Spectacular performances at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin and the World Swimming Championships in Rome, plus a remarkable year by the world’s top women’s skier Lindsey Vonn, have produced a string of impressive contenders for nomination for the 2010 Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award.
The Laureus World Sports Awards, which recognise sporting achievement during the period January 1, 2009 - December 31, 2009, are recognised as the premier honours on the international sporting calendar. The names of the six Nominees for the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award, as voted by the Laureus Media Selection Panel, will be announced next month.
The eventual winners, chosen by the Laureus World Sports Academy, the ultimate sports jury made up of 46 of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of all time, will be unveiled during a televised Awards Ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, March 10, 2010.
Lindsey Vonn proved herself to be one of the greatest skiers of all time after she won the overall World Cup title for the second straight year in 2009. The 25-year-old American also won the World Cup for individual Downhill and Super-G disciplines and took two gold medals in the World Championships in Val d’Isere. Her scintillating year made her the most successful American women’s skier in World Cup history and the first American to win back-to-back overall World Cup titles. In the Super-G at Tarviso in February, she skied to her 19th World Cup race victory, surpassing Tamara McKinney’s American record.
In the pool in Rome, the fastest woman in the world, Germany’s Britta Steffen, won two gold medals in world record times at the World Swimming Championships, including the blue riband 100 metres freestyle, with a time of 52.07 secs, beating her own record of 52.22 which she had set four days earlier. Two days later she won her second title in the women's 50 metres freestyle, again breaking the world record with a time of 23.73 secs. Her amazing year followed her double Olympic triumph in 2008 when she won gold in the 50 and 100 metres freestyle.
In front of the passionate Rome crowd, Italy’s Federica Pellegrini, at 21, became the first woman to break the four minute barrier in the 400 metres freestyle as she swam to the gold medal in the 2009 World Championships. Her time of 3 mins 59.15 secs turned her into the biggest star of the championships and put her on the front cover of Vanity Fair magazine where she appeared painted head to toe in gold paint. She also won the 200 metres freestyle gold medal in a world record time.
There were several outstanding displays in track and field during the World Championships in Berlin. American Allyson Felix’s victory in the 200 metres made her the only woman ever to win the event three times. She had become the youngest ever gold medal winning sprinter at the age of 19, when she first won the World Championship in Helsinki in 2005.
Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser added the World Championship 100 metres gold medal to the Olympic gold medal she won in Beijing the previous year. She is the only female sprinter to hold both World and Olympic 100m titles simultaneously.
American Sanya Richards has been the No 1 at 400 metres for five years, but was not able to win an individual gold medal in Olympic or World competition until Berlin, where she crossed the line in 49.00 secs to win the individual 400 metres title. She also anchored the US team in the 4x400m relay for a second gold. Born in the same part of Jamaica as Usain Bolt, she moved to the US when she was 12. In 2009, she ran the four fastest times in the world and won a share of the US$1m Golden League jackpot for the third time in her career, after winning at the six Golden League meetings.
After a disappointing 2008 when she failed to win Olympic gold and the Golden League by the narrowest of margins, Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic stormed back in 2009 to win the World Championship high jump gold medal, then 11 days later cleared 2.08 metres – the second best high jump ever.
In other sports, South Korea’s Ji Yai Shin, 21, led the money list on the LPGA Tour in her first full year, winning over US$1.8 million, and also securing the LPGA Rookie of the Year Award. Despite a slow start, during a spectacular 2009, she won three times – the HSBC Women’s Championship, the Wegmans LPGA and the P&G Beauty event.
American tennis star Serena Williams won both the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2009 to take her total of career Grand Slam singles victories to 11, putting her seventh on the all-time list. She regained the World No 1 ranking for the fifth time in her career in November. However her excellent year was somewhat spoiled at the US Open after a widely reported on-court row with a lineswoman who foot-faulted her at 5-6, 15-30 in the final set of the semi-final against Kim Clijsters.
British athlete Chrissie Wellington once again dominated the ultimate triathlon and remained unbeaten in the event. Her victory in the 2009 Ironman Triathlon, the sport’s world championship, was her third straight win. In her October victory in Hawaii, she set a new course record of 8 hrs 54:02 mins, beating Paula Newby-Fraser’s record which had stood since 1992. She is famed for having won the event for the first time in 2007, less than a year after turning professional at the age of 30.
Laureus World Sports Academy member and Olympic Downhill champion Franz Klammer said: “I am hoping that Lindsey Vonn will be nominated. She is a fantastic talent in my own sport of skiing. Not only is she a brilliant Downhill and Super-G racer, but she has shown amazing consistency over the last two years. But she will not have it all her own way, there are some terrific athletes and swimmers like Britta Steffen and Federica Pellegrini who have had wonderful years. There are some excellent candidates and I know it is going to be a very difficult task for the media to choose just six of these great sportswoman as Nominees.”
