LONDON, November 12, 2003 – Michael Schumacher’s historic achievement in winning a record sixth Formula One World Championship last month and overtaking five-times winner Juan Manuel Fangio has made him one of the favourites to be nominated for the 2004 Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award.
Despite Schumacher’s phenomenal feat, however, the battle for global sport’s most prestigious men’s award could hardly be closer with Tour de France ace Lance Armstrong, motorcycle racer Valentino Rossi, Fiji’s golf star Vijay Singh, Moroccan athletics golden boy Hicham El-Guerrouj, young American swimmer Michael Phelps and Florida Marlins World Series pitching hero Josh Beckett among the early front-runners.
Schumacher, 34, clinched the World Championship in the last race of the season at Suzuka in Japan in October after a roller-coaster year of highs and lows. Ultimately the German’s superb driving skills proved decisive as he clinched his fourth consecutive World Championship for Ferrari to add to the two championships he won with Benetton in 1994 and 1995. In all Schumacher won six Grand Prix in 2003 – San Marino, Spain, Austria, Canada, Italy and the United States.
Schumacher was voted Laureus World Sportsman of the Year two years ago after winning his second World Championship for Ferrari in 2001, but to win again he is likely to be up against one of the world’s supreme sportsmen, Lance Armstrong, who is bidding for his third Laureus.
Texan Armstrong, 32, won the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award in May 2003 following his fourth win in the Tour de France, and within two months he was back in the saddle winning the Tour de France yet again to join Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Mercx, Bernard Hinault and Laureus World Sports Academy member Miguel Indurain in the record books as the only men to have won five times.
His achievement is all the more remarkable as he had to fight back to the peak of his sport after being diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1996 and undergoing chemotherapy treatment. He returned to cycling endowed with a new determination to win and his success in the 1999 Tour de France won him the 2000 Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award.
Another man on two wheels, Italy’s Valentino Rossi, 24, confirmed his reputation as one of the greatest motorcycle racers in history when he won his third World Championship. Rossi is only the eighth rider in the 54-year-old history of the sport to win three or more consecutive titles in the premier class.
In golf, Fiji’s Vijay Singh had a brilliant autumn on the US Tour, winning twice and finishing second twice in five starts, taking his prize money to US $7,345,907 and ending Tiger Woods four-year reign as No. 1 on the US Tour moneylist. Woods will now have to wait to see if he is once again voted the Player of the Year by the US Tour players. The battle will again be between Singh (four wins and first on the money list) and Woods (five wins and the Vardon Trophy for lowest scoring average).
Golf in 2003 will also be remembered as a year of first time major championship winners. Canadian left-hander Mike Weir won the US Masters and he was followed by American Jim Furyk who won the US Open at Olympia Fields.
While Furyk was a proven winner on the US Tour with nine career wins, the victory of his fellow American Ben Curtis in The Open Championship at Royal St. Georges was very different. Curtis, who was competing in his first ever major championship, was ranked 396th in the world as he teed up at Royal St. Georges, having played only 13 tournaments in his rookie year on the US Tour and never finishing in the top ten.
In August Shaun Micheel played the golf shot of the year to win the US PGA Championship when he hit a 7-iron to within five centimetres of the 18th hole to clinch his first ever victory on the US Tour, which he joined initially in 1993. Micheel, who was better known for saving an elderly couple from drowning in a sinking car while at a tournament in North Carolina, had never won in his previous 163 US Tour starts.
The World Athletics Championships in Paris in August produced some memorable performances. Hicham El Guerrouj, the golden boy of Moroccan sport, became the first athlete in history to win the 1500metres gold in the World Championships four times. Over the last two years El Guerrouj has been unbeaten in 18 races at 1,500metres or one mile.
Sweden’s triple jumper Christian Olsson took over from the legendary Jonathan Edwards by remaining unbeaten in 2003 and winning the gold medal in Paris. While Kim Collins, from the tiny West Indies nation of St Kitts & Nevis, added the 100metres World Championship gold to his 100metres Commonwealth Games gold.
The great Australian Ian Thorpe has at last found a rival for the title of No. 1 male swimmer in the world. While Thorpe was winning three golds, a silver and a bronze in the World Championships in Barcelona in July, young American Michael Phelps outshone him with three golds, two silvers, and also notched up an amazing five world records. Phelps, 18, was named Swimmer of the Meet after becoming the first to break five world records in one championship, including two – the 100m butterfly and 200m individual medley – within 50 minutes of each other.
In baseball Florida Marlins young pitcher Josh Beckett, was voted Most Valuable Player of the World Series for the Marlins victory over the New York Yankees. He was only the 10th pitcher in the last 60 years to throw a complete-game shutout to win his team the World Series. Beckett, 23, was the fourth-youngest pitcher ever to do that and he became the first pitcher to do it before he had thrown his first regular-season shutout.
Tennis honours in 2003 were shared by three of the younger players. Following his defeat in the Wimbledon semi-finals, American Andy Roddick, 21, embarked on a superb run in which he lost only two of 31 matches which culminated in victory in the US Open. He has long been tipped as the United States’ next tennis superstar and there was an enormous weight of expectation on his shoulders to show that he could follow in the steps of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. In the final at Flushing Meadow, Roddick beat Juan Carlos Ferrero, 23, who won the French Open at Roland Garros.
Roger Federer, 22, won his tenth career title during 2003, but the highlight was his win at Wimbledon when he was in magnificent form throughout the tournament, eventually beating Mark Philippoussis in the final.
In football Paolo Maldini completed a unique family double when he emulated his father Cesare and captained AC Milan to their penalty shootout victory over another Italian team, Juventus, in the Champions League final in May. Never before had a son and father achieved this before in Europe’s premier competition. It was Paolo Maldini’s fourth European success with AC Milan, having played in the winning teams in 1989, 1990 and 1994 and losing teams in 1993 and 1995. Only Francisco Gento and Alfredo Di Stefano of Real Madrid have played in more.
While Maldini was also voted Man of the Match, AC Milan’s Clarence Seedorf became the first man to play in a European Cup winning team with three different clubs. He also won with Ajax Amsterdam in 1995 and Real Madrid in 1998.
Australia’s Matthew Hayden hit the highest ever score in Test Cricket history on October 10 in Perth, Western Australia, with 380 against Zimbabwe. He passed the previous record of 375 held by West Indies’ Brian Lara just before tea on the second day while India’s Sachin Tendulkar was Man of the Tournament in the 2003 World Cup after scoring 673 runs at an average of 61.18. When he became the first batsman to score 50 hundreds in international cricket, Sachin Tendulkar established himself as the greatest of all Indian cricketers.
The winners of the fifth Laureus World Sports Awards, as voted upon by the Laureus World Sports Academy, will be unveiled during a television ceremony staged in the Portuguese resort of Estoril on the Lisbon Coast on the evening of May 10, 2004. The Laureus World Sports Awards are recognised as the premier honours on the international sporting calendar.
To apply for accreditation for the 2004 Laureus World Sports Awards, please log on to www.laureus.com/accreditation or contact Shelly Samuel on media@laureus.org.
For further information please contact:
Nina Fiddian-Green or Karen Dillon
Laureus International Media Office
Tel: +44 (0)20 7514 2749
Email: media@laureus.org
Photo Archive: www.laureusarchive.com
Website: www.laureus.com