American swimmer Missy Franklin has won the Laureues Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year in a ceremony on Wednesday evening in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The prestigious global sporting award is among the last in the “2013 sports year” cycle, and Franklin was recognized for her achievements at the 2013 World Aquatics Championships. At that meet, she won 6 gold medals, becoming the first woman to do so at a World Championship meet, and even though Katie Ledecky earned Swimmer of the Meet honors, Franklin has come away with many of the ‘bigger picture’ honors for her season.
The voting is done by secret ballot, and is supposed to primarily focus on “the most remarkable men nd women from the world of sport along with the greatest sporting achievements fans have marveled at throughout the year.” The award skews heavily toward specifically athletic achievements, though any time a human vote is involved, personality can’t be totally ignored.
Franklin won the Sportswoman of the Year award over nominees that included:
- Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce – Jamaica, Athletics
- Nadine Angerer – Germany, Soccer
- Yelena Isinbayeva – Russia, Athletics
- Tina Maze – Slovenia, Skiing
- Serena Williams – USA, Tennis
Franklin becomes the first female swimmer to win this award, and the first male or female swimmer to win Sportsman or Sportswoman of the Year since they were established in 1999. Michael Phelps did win an “Exceptional Achievement Award,” which is a discretionary award allowed by the organizations panel. That award was likely given out in a panic when Phelps decided to retire and Laureus realized that they’d never given the award to the most decorated Olympian in history.
Franklin flew to Malaysia after Cal completed their NCAA Championship meet in Minneapolis over the weekend to accept her award in person.
A list of all of this year’s award winners can be seen below:
| Category | Winner | Discipline | |
| Sportsman of the Year | Sebastian Vettel |  Germany |
Formula One |
| Sportswoman of the Year | Missy Franklin |  United States |
Swimming |
| Team of the Year | Bayern Munich | Germany |
Football (Soccer) |
| Comeback of the Year | Rafael Nadal |  Spain |
Tennis |
| Sportsperson with a Disability | Marie Bochet |  France |
Skiing |
| Breakthrough of the Year | Marc Marquez | Spain |
Motor Cycling |
| Action Sportsperson | Jamie Bestwick |  United Kingdom |
BMX |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtCwQ8_tg9M
The most stunning thing is that Missy has foregone millions of dollars if not tens of millions since decided she’d swim for two years at NCAA.
It’s been a strange year for awards. Missy has won several international awards while Katie cleaned up domestically and could very well win the Sullivan Award which Missy won last year. Congratulations Missy. Good luck Katie.
Congrats to Missy. It’s a well-deserved award for her. Good for swimming as well.
She had made the trip to Kuala Lumpur so it was a good sign.
They have never given the sportsman of the year award to Michael Phelps! 🙄
A shame.
After giving the trophy to Missy, they rise a little in my esteem.
She gave a swimming clinic in Malaysia. Great role model for the kids.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVDY1y_Iz_4
Still impressed by Missy’s persona. The swim clinic was one special thing for her to do for those kids.
Congratulations, Missy! Well deserved.
Re: the chart. Formula One and Motor Cycling are sports? Put a Formula One car in a 50m pool and I doubt it would be as fast as Missy. Just sayin’.
Chooch – the “put this person in this other sport that they’ve never trained for and see what happens” argument is the worst argument in sports.
Put Missy Franklin in a Formula One car and…well, I bet you couldn’t get her off the starting line.
I’m sure that I could beat Lebron James in a 500 free, but I would never claim to be better at sports than him.
😆
Very funny discussion.
I would watch the hell out of that 500.
But yeah, those are definitely sports. I’m not convinced stuff like golf is, but that stuff’s hard.
Kuala Lumpur is in Malaysia. Anyway, congratulations Missy . you deserve it