How sport makes its mark

Whenever a global organisation can celebrate on the glitziest stage the sportsmanship of a junior football team, or highlight siblings helping each other, or even fans comforting professional athletes then the true values that sport can bring to life are truly evident.

Sport does have the power to change the world! The fact that the junior football team belonged to Barcelona is one of the main reasons the story of their U12s came to prominence. However, this does not diminish the importance of their comforting their Japanese opponents.

This was recognised by the sporting legends of the Laureus World Sports Academy that features the greatest living athletes to grace the sporting arena while presenter Hugh Grant made light of this and suggested that the losers in the main ceremony should go backstage to meet the youngsters to be consoled!

Also recognised for their sporting inspiration was the first Refugee Olympic team to compete at an Olympic Games after they appeared in Rio in 2016. The 10 athletes who walked under the Olympic flag captured the hearts of the world and were once again able to share their messages.

Hailing from Syria, Ethiopia, South Sudan and the Congo the athletes were representing not only their troubled nations but those of the world. The team was led by Chef de Mission and Laureus Academy Member Tegla Loroupe, one of the greatest distance runners in history.

The bond between Loroupe and her athletes was clear as many of the members of the team described her as their ‘mother’. At the press conference, Tegla Loroupe was accompanied by Refugee Olympic Team members, South Sudanese 800m runner Yiech Pur Biel and Syrian Swimmer Rami Anis.

At tomorrow’s Laureus World Sports Awards Ceremony in Monaco, they will be joined on stage by Ethiopian marathon runner Yonas Kinde, to accept the coveted Laureus statuette. Aged nine, Yiech Pur Biel was left to fend by himself in the bush as his mother and younger brothers fled the final stages of Sudanese civil war in 2005.

He hasn’t heard from his family since. Left alone, he fended for himself in the bush, eating any fruits or leaves he could find, striving for survival away from warfare. Biel’s journey took him to a refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya.

Here, he met Tegla Loroupe and learnt how to run. Through the work of the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation, he was afforded the life-changing opportunity to attend a refugee athletics camp in N’ngo.

Ten months later, Yiech was on the start line in Rio preparing to run against the best in the world. Rami Anis grew up in the Syrian capital of Aleppo. A talented swimmer from a young age, he was one of the countries brightest young sports stars, competing as part of Syria’s national team.

In 2011, with growing unrest in the city, Rami fled, like so many others around him.  A journey to Europe, via Turkey and the dangerous sea crossing to Greece. The boat’s motor failed, and then Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary, Austria, Germany and finally Belgium.

He returned to training, pushed his body to the limit, and was selected as one of the 10 athletes to represent Refugee Olympic Team. In Rio, Rami recorded a new personal best in the heats of the 100m freestyle.

Laureus has developed a reputation for finding fun new ways to raise money and awareness and this year was no different. In 2015 Novak Djokovic waltzed onto the red carpet in his trainers and this has been seized upon after the images hit the internet by storm.

The Sneakers for Good campaign has now been officially launched with sporting superstars wearing their favourite sporting footwear to accompany their tuxedos and ballgowns. Laureus Academy Member and athletics legend Michael Johnson will wear his limited edition gold trainers to commemorate 21 years since his record performance at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.

Brazilian football icon Cafu will also roll back the years and wear the boots he wore in a World Cup Final. While sending a message to the world that Laureus’ Red Carpet can be a sporting field, #SneakersforGood will also help support Laureus’ partner Sal’s Shoes, who collect pairs of shoes and distribute them to those in need around the world.

The Awards were poignant this year as they marked a return to the inaugural event in Monaco in 2000 at which President Nelson Mandela made the speech that ushered in the creation of Laureus Sport for Good, a movement that uses the power of sport to end violence, discrimination and disadvantage. 

These most coveted awards underpin the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation that supports over 150 community projects around the world. Many of the award winners were easily predicted in advance with Usain Bolt’s hattrick of Olympic Gold medals giving him the Sportsman of the Year Award for the fourth time while Simone Biles’s four golds gave her the Woman’s title for the first.

Michael Phelps can perhaps feel slightly aggrieved to have been only recognised for the Comeback of the Year Award given his record haul of Olympic titles. Nico Rosberg, celebrating in his home town of Monaco, drove off with the Breakthrough of the Year Award, handed to him by F1 legend Emerson Fittipaldi. 

Many sports pundits believe that the Fiji Seven’s rugby team and Leicester City were unlucky to miss out in this category. Conversely, given their dominance, Mercedes would have been my selection for Team of the Year closely followed by the Brazil Men’s Olympic football team although breaking an 108-year wait for the World Series was sufficient to see this accolade awarded to the Chicago Cubs.

The World Action Sportsperson of the Year Award was special as it featured an Estonian 13-year old, Kelly Sildaru, who won the X Games Slopestyle Gold medal and Chloe Kim who aged just 15 won two snowboarding golds. 

Yet the title was awarded to Rachel Atherton from the UK who became the first rider to complete a clean sweep of all seven World Cup races in Mountain Biking (downhill) before weeks later claiming the World Championship.

Despite the glamour of the awards, this pales into insignificance compared to the real work done by Laureus as it uses the inspirational power of sport as a force for good. Uniting people throughout the world, this unique organisation has raised over $100m to provide opportunities through sport to help the disadvantaged seek and create a better life