Lionel Messi (Argentina)안전놀이터 and Shelley Ann Fraser-Price (Jamaica) have been named the 2023 Laureus Men’s and Women’s Sportsperson of the Year.
The Laureus World Sports Academy held the 2023 Laureus Sports Awards Ceremony in Paris, France on the 9th (Korean time) and announced the winners for each category.
Messi, who led Argentina to victory at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar last year, was honored as the male sportsman of the year.
This is the second time Messi has received the award in his personal career, after sharing it with Formula One (F1) driver Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain) in 2020.
Argentina’s national football team was named Team of the Year, acknowledging the sport’s most outstanding performance in the past year.
This year’s Messi is the first player to win the Sports Person of the Year and Team of the Year twice since the establishment of the Laureus Sports Awards in 2000.
Fraser-Pryce, who was selected as the female athlete of the year, won the 100m at the World Championships in Athletics in July last year and won her fifth gold medal in her career at the world championships alone.
The ‘Breakthrough’ award, equivalent to the ‘Rookie Award’, went to Carlos Alcaras (Spain), who won the men’s singles at the US Open tennis last year.
The Comeback of the Year award went to Danish soccer player Kristian Eriksen, who returned to the field after suffering a heart attack.
Gui Ling (China), a snowboarder who rose to stardom at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, was voted Action Sports Person of the Year.