2009 Laureus World Sports Awards nominees announced!

The nominees of this year’s Laureus World Sports Awards have been announced and as expected, most of the players that got the nod were those who performed well at the Beijing Olympics held last year.

“This has been a great year for sport and the Academy are going to find it extremely difficult to decide who to vote for as winners. This is always the case in an Olympics year, but we have has some very strong performances from the non-Olympic sports. I congratulate all the nominees,” said Laureus World Sports Academy Chairman Edwin Moses.

Four tennis superstars were shortlisted in this internationally recognized sporting awards. Rafael Nadal (Spain), Venus Williams (United States), Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) and Novak Djokovic (Serbia) will be vying for honor in their respective categories.

Here’s the full list of nominees for the tenth edition of the Laureus World Sports Awards:

Laureus World Sportsman of the Year

Usain Bolt (Jamaica) – first man to win 100m, 200m & 4x100m Olympic gold medals in world records
Lewis Hamilton (UK) – youngest ever Formula One World Champion at 23 years and 300 days
Rafael Nadal (Spain) – won French Open, Wimbledon & Olympic gold medal to become tennis No.1
Michael Phelps (US) – won eight gold medals in a single Olympiad to overtake Mark Spitz’s record
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) – FIFA World Player of the Year, scored 42 goals for Manchester United
Valentino Rossi (Italy) – beat Giacomo Agostini’s record 68 500cc wins, and won 6th senior world title

Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year

Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia) -became first woman to win 5,000m & 10,000m double at same Olympics
Yelena Isinbayeva (Russia) – created her 24th world record in Beijing to win the pole vault gold medal
Lorena Ochoa (Mexico) – won seven tournaments in 2008, was almost $1m ahead on money list
Stephanie Rice (Australia) -won three swimming gold medals in Beijing; set 5 world records in 2008
Lindsey Vonn (US) – won Alpine World Cup title, also World Cup discipline leader in downhill
Venus Williams (US) – won her 5th Wimbledon title in 2008, also won Olympic doubles gold medal

Laureus World Team of the Year

Boston Celtics (US) – beat Los Angeles Lakers to win the NBA play-offs for a record 17th time
China Olympic Team – best ever Olympic result, led medals table with 51 gold, 21 silver, 28 bronze
GB Olympic Cycle Team (UK) – dominated the Beijing velodrome with 8 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze
Jamaica Olympic Sprint Team – beat US favourites for a near clean sweep of Olympic sprint medals
Manchester United (UK) – won third European Champions League and also English Premier League
Spain Football Team – won European Championship, their first major title for 44 years

Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year

Rebecca Adlington (UK) -  19, unknown at the start of the year, won Olympic 400m & 800m freestlye
Novak Djokovic (Serbia) – 21, won his first Grand Slam tennis title at the Australian Open
Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) – 20, won first Grand Slam at French Open, was tennis World No.1 for 9 weeks
Anthony Kim (US) – 23, won two US PGA events, and was star of US Ryder Cup win
Sebastian Vettel (Germany) – youngest ever F1 Grand Prix winner, at 21 years, 73 days, at Monza
Zou Kai (China) -  won three gymnastic gold medals in Beijing on his Olympic debut

Laureus World Comeback of the Year

Vitali Klitschko (Ukraine) – regained World Heavyweight Championship at 37 after four years out
Anna Meares (Australia) – won Olympic silver medal eight months after breaking neck in cycle crash
Greg Norman (Australia) – finished 3rd in British Open golf at the age of 53, while on his honeymoon
Matthias Steiner (Germany) – won weightlifting Olympic gold a year after his wife died in car crash
Maarten van der Weijden (Netherlands) – won Olympic swimming gold medal after beating leukaemia
Tiger Woods (US) – returned two months after serious knee injury to win US Open golf championship

Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability

Daniel Dias (Brazil) – 20, leading swimmer at Paralympics with 4 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze medals

April Holmes (US) – world’s fastest female amputee, won 100 metres at Paralympics
Darren Kenny (UK) – Paralympic cyclist who won 4 gold and 1 silver medals in Beijing.
Jonas Jacobsson (Sweden) – has won a shooting gold medal in the eight Paralympics since 1980
Teresa Perales (Spain) – won 3 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze medals in Paralympic swimming
Zhang Lixin (China) – became the local hero in Beijing with four wheelchair racing gold medals

Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year

Julien Absalon (France) – became first man to defend Olympic cross-country mountain bike title
Stephanie Gilmore (Australia) – won surfing world title in rookie year 2007, and also 2008
Aaron Hadlow (UK) – 19, won PKRA kiteboarding world tour for fifth straight time
Tanner Hall (US) – now the most successful Winter X Games athlete ever with seven gold medals
Kelly Slater (US) – At 36, legendary surfing master Kelly Slater won his ninth world title
Shaun White (US) – snowboarder, won Winter X Games Superpipe and bronze Slopestyle

Per latest release, Laureus has yet to announce the date and location of the awards.

Source: Laureus website

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