PANAJI: Neeraj Chopra, India’s first-ever winner of an Olympic athletics gold medal, is celebrating another prestigious honour, after being selected as one of the six nominees for the 2022 Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award, states a press release.
A panel of more than 1,300 of the leading sports journalists and broadcasters in the world have selected the nominees in each of seven categories for this year’s Laureus World Sports Awards. The winners will be revealed in April, following a vote by the Laureus World Sports Academy, the world’s ultimate sports jury, made up of 71 of the greatest sporting legends of all time.
Chopra, who won his gold medal in the men’s javelin in Tokyo, is one of only two Indians to have won an individual Olympic gold, the other being Abhinav Bindra in air rifle in 2008. At the age of 23, he was making his Olympic debut in Tokyo. He won the gold medal with a throw of 87.58 metres in his second attempt. He is only the third Indian athlete to be nominated for a Laureus Award, after wrestler Vinesh Phogat in 2019 and cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar, who won the Laureus Sporting Moment Award 2000-2020, which marked the emotional moment during the 2011 ICC World Cup, when his team carried him on their shoulders in a lap of honour after India’s win.
In 2011, while Tendulkar was celebrating that victory, Chopra had just started attending a gym under pressure from his family to improve his fitness. While there he saw athletes practising and he developed an interest in the javelin. At the 2016 World Under-20 Championships he won the gold medal and his career was up and running.
Chopra said: “I’m delighted to be nominated for this Laureus Award and it’s a great honour for me to be recognised in the wider sporting world for what I achieved in Tokyo. From being a kid in a small village in rural India who only took up sport to get fit, to standing on top of an Olympic podium, it’s been quite an eventful journey so far. I feel privileged to be able to represent my country and win India medals at the global stage, and now to have this recognition from Laureus and be considered alongside such exceptional athletes is a really special feeling.”
Also nominated with Chopra for the Breakthrough Award, are Britain’s Emma Raducanu, who became a global tennis sensation when she won the US Open at the age of 18, Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, who won the men’s title at Flushing Meadows, FC Barcelona’s football prodigy Pedri, aged 19, voted best young player at the Ballon d’Or, Yulimar Rojas, who broke the 26-year-old triple jump world record, and swimmer Ariarne Titmus, aged 20, who twice beat champion Katie Ledecky at 200 and 400m in Tokyo.
The battle for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award will be one of the most competitive ever. Tom Brady, NFL’s greatest quarterback, is nominated along with Bayern Munich’s prolific goalscorer Robert Lewandowski, new Formula One world champion Max Verstappen, tennis world No.1 Novak Djokovic, and two of the greatest Olympians: swimmer Caeleb Dressel, who won five gold medals in Tokyo, and Eliud Kipchoge, who won back-to-back marathon gold medals.
Several historic Olympic performances dominate the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year category: Elaine Thompson-Herah matched fellow Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt with gold medals in the 100, 200 and 4×100 metres relay; Allyson Felix passed Carl Lewis as the most decorated track and field US Olympian; Australian swimmer Emma McKeon’s four gold and three bronze tied the record for the most medals ever won by a woman in a single Olympic Games; and American swimmer Katie Ledecky won two more gold and two silver medals.
The brilliant Italy Men’s Football Team are among the frontrunners for the Laureus World Team of the Year Award after their victory in Euro 2020. There are two other football nominees: the Argentina Men’s Football Team, including Lionel Messi, who won the Copa America; and FC Barcelona Women’s Football Team, who won their first Champions League. They are joined by the China Olympic Diving Team, who won gold medals in seven of the eight events, the Milwaukee Bucks, inspired by Giannis Antetokounmpo, who ended their 50-year wait for a second NBA championship, and the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team which won a record eighth consecutive Constructors’ World Championship.
The nominees for the Laureus World Comeback of the Year include several sporting giants: the indomitable gymnast Simone Biles, who showed her courage and determination to come back to win a bronze medal on the beam in Tokyo; Mark Cavendish, who fought back from mental and physical health problems to equal Eddie Merckx’s record of 34 Tour de France stage wins, and eight-time MotoGP world champion Marc Márquez, who celebrated his first Grand Prix win for 581 days after a broken arm. Sky Brown, aged 13, recovered from a fractured skull to win a skateboarding bronze medal in Tokyo.
