Laureus World Sports Awards 2023 to be presented in Paris on May 8

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.

The guest list for this year's event will be announced in due course. It will include many of the sensational sporting figures nominated by the world's sporting media for the Laureus Award categories.

Providing local interest will be Paris-based global football star and winner of the 2022 FIFA World Cup with Argentina, Lionel Messi, who is nominated for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award alongside his Paris St Germain teammate Kylian Mbappe.

Competing for that same statuette will be Rafael Nadal, who picked up an unprecedented 14th French Open title in Paris last May which took him top of the all-time list of men's Grand Slam champions with 22 titles. Iga Swiatek also triumphed at Roland Garros in 2022 and followed it up with a win at the US Open to earn a nomination in the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year category.

The France Men's Rugby Team have been nominated in the Laureus Team of the Year category - alongside Messi's Argentina - for their heroics in winning the Six Nations and completing the Grand Slam in 2022. The 2023 Laureus World Sports Awards will join this year's Rugby World Cup and the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in the French capital.

Sebastian Coe, Laureus World Sports Academy Member and former chairman of the Organising Committee for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, said: "I saw in 2012 the incredible impact the Olympic Games has on its host city. It's about far more than elite competition, the change can be societal and it lasts long after the medals are handed out. In London, that cycle began in earnest with the Laureus World Sports Awards, the greatest celebration of sport we have. 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. As a member of the Laureus World Sports Academy, I'm looking forward to celebrating the best of sport in Paris on May 8."

Marcel Desailly, Laureus Academy Member and a key player in France's men's football team during their wins at the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000, said: "The year of 2022 was an incredible 12 months for sport, witnessing many world-class performances by some of the greatest athletes of all time. From the Women's European Football Championships to the FIFA World Cup, the tennis Grand Slams to the World Athletics Championships, it has been a thrill to watch records being broken and new levels of greatness being reached. For the Academy to choose the winners from across the achievements we've seen is no small task. The 2023 Laureus World Sports Awards will be a fantastic celebration of a memorable year in a city close to my heart."

The Awards Show will honour the most memorable sporting performances of 2022 and will include the Laureus Sport for Good Award, which recognises an individual or organisation that has made a significant contribution to transforming the lives of children and young people through sport.

Laureus will return to the physical event format after the 'virtual' presentations in 2021 and 2022 due to the global travel restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The in-person Awards will celebrate the last year's achievements in a ceremony that will reflect the prestige and style for which Laureus - and Paris - are recognised.

Since its inception, Laureus has helped to improve the lives of more than six million children and young adults, and now supports more than 250 sports-based community programmes around the world, fulfilling the visionary words of its founding Patron Nelson Mandela - 'Sport has the power to change the world'.

Laureus' Sport for Good City programme has been active in Paris since 2019, with the implementation of its 'Model City' approach, aimed at improving social integration and driving positive community change through sport. The Laureus Family spreads across every continent and is an inspirational, purpose-focused network of Laureus World Sports Academy Members, ambassadors, sportsmen and women, teams, sports governing bodies, federations and followers from the public, all committed to support Sport for Good and spread the movement's influence to a wider global audience.

Among the many athletes and teams who had a year to remember and who are nominated for Laureus Awards are Stephen Curry, Mondo Duplantis, Max Verstappen (Sportsman), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Katie Ledecky, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (Sportswoman), the England Women's Football Team, Real Madrid, Golden State Warriors (Team), Carlos Alcaraz, Scottie Scheffler, Elena Rybakina (Breakthrough) and Christian Eriksen, Tiger Woods and Annemiek van Vleuten (Comeback).

The Laureus World Sports Awards will once again be broadcast around the world, available in 120+ countries to a potential audience of over one billion people. Further coverage across Laureus' network of media partners will be supported across Laureus, athlete, Federation and sporting event digital channels in a unique collaborative approach encompassing the world of sport.

The winners of the Laureus World Sports Awards are selected by the ultimate sports jury - the 71 Members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, the living legends of sport honouring the greatest athletes of today. (ANI)