Messi, Fraser-Pryce win top accolade at Laureus Sports Awards

Argentine football star Lionel Messi and Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce were named the male and female sportspeople of the year, respectively, at the 2023 Laureus World Sports Awards. The awards began in 2000 and are considered the most prestigious in the sporting world and are often referred to as the “Academy Awards of Sport.” Laureus comes from the word “laurel,” meaning a wreath crown in ancient Greek.

Messi received the Sportsman of the Year award at the ceremony held in Paris on Tuesday. This is the second time that the Argentine has won the award following 2020 when he shared the award with Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton of the U.K. Messi was the first male football player to win the award in 2020. The Argentine national football team, which won the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, was honored with the Team of the Year award. Messi, who captained the Argentine national team last year, has become the first athlete to win both individual and team awards in the history of Laureus World Sports Awards.

It was Fraser-Pryce who was honored with the Sportswoman of the Year. Having won the 100-meter sprint at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, she won her fifth world championship gold medal. The Laureus Breakthrough of the Year award, which is given to a promising young athlete, went to 20-year-old Spanish tennis player Carlos Alcaraz, who won the 2022 U.S. Open men’s singles title. Christian Eriksen, a Danish footballer who suffered a cardiac arrest during a match but made a comeback after surgery and rehabilitation, received the Comeback of the Year award.

The Laureus Awards are presented in seven categories based on the previous year’s performance and accomplishments. The Laureus World Sports Academy selects the winners after going through a global voting process involving over 1,000 sports media outlets in around 70 countries worldwide.


hun@donga.com