By Monica Iheakam
Nigeria’s 100 meters hurdles World Record holder, Tobi Amusan and Argentina’s FIFA World Cup winning captain, Lionel Messi, are among athletes who will assemble in Paris on May 8 for the 2023 Laureus World Sports Awards.
A tweet on Laureus official twitter handle @LaureusSport announced the date and venue “2023 Laureus World Sports Awards Monday 8 May Paris Celebrating the best of sport, this year’s Awards are hosted in the global capital of sport as a prelude to the 2023 @rugbyworldcup and 2024 @olympics”
The event will mark a return to a physical Awards format, following two years of ‘virtual’ presentations as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic – and also kick off a host of high-profile sporting events in Paris over the next year.
Amusan, the first Nigerian athlete (male or female) to be nominated for the prestigious award is shortlisted in the World Breakthrough of the Year category alongside five other contestants like tennis stars, Carlos Alcaraz and Elena Rybakina; semi-finalist at Qatar 2022 World Cup Atlas Lions of Morocco; American figure skater Nathan Chen; and American professional golfer Scott Scheffler.
Her nomination for the World Breakthrough of the Year award is connected to her impressive performance on the track in 2022 winning every trophy available in the sport in addition to erasing American Kendra Harrison’s world record of 12.20secs set in 2016.
Denmark’s Christian Eriksen, who had to be rescuscitated on the pitch during a Euro 2020 match played in 2021 after his heart stopped beating, is among the contenders for the Comeback award.
After being fitted with a heart implant he returned to football eight months later with Brentford and transferred to Manchester United the following season.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, one of the 71 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy who select the Awards winners, commented:
“With the Rugby World Cup and then the Olympics, Paris is about to become the centre of the sporting world.
“There’s no better way to begin than with the Laureus Awards.”
The Laureus World Sports Awards will once again be broadcast around the world, available in more than countries to a potential audience of over one billion people.