Accumulation of records and an amazing level of dominance here or there, this was not enough for Max Verstappen to win the 2023 Laureus Award.
On Monday evening, Madrid hosted the Laureus award gala, also referred to as the Oscars of sports. The event that awarded the best sporting achievements of the previous year also had Formula 1 stakeholders, as Max Verstappen was nominated in the “Male Athlete of the Year” category, and Red Bull was also nominated in the “Team of the Year” category.
Although in 2023 Max Verstappen won 19 and his team won 22 out of 23 races, and many sports records, including previously seemingly unbreakable “bearded” peaks, were consigned to the past, they both missed out on the Laureus Award.
Individually, Novak Djokovic, who became the most successful player in the history of tennis with 24 Grand Slams, won three of the four major tournaments last year, the Australian Open, Roland Garros and the US Open.
In addition to Verstappen, two other footballers, Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland, pole vault world record holder Armand Duplantis, and sprinter Noah Lyles were nominated.
Photo: Laureus
Among the teams, the winner was the Spanish women’s football team, who became world champions in 2023.
Verstappen was also nominated last year, but he was not chosen as the best then either, so the 2022 award for the first championship title in 2021 is still his only Laureus award.
Michael Schumacher from F1 previously won the award twice (2002 and 2004), Sebastian Vettel (2014) and Lewis Hamilton (2020, shared with Lionel Messi) once. Out of the 25 so far, 12 times a tennis player has been the male athlete of the year. Djokovic’s current prize is his fifth, with which he overtook Roger Federer; Rafael Nadal counts two successes.
