16 Americans Among Nominees
LONDON, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- 75 athletes from 25 countries were
announced today as nominees for the 2nd Annual World Sports Awards, to be held
at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Tuesday, January 16th. Sixteen
Americans were among the nominees to be honored, including Lance Armstrong
(Athletics); Tiger Woods, Venus Williams, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal,
Sheryl Swoopes and Pete Sampras (Ball Sports); Marion Jones, Maurice Green and
Michael Johnson (Track & Field); Michelle Kwan (Winter Sports); Jenny Thompson
and Lenny Krayzelburg (Swimming); Rulon Gardner and Roy Jones Jr. (Combat
Sports); and Kenny Roberts (Motor Sports).
Nominees were selected by an electoral college comprised of 71 sports
correspondents from 30 countries who nominated five athletes, both men and
women, in each of nine categories including Athletics, Ball Sports, Combat
Sports, Extreme and Adventure Sports, Motor Sports, Track & Field, Water
Sports, Winter Sports and Soccer. Five time Olympic rowing champion Steven
Redgrave, gold medallist in boxing Audley Harrison and Modern Pentathlon
bronze medallist Kate Allenby were in attendance at the nomination press
conference in London.
On January 16th, the World Jury, chaired by IOC President Juan Antonio
Samaranch, along with 50 sporting legends including Muhammad Ali, Bobby
Charlton, Wayne Gretzky, Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean and 40 top sports
officials such as FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter and ATP Tour Director Mark
Miles will convene in London for the final vote.
Conceived by former Olympic ski jumping champion, Hubert Neuper, the World
Sports Awards was staged for the first time last year at the Vienna Opera
House with a wide range of the world's most famous athletes participating,
including Muhammad Ali, Boris Becker, Pele, Carl Lewis, Dawn Fraser, Mark
Spitz and Niki Lauda. The World Sports Awards is supported by the World
Sports Awards Foundation, a private foundation whose goal is to celebrate the
outstanding athletes of the world in all fields. The World Sports Awards
Foundation was established by Dietrich Mateschitz, founder and CEO of Red
Bull.
Voting for the World Sports Awards is available to the public via the
Internet at the website http://www.world-sports-awards.tv. The balloting starts on
October 26th and will run through the end of November. The overall voting
results of the worldwide Internet jury will be counted as one jury member
vote.
The World Sports Awards is in serious negotiations with networks in
Europe, Australia, South America and Asia for a television broadcast.
For a complete list of the 75 nominees, please call Ronni Chasen at
310-274-4400.
SOURCE World Sports Awards
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Related links:
http://www.world-sports-awards.tv
CONTACT:
Ronni Chasen of Chasen & Company,
310-274-4400, for World Sports Awards
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