With the Brazilians Filipe Toledo and Rayssa Leal disputing the category of Best Action Sportswoman, the Laureus Award announced this Monday (20) the list of athletes competing for the award that is considered the Oscar of world sport.
Current champion of the World Surfing Circuit, Filipe Toledo is one of the highlights of brazilian storm, a talented generation of Brazilian surfers who have won six titles in the last ten editions of the competition. The athlete from Ubatuba just secured victory in the Sunset Beach stage of the 2023 season.
? @Filipetoledo77 won his first @wsl title in 2022 and in the process earned himself a nomination for the #Laureus23 World Action Sportsperson of the Year Award pic.twitter.com/zL2GpZp3Cd
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) February 20, 2023
Rayssa Leal, on the other hand, is the great sensation of skate street. At just 15 years old, the young woman has an Olympic medal under her belt and took home at the beginning of the month the trophy of the World Championship of the modality that was disputed in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates).
However, even with such important feats, the Brazilians will not have an easy life in the dispute, as the other candidates are eight-time surfing world champion Stephanie Gilmore, from Australia, North American snowboarder Chloe Kim, Chinese skier Eileen Gu and French big wave surfer Justine Dupont.
2022 saw #Laureus23 World Action Sportsperson of the Year Award Nominee @rayssaleal win her first @X Games gold medal and her first SLS Super Crown Championships pic.twitter.com/gIjLRDeCEo
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) February 20, 2023
The winners of the 2023 Laureus Awards will be announced after voting among the members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, a jury comprised of 71 of the greatest sporting legends of all time.
List of candidates for the Laureus Prize:
Best male athlete: Stephen Curry (USA), basketball. Armand Duplantis (Sweden), athletics. Kylian Mbappe, football. Lionel Messi (Argentina), football. Rafael Nadal (Spain), tennis. Max Verstappen (Netherlands), motorsport.
Best female athlete: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica), track and field. Katie Ledecky (USA), swimming. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA), athletics. Alexia Putellas (Spain), soccer. Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), alpine skiing. Iga Świątek (Poland), tennis.
Team of the year: Argentina men’s soccer team. England Women’s Football Team. France Men’s Rugby National Team. Golden State Warriors (USA), basketball. Oracle Red Bull Racing (Austria), motor racing. Real Madrid (Spain), football.
Revelation of the Year: Carlos Alcaraz (Spain), tennis. Tobi Amusan (Nigeria), athletics. Nathan Chen (USA), figure skating. Moroccan men’s national football team. Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan), tennis. Scottie Scheffler (USA), golf.
Return of the year: Francesco Bagnaia (Italy), motorcycling. Christian Eriksen (Denmark), football. Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway), athletics. Klay Thompson (USA), basketball. Annemiek van Vleuten (Netherlands), cycling. Tiger Woods (USA), golf.
Disabled athlete: Diede de Groot (Netherlands), wheelchair tennis. Catherine Debrunner (Switzerland), athletics. Declan Farmer (USA), ice hockey. Cameron Leslie (New Zealand), swimming and wheelchair rugby. Oksana Masters (USA), cross-country skiing. Jesper Saltvik Pedersen (Norway), alpine skiing.
Action Sportsmen: Justine Dupont (France), surfing giant waves. Stephanie Gilmore (Australia), surfing. Eileen Gu (China), freestyle skiing. Chloe Kim (USA), snowboarding. Rayssa Leal (Brazil), skate. Filipe Toledo (Brazil), surfing.
Sport for good: Boxgirls (Kenya), Boxing. High Five (Germany), action sports. Made For More (South Africa), various sports. Slum Soccer (India), football. TeamUp Movement (Global).
