Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen has been named Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, Sportsman of the Year 2022 at the Laureus Awards.
The Laureus World Sports Awards are international sports awards given each year to athletes, all disciplines combined, who have left their mark on sport the previous year. Athletes like like Lionel Messi in football, Roger Federer in tennis and F1 drivers Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton have previously received this accolade.
Lhe 24-year-old Red Bull driver – who won the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday – took 10 pole positions, 10 wins and a record 18 podiums last season en route to the maiden Championship title of the World won by a Dutch driver. Other contenders for the 2022 Laureus title were Tom Brady, Novak Djokovic, Caeleb Dressel and Robert Lewandowski.
After the announcement of this award, Max Verstappen said: « I’m very happy, of course, but it was a lot of hard work and years of preparation. I am incredibly proud.«
« Since I was little, I dreamed of being on the top step and winning the championship. I told my father [l’ancien pilote de Formule 1 Jos Verstappen] : ‘We did it, it’s what we’ve been working for all these years and now we’re here, the two of us, all the memories, all the years of traveling all over Europe, we were aiming for that one goal and we’re doing it. have reached. »
« I am the first Dutch driver to have won a world championship,” added Max Verstappen, “So the reaction in the Netherlands has been amazing from all the papers and all the fans, it’s something we’ll never forget. It means a lot to be recognized for this award, one of the largest in the world, so I’m incredibly happy. »
LBritish tennis star Emma Raducanu has won the Laureus Breakthrough of the Year Award after winning the US Open 2021 and Valentino Rossi winning the Laureus Sporting Icon Award , who retired from motorcycle racing at the end of last season. Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah has been named Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year.
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