ESTORIL, Portugal, 18 May 2005 — The world’s top tennis player won the Laureus sportsman of the year title at a ceremony in Estoril on Monday evening while surprise Euro 2004 winners Greece were honored with the Team of the Year award. (Another picture on Page 24).
Britain’s double Olympic champion in the 800m and 1500m, Kelly Holmes, took the women’s award while compatriot, yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur took the Alternative Sportsperson title for her achievement of sailing around the world single-handedly in 71 days.
China’s Liu Xiang, who won his country’s first men’s Olympic athletics gold when he took the 110 meters hurdles at the Athens Games at the age of 21, was named World Newcomer of the Year. Switzerland’s Federer, 23, won his award as a result of dominating men’s tennis in 2004, when he lifted three Grand Slam titles and established himself as undisputed world No. 1.
The Greek football team’s German coach Otto Rehhagel received the team award from tennis legend Boris Becker.
“In recent times I’ve received a few prizes but this is really special,” said Rehhagel, who a week earlier received the German Order of Merit. “We’ve shown the little ones that nothing is impossible,” continued the 66-year-old former Bayern Munich coach.
Meanwhile, Federer, who lifted his 28th career title at the weekend when he won the Hamburg Masters, said he wasn’t unbeatable.
Canadian Paralympian Chantal Petitclerc, who won five wheelchair golds in Athens, received the World Sportsperson of the Year award. Petitclerc lost the use of both legs in an accident and began swimming before switching to wheelchair athletics.
Former Formula One racing driver Alessandro Zanardi claimed the Comeback of the Year award for the courage the Italian showed in returning to motor racing after losing both legs in a horrific crash in a CART race in Germany in 2001.
Zanardi, 38, returned to motor racing in October 2003, finishing seventh in the European Touring Car Championship race at Monza. In 2004 he completed a full season in the championship and has already signed to race again in 2005.
