Leo Messi and Rafa Nadal, as the best athletes of 2022, Carlos Alcaraz, as a revelation, and Alexia Putellas, as the best female athlete, are aspiring to the Laureus awards which are presented this Monday in Paris, almost a year after the French capital hosts the Games Olympians
The Laureus World Sports Awards are annual awards presented by the Laureus World Sports Academy to the best athletes in the world for their achievements one year earlier.
After two editions without face-to-face galas due to the pandemic, the Oscars of Sport will present their awards divided into eight categories at the luxurious Pavillon Vendome in central Paris (between 17:00 and 19:00 GMT).
Messi will choose the best athlete of the year award after guiding Argentina to the world titlewho lives complicated hours in Paris due to the two-week sanction without employment and salary that PSG inflicted on him for missing training for a promotional trip to Saudi Arabia, not authorized by the club.
The presence or absence of Messi in a gala that is celebrated a few kilometers from his home is one of the great questions of the ceremony.
The Argentine, 35 years old, will have as opponents TO his teammate at PSG kylian mbappesecond in the world in Qatar 2022, and the Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadalwho after winning the Australian Open and Roland Garros in 2022 has added 22 “Grand Slam” victories.
Nor has the presence of any of them been confirmed for the moment. Nadal, 36, has not competed for more than three months due to his physical problems and his presence at Roland Garros, which starts in three weeks, is unknown.
The list of candidates for best male athlete is completed by the Dutch Max Verstappen, two-time Formula 1 world champion; Swedish Duplantis worldpole vault world record holder; and the American Stephen CurryNBA Finals MVP.
In the equipment category, the soccer world champion, Argentina, will face Real Madrid, champion of the league in Spain and winner of the Champions League for the fourteenth time in 2022; and women’s England, winners of the last Euro Cup.
The list is completed by the French men’s rugby team, which won the Six Nations in 2022 after twelve years; the Golden State Warriors (USA), champions of the NBA for the fourth time in eight years; and the Oracle Red Bull Racing team (Austria), proclaimed Formula 1 constructors’ champion after beating Mercedes after eight years.
In the women’s category, Spanish footballer and Barcelona captain Alexia Putellas is once again nominated after winning her second consecutive Ballon d’Or.
The Catalan will have a difficult life, given that she missed almost half of 2022 due to a serious knee injury that kept her out until a few days ago. However, she will compete against Polish tennis player Iwa Swiatek, American swimmer Katie Ledecky and American skier Mikaela Shiffrin, among others.
The Breakthrough Athlete Award has Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz among its nominees, after he won the United States Open and became the youngest male world number one in history.
The Murcian, who is expected to attend the gala one day after the Masters 1,000 final in Madrid, will have Kazakh tennis player Elena Rybakina as rivals and the Moroccan soccer team, fourth in Qatar, among others.
The Laureus will also honor the comeback of the year, featuring American golfer Tiger Woods and Danish footballer Christian Eriksen among his candidates.
Likewise, Brazilians Felipe Toledo (surfer) and Rayssa Leal (skate) are nominated in the extreme sports category. Leal, 15, was a silver medalist in Tokyo at age 13.
The best Paralympic athlete of 2022 will also be awarded and New Zealand swimmer Cameron Leslei and Swiss athlete Catherine Debrunner are vying for the award.
The only category that was revealed in advance was that of “Sport for Good”. The ‘TeamUp’ initiative, which supports the psychosocial well-being of war-affected children, was the winner, the organization announced on Sunday.
‘TeamUp’, developed by Save the Children, Unicef Netherlands and War Child, is present in 26 countries. This initiative was applied in 2022 in Poland with Ukrainian refugee children due to Russian invasion. EFE extension
Source: Clarin
Jason Root is the go-to source for sports coverage at News Rebeat. With a passion for athletics and an in-depth knowledge of the latest sports trends, Jason provides comprehensive and engaging analysis of the world of sports.