
The Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award went to Ennis, who carried the hopes of the British nation in London. Despite the enormous pressure of being one of the first on the track, she dominated the heptathlon and won the gold medal with a British record score of 6,955 points.
My personal nomination was Lindsey Vonn as I believed that the range and longevity of her success was sufficient to take her over the line, although ultimately it was Ennis’s mastery of the hurdles, on-track and off it as the face of the Olympics, that helped her claim this award.
British tennis star Andy Murray’s first ever Grand Slam victory, at the US Open, plus an Olympic gold and silver medal in the singles and mixed doubles in London, made him the winner of the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award.
Another outstanding Olympic champion, the Dominican Republic’s Felix Sanchez, received the Laureus World Comeback of the Year award after winning the Olympic 400m hurdles gold medal in London, eight years after he won it for the first time in Athens in 2004.
Brazil’s Daniel Dias, aged 24, was once again the outstanding swimmer of the Paralympic Games, winning six individual gold medals in London, all in world record times. It was an achievement which won him the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability award for the second time, defeating my personal nomination, David Weir who ‘only’ won four gold medals ranging from 800m to the marathon.
Dias will certainly hope to maintain his form and domination of the opposition all the way up to the next Olympics in his home country.
The Laureus World Team of the Year award was presented to the European Ryder Cup team after their thrilling golf victory against the United States at Medinah, claiming the honour ahead of the all-conquering Chinese table-tennis team and Spanish footballers.
Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner, who became the first human to go through the sound barrier when he made the highest ever freefall from 39km (24 miles) over New Mexico in October, received the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year award.
There was a warm welcome from the audience in the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro for two outstanding Olympians who received special Laureus awards.
Legendary swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time with a career total of 22 medals, including 18 gold medals, eight of which he won in one Olympiad in Beijing, was presented with a new award – the Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement award.
And Laureus World Sports Academy member Sebastian Coe, chairman of the organising committee of London Olympic and Paralympic Games, received the Laureus Lifetime Achievement award.
The Laureus World Sports Awards, which recognise sporting achievement during 2012, were announced at the awards ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, which was hosted by Hollywood stars Morgan Freeman and Eva Longoria.
The first Laureus awards were held in 2000 with ceremonies previously staged in London, Monaco, Portugal, Barcelona, Abu Dhabi and St Petersburg. Proceeds from the Laureus World Sports Awards underpin the work of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, which supports 89 community sports projects around the world including 10 in the United Kingdom.
