Bolt, Farah and Felix among Laureus World Sports Awards nominees
Usain Bolt, Mo Farah and Allyson Felix are among the athletes to have been nominated for Laureus World Sports Awards.
In total, nine track and field athletes have been named across the range of awards categories.
Jamaica's three-time Laureus winner Bolt, who claimed another three sprint titles at the Rio Olympics last summer, and Britain's Mo Farah, who completed an Olympic distance 'double double', are in the running for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award, while Jamaica's double Olympic sprint champion Elaine Thompson and USA's three-time Rio Olympic medallist Felix are nominated for the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award.
"I’m delighted to be nominated for the Laureus Sportsman of the Year Award and would like to thank the media who voted for me," said Farah. "I dreamed of representing my country and winning just one Olympic medal when I was a young runner, so to achieve what I have has been an amazing journey.
"I believe you can realise any dream by being committed and working hard. That is what is so special about the Laureus Academy: you look at the names and you realise they have all been down a similar road. They have dreamed those dreams and achieved them."
Nominees in the Laureus World Comeback of the Year category include Spain’s Olympic high jump champion Ruth Beitia who, at the age of 37, added the Olympic title to her world indoor silver and European outdoor gold from earlier in the year and was beaten just once in 12 outdoor competitions.
Visually impaired Cuban sprinter Omara Durand, who claimed double T12 sprint gold in Rio, and Swiss wheelchair racer Marcel Hug, who won Paralympic T54 marathon and 800m titles, are nominated for the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award, while Olympic world record-breakers Almaz Ayana and Wayde van Niekerk are both nominated for the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award after their performances over 10,000m and 400m respectively at the Rio Games.
The nominations follow a ballot by the world’s media, with the eventual winners, as voted for by members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, to be revealed in Monaco on February 14.
A new Best Sporting Moment of the Year Award, which will celebrate the power of sport, will give fans the opportunity to make their voices heard, with further details on that award to be released in the near future.
While celebrating the greatest sporting successes of the year, the Laureus Awards Ceremony also showcases the work of Laureus Sport for Good, which has an aim of using the power of sport to end violence, discrimination and disadvantage, proving that sport can change the world. Today Laureus supports more than 100 programmes in around 40 countries.
"You always know in an Olympic year you are going to see a strong group of nominees and this year has certainly proved that," commented Laureus World Sports Academy chairman Sean Fitzpatrick. "What delights me is that we have an amazing mix of some of the greatest names in sport who have been performing at the highest level for as long as a decade, combined with some of the most exciting new faces we have seen for many years.
"It really is going to be an exceptional Laureus Awards next month."
