Max Verstappen has a chance to win the prestigious Laureus Prize. The 24-year-old Formula 1 world champion has been nominated for the title of Global Athlete of the Year.
Verstappen will compete in his category with American swimmer Caleb Dressel, Kenyan athlete Eliud Kipchoge, Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, Polish footballer Robert Lewandowski and American football legend Tom Brady. Last year, the award was given to Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal.
It’s great to be nominated for this award after such a busy season. I would like to especially thank my team, Red Bull, who together with Honda gave me such a great car. We’ve struggled for this for years, and now we have succeeded.”
Last year, cyclist Anna van der Bregen was one of the contenders to be crowned Female Sportswoman of the Year. And Zolsi, who has since retired, had to lose to Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka. Annemiek van Vleuten was nominated this year, but in a different category. The best Dutch cyclist is one of the favorites to win the Comeback Cup of the Year.
Van Vleuten, 39, won the Olympic title in time last summer after sustaining a severe fall injury at the Rio Games five years earlier. It happened when the cyclist from Wageningen seemed to be on her way to a gold medal in the road race. At the Tokyo Games, she thought she would become an Olympic champion in road racing, but she didn’t know that Austrian Anna Kissenhofer had already finished.
This sport gives you another chance to experience something that has gone wrong before
Van Vleuten stated through her Movistar team, that Tokyo was something you only experience once in your life, where the sport gives you another chance to experience something that has gone wrong before. To win the award, she has competition from Spanish motorcycle racer Marc Marquez and American gymnast Simone Biles.
In the women’s competition, Spanish football star Alexia Butillas, American athlete Alison Felix, Australian tennis star Ashleigh Barty, Jamaican athlete Elaine Thompson and swimmers Emma McKeon (Australia) and Katie Ledecky (USA) were also nominated. In the Athletes with Disabilities category, wheelchair tennis player Diede de Groot and hand-cyclist Jetze Plat were nominated this year.
The final selection is made by the 71 members of the Laureus Academy, including many former top athletes. The winners of the prestigious sports awards will be announced in April.
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