Olympic, Paralympic champions on list of Laureus nominees

By Rachel ThompsonJan 17, 2019, 11:04 AM EST

This year’s nominees for the Laureus World Sports Awards include a handful of Olympic gold medalists, including Simone Biles, Mikaela Shiffrin, Shaun White and Lindsey Vonn. Paralympic champions Oksana Masters and Bibian Mentel-Spee are also up for awards. The nominees were announced Thursday morning.

The awards recognize sports achievements during 2018 and are voted on by the Laureus World Sports Academy. Winners will be announced in Monaco on February 18.

Among the nominees for world sportsman of the year is LeBron James, 2018 Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modric, and Eliud Kipchoge, who won both the London and Berlin Marathons in 2018, breaking the world record by 78 seconds in Berlin.

Biles and Shiffrin are both nominated for world sportswoman of the year, as is double Olympic champion Ester Ledecka, who won gold medals in both snowboarding and alpine skiing in PyeongChang.

The World Comeback of the Year category includes Tiger Woods, Lindsey Vonn, two-time Olympic figure skating champion Yuzuru Hanyu as well as Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris, who overcame a life-threatening injury to win a second straight Olympic bronze medal in PyeongChang. Paralympic snowboarder Bibian Mentel-Spee, who won two gold medals in PyeongChang shortly after finishing cancer treatment, is also nominated in that category.

Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas and US Open champion Naomi Osaka are nominated for breakthrough athletes of the year. Chloe Kim, Shaun White, and Austria’s Anna Gasser, the inaugural Olympic gold medalist in big air, are up for awards in the action sports category.

Four-time Paralympian Oksana Masters, who won two gold medals in PyeongChang, is nominated in the category of athletes with disabilities.

A full list of nominees is below:

World Sportsman of the Year

Novak Djokovic (Serbia) Tennis

Lewis Hamilton (UK) Motor Racing

LeBron James (USA) Basketball

Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya) Athletics

Kylian Mbappé (France) Football

Luka Modric (Croatia) Football

World Sportswoman of the Year

Simone Biles (USA) Gymnastics

Simona Halep (Romania) Tennis

Angelique Kerber (Germany) Tennis

Ester Ledecka (Czech Republic) Skiing / Snowboarding

Daniela Ryf (Switzerland) Ironman Triathlon

Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) Skiing

World Team of the Year

European Ryder Cup Team – Golf

France Men’s Football Team

Golden State Warriors (USA) Basketball

Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team (Germany)

Norway Winter Olympics Team

Real Madrid (Spain) Football

World Breakthrough of the Year

Ana Carrasco (Spain) Motor Cycling

Sofia Goggia (Italy) Skiing

Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway) Athletics

Naomi Osaka (Japan) Tennis

Geraint Thomas (UK) Cycling

Briana Williams (Jamaica) Athletics

World Comeback of the Year

Yuzuru Hanyu (Japan) Skating

Mark McMorris (Canada) Snowboarding

Bibian Mentel-Spee (Netherlands) Snowboarding

Vinesh Phogat (India) Wrestling

Lindsey Vonn (USA) Skiing

Tiger Woods (USA) Golf

World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability

Henrieta Farkasova (Slovakia) Skiing

Diede de Groot (Netherlands) Wheelchair Tennis

Brian McKeever (Canada) Cross-country Skiing

Oksana Masters (USA) Cross-country Skiing

Grigorios Polychronidis (Greece) Boccia

Markus Rehm (Germany) Athletics

Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year

Maya Gabeira (Brazil) Surfing

Anna Gasser (Austria) Snowboarding

Stephanie Gilmore (Australia) Surfing

Chloe Kim (USA) Snowboarding

Gabriel Medina (Brazil) Surfing

Shaun White (USA) Snowboarding

Iga Swiatek sweeps into French Open final, where she faces a surprise

By OlympicTalkJun 9, 2023, 5:30 PM EDT

Iga Swiatek marched into the French Open final without dropping a set in six matches. All that stands between her and a third Roland Garros title is an unseeded foe.

Swiatek plays 43rd-ranked Czech Karolina Muchova in the women’s singles final, live Saturday at 9 a.m. ET on NBC, NBCSports.com/live, the NBC Sports app and Peacock.

Swiatek, the top-ranked Pole, swept 14th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 6-2, 7-6 (7) in Thursday’s semifinal in her toughest test all tournament. Haddad Maia squandered three break points at 4-all in the second set.

Swiatek dropped just 23 games thus far, matching her total en route to her first French Open final in 2020 (which she won for her first WTA Tour title of any kind). After her semifinal, she signed a courtside camera with the hashtag #stepbystep.

“For sure I feel like I’m a better player,” than in 2020, she said. “Mentally, tactically, physically, just having the experience, everything. So, yeah, my whole life basically.”

Swiatek can become the third woman since 2000 to win three French Opens after Serena Williams and Justine Henin and, at 22, the youngest woman to win four total majors since Williams in 2002.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Muchova upset No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus to reach her first major final.

Muchova, a 26-year-old into the second week of the French Open for the first time, became the first player to take a set off the powerful Belarusian all tournament, then rallied from down 5-2 in the third set to prevail 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5.

Sabalenka, who overcame previous erratic serving to win the Australian Open in January, had back-to-back double faults in her last service game.

“Lost my rhythm,” she said. “I wasn’t there.”

Muchova broke up what many expected would be a Sabalenka-Swiatek final, which would have been the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 match at the French Open since Williams beat Maria Sharapova in the 2013 final.

Muchova is unseeded, but was considered dangerous going into the tournament.

In 2021, she beat then-No. 1 Ash Barty to make the Australian Open semifinals, then reached a career-high ranking of 19. She dropped out of the top 200 last year while struggling through injuries.

“Some doctors told me maybe you’ll not do sport anymore,” Muchova said. “It’s up and downs in life all the time. Now I’m enjoying that I’m on the upper part now.”

Muchova has won all five of her matches against players ranked in the top three. She also beat Swiatek in their lone head-to-head, but that was back in 2019 when both players were unaccomplished young pros. They have since practiced together many times.

“I really like her game, honestly,” Swiatek said. “I really respect her, and she’s I feel like a player who can do anything. She has great touch. She can also speed up the game. She plays with that kind of freedom in her movements. And she has a great technique. So I watched her matches, and I feel like I know her game pretty well.”

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2023 French Open men’s singles draw

By OlympicTalkJun 9, 2023, 5:30 PM EDT

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The French Open men’s singles draw is missing injured 14-time champion Rafael Nadal for the first time since 2004, leaving the Coupe des Mousquetaires ripe for the taking.

The tournament airs live on NBC Sports, Peacock and Tennis Channel through championship points in Paris.

Novak Djokovic is not only bidding for a third crown at Roland Garros, but also to lift a 23rd Grand Slam singles trophy to break his tie with Nadal for the most in men’s history. He can also become the first man to win all four majors at least three times and, at 36, the oldest French Open men’s or women’s singles champion.

FRENCH OPEN: Broadcast Schedule | Women’s Draw

Djokovic took out No. 1 seed Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals, advancing to a final against 2022 French Open runner-up Casper Ruud of Norway.

Russian Daniil Medvedev, the No. 2 seed, was upset in the first round by 172nd-ranked Brazilian qualifier Thiago Seyboth Wild. It marked the first time a men’s top-two seed lost in the first round of any major since 2003 Wimbledon (Ivo Karlovic d. Lleyton Hewitt).

All of the American men lost before the fourth round. The last U.S. man to make the French Open quarterfinals was Andre Agassi in 2003.

MORE: All you need to know for 2023 French Open

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2023 French Open Men’s Singles Draw

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