Usain Bolt wins Laureus Awards as sportsman of year

Olympic champions Usain Bolt and Jessica Ennis headline the winners of the 2013 Laureus World Sports Awards named at a globally televised Awards Ceremony in Rio de Janeiro today.

Bolt was acclaimed Laureus World Sportsman of the Year after his remarkable performance at the Olympics when he repeated his success in Beijing by winning gold medals in all three sprint events in London – 100 metres, 200 metres and 4 x 100 metres relay.

Laureus World Sportsman of the Year: Usain Bolt
Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year: Jessica Ennis
Laureus World Team of the Year: European Ryder Cup Team
Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year: Andy Murray
Laureus World Comeback of the Year: Felix Sanchez
Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year: Felix Baumgartner

The Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award went to Ennis, who carried the hopes of the British nation in London. Despite the enormous pressure of being one of the first on the track, she dominated the heptathlon and won the gold medal with a British record score of 6,955 pts.

British tennis star Andy Murray’s first ever Grand Slam victory, at the US Open, plus an Olympic gold and silver medal in the singles and mixed doubles in London, made him the winner of the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year Award.

Another outstanding Olympic champion, the Dominican Republic’s Felix Sanchez, received the Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award after winning the Olympic 400 metres hurdles gold medal in London, eight years after he won it for the first time in Athens in 2004.

Brazil’s Daniel Dias, aged 24, was once again the outstanding swimmer of the Paralympic Games, winning six individual gold medals in London, all in world record times. It was an achievement which won him the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award for the second time.

Legendary swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time with a career total of 22 medals, including 18 gold medals, eight of which he won in one Olympiad in Beijing, was presented with a new Award – the Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement Award.

And Laureus World Sports Academy Member Sebastian Coe, the Chairman of the Organising Committee of the highly successful London Olympic and Paralympic Games, received the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jamaican Olympic sprint champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce arrives to the 2013 Laureus World Sports Awards, at Municipal Theater in Rio de Janeiro March 11, 2013. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – MARCH 11: Runner Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce poses with the trophy attends the 2013 Laureus World Sports Awards at the Theatro Municipal Do Rio de Janeiro on March 11, 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Jamie McDonald/Getty Images For Laureus)

The Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Sebastian Coe, Chairman of the Organising Committee of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the newly created Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement Award was presented to Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time.

Article via ONE Sport

Photos: Marc Serota/Getty Images South America