World's best sportspersons for

mugu · Post by **mugu** » Tue May 17, 2005 4:33 am

The list of winners:
World Sportsman of the Year: Roger Federer
World Sportswoman of the Year: Kelly Holmes
World Team of the Year: Greece Men's Football Team
World Comeback of the Year: Alessandro Zanardi
World Newcomer of the Year: Liu Xiang
World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability: Chantal Petitclerc
World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year: Ellen MacArthur

Laureus Spirit of Sport Award Boston Red Sox

Laureus Sport for Good Award Gerry Storey (Northern Irish boxing coach)

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Tue May 17, 2005 5:11 am

I hadn't noticed this thread until today. But it was interesting that mugu's choices and the ultimate choices of the world's journalists were remarkably similar. Kudos mugu!!

mugu · Post by **mugu** » Tue May 17, 2005 5:36 am

Thanks PKB!
The selection is a two-tier procedure. At first over 300 sports journalists from around the world make their nominations. And then the World Sports Academy, of which our own Kapil Dev is a proud member, makes the final choice through a secret computerised ballot.
The Academy members are:
Edwin Moses (Chairman), Sebastian Coe, Pele, Kapil Dev, Vivian Richards, Dan Marino, Sean Fitzpatrick, Giacomo Agostini, Michael Johnson, Robby Naish, Alberto Tomba, David Douillet, Seve Ballesteros, Ian Botham, Nadia Comaneci, Dawn Fraser, Michael Jordan, John McEnroe, Ilie Nastase, Gary Player, Bill Shoemaker, Katarina Witt, Tony Hawk, Franz Beckenbauer, Sergey Bubka, Tanny Grey-Thompson, Kipchoge Keino, Martina Navaratilova, Morn du Plessis, Mark Spitz, Yasuhiro Yamashita, Boris Becker, Bobby Charlton, Emerson Fittipaldi, Miguel Indurian, Franz Klammer, Nawal El Moutawakel, Jack Nicklaus, Hugo Porta, Daley Thompson and Deng Yaping.

BSharma · Post by **BSharma** » Tue May 17, 2005 5:43 am

Federer is a deserving winner.

I am surprised that there are four former tennis players and three golfers (not counting Kapil Dev) on the panel. Some important sports have no representation.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Tue May 17, 2005 2:00 pm

I think this is a terrific galaxy of the greatest sportsmen and women in the world over the last 3-4 decades. Every sport cannot be represented, but most of the great sports of the world are represented. Perhaps the one glaringly inappropriate member is Ilie Nastase, who was more a showman than a great tennis player (Connors, Borg, Lendl, Becker, Sampras, even Courier should have been selected ahead of Nastase). But perhaps charisma too was a factor considered.

PKBasu · Post by **PKBasu** » Tue May 17, 2005 2:10 pm

david wrote:My choice for best sportsman
1.Lance Armstrong
2.Vijay Singh
3.Roger Federer
4.Michael Phelps
5.Michael Shumacher and
6.Sachin Tendulkar

Although this discussion is moot now...David, I was really quite shocked that you nominated Sachin Tendulkar. His performance last year was utterly mediocre. If there was an Indian cricketer who could have been nominated, surely it was Virender Sehwag, with a triple century against Pakistan, and big centuries against Australia and South Africa during the reporting year. And a fairly distant second would be Kumble, followed by Dravid. But Sachin (in my view, at least) could not possibly qualify for 2004 (or 2003, especially in test cricket).