After Missy Franklin was nominated earlier this month for the women’s award, Michael Phelps has been nominated for the men’s version of the Laureus World Sports Award. This is one of the most prestigious global awards that exists in sports, and is chosen from a panel of the world’s leading sports editors, writers, and broadcasters from more than 80 countries around the world.
(Note: The awards are given in the year following the achievements, so this competition is for the 2013 honor).
In the 13-year history of the award, no swimmer has ever won either Sportsman or Sportswoman of the Year, though swimmers have won several minor awards. Even in 2008, where Michael Phelps won 8 golds at the Olympics, he was upset by Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt after he destroyed the World Record in sports most prestigious event: the 100 meter dash.
Two favorites have emerged among the 6 finalists on the men’s side, though: Phelps and Bolt. Both are history-makers, as both are hailed far-and-wide as the greatest their sport has ever seen.
Phelps’ accolades are likely well-known to readers of this site. In London, he won 6 medals, including 4 golds, and more significantly won his 22nd medal, putting him far ahead of anybody in history for the most Olympic medals ever.
Bolt won just three Olympic medals, all gold, in the 100 and 200 meter dashes, plus as part of Jamaica’s 4×100 relay. In absolute terms, that doesn’t seem as impressive as Phelps’ 6, but in terms of track & field it is a legendary performance. He became the first man to ever defend both the 100 and 200 meter titles. He is undoubtedly out-spoken and a larger-than-life personality, but he is every bit of the quality in track as Phelps is in swimming.
This will be a tough battle, as it’s hard to imagine Phelps retiring without winning this award given his accomplishments. The global media has sided with Bolt in the past though, giving him the award in both 2009 and 2010. The knowledge that this might be their last opportunity to reward the illustrious career of Phelps may sway the voting in his favor, but for an award that reaches across so many countries and so many sports, it’s not uncommon for unbelievable competitors to go without a win.
Former swimmers Mark Spitz and Dawn Fraser are both members of the Laureus Sports Academy, which has the privilege to bestow certain other honors.
The award almost always goes to Olympic athletes in post-Olympic years, though Tiger Woods in 2001 was an exception to that rule.
Other nominees:
- Sebastien Vettel, who won his 3rd Formula One Championship
- Rory McIlory, who led both the European and American tours in money earnings in golf
- Lionel Messi, a footballer (soccer player) who broke the legendary mark of Pele with 75 goals in a calendar year
Tiger Woods 2000 & 2001
Lance Armstrong 2003 .
Plenty of Americans spread throughout the other awards including the great Kelly Slater.
The fact that Phelps didn’t win the award in 2008 – after all the amazing things he did in Beijing – tells me a lot about Phelps’ chances to win it in 2012. If I remember well, the ‘explanation’ was that voters come from different countries, many of them know almost nothing about swimming so they can’t appreciate what Phelps did, also many of them do not want to vote for USA athlete for political reasons etc. However, if the greatest Olympian of all time isn’t ‘good enough’ to win the award in his lifetime, that won’t make his career and accomplishments less stellar – it will only make Laureus award less relevant and important.
Also, Phelps is nominated for… Read more »
Exactly- very well said.
Before Phelps the 200 butterfly world record was 1:55.18. He has brought it down to 1:51.51.
That is a stunning 3.1%. I’m too lazy to figure out the rest of them, but that is just incredible and certainly should give us somewhat of a basis upon which to compare to Bolt’s 1.6 % (for the 100 meter dash). I guess one could argue that the previous record for the 100 meter dash was faster than the previous swimming records, but if you go down that road then you are simply saying that no matter what the track performance will be more impressive
Isn’t the W 400M IM champion the champion? And the Men’s 200M Free champion? and the 100M dash champion, and the World Cup Team a champion, etc, etc, etc. These Golden Goggles, Athlete of the Year, etc. awards seem to be very arbitrary and just plain stupid comparisons. If we want to argue about the best persons, I’m not sure I would include any of these folks…
Bolt is an arrogant & egotistic individual. I respect him as an athlete, but not as a person. Can you imagine the feedback Phelps would get if he went around calling himself the “greatest athlete to live” and then trying to brag about the fact he had multiple females in his room by posting pictures? Bolt is a child in a mans body. but given the fact he’s pampered by the media and the IAAF, he’s not going to change. some people enjoy that about him, i get it. but i sure don’t.
With that said, Phelps is not perfect either. As this aside, Phelps should win the award.
I totally agree with you about Usain Bolt. I respect the athlete but I hate his overall attitude before and after the races. It’s very mechanical and just for the marketing. And yes he could be more humble.
Michael Phelps isn’t a perfect person but nobody is perfect. And I repeat it would be a scandal if he didn’t win this award in his career. But I also know these awards go in general to the most popular athletes in the most popular sports. Again, Michael Phelps deserves this award like swimming deserves this award. We’ll see.
I don’t think it’s accurate to compare Bolt and Phelps Olympic performance. Bolt had less races just because of specificity of his sport and instead of Phelps had no lose. It’s not correct to say his medal count is not as impressive.
Agree with you. It’s harder in track and field. But about Usain Bolt, nobody prevents him from trying the long jump, the 400m and the 4X400m relay. Carl Lewis has been 4 times long jump olympic champion in a row. But for that you must have the talent and train harder. Now and just for Usain Bolt IAAF has decided to make less rounds in the 100m and in the 200m. So if he wanted he could try.
And a remark about Michael Phelps. If it was so easy to do what he has done other swimmers would do it. We have seen with Ryan Lochte at the last olympic games that it wasn’t so simple. Many swimmers can… Read more »
I always think that it’s stupid to compare the sports. Each sport has his or her champion. But it would be a scandal if Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer of all time, wouldn’t win this big award in his career. And here in France, the only sports newspaper we have, makes standings at the end of the year. And here also Michael Phelps has never finished first, not even in 2004, 2007 and 2008. What could he do more during these years than 6 olympic gold medals, 7 world gold medals and 8 olympic gold medals? I don’t see.
And if we talk about this year in track and field there would be a few remarks to do. On the… Read more »
Each sport has its champion. It’s better like that.
I have a feeling Messi is going to win this.
Oh yeah I didn’t see that. You’re probably right; soccer is the most popular sport in the world, eh.