Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability
The Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability is an annual award honouring the achievements of individual disabled athletes from the world of Paralympic sports. It was first awarded in 2000 as one of the seven constituent awards presented during the Laureus World Sports Awards. The awards are presented by the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, a global organisation involved in more than 150 charity projects supporting 500,000 young people. The first ceremony was held on 25 May 2000 in Monte Carlo, at which Nelson Mandela gave the keynote speech. Nominations for the award come from a specialist panel. The Laureus World Sports Academy then selects the winner who is presented with a Laureus statuette, created by Cartier, at an annual awards ceremony held in various locations around the world. The awards are considered highly prestigious and are frequently referred to as the sporting equivalent of "Oscars".
The first winner of the award was the Australian wheelchair racer, Louise Sauvage, who had won three medals at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics. In 2002, Esther Vergeer, a Dutch wheelchair tennis player, was selected as the award winner. Described as the "most dominant athlete in the world", Vergeer won 470 matches in a row during her career, collecting 284 titles, including 21 grand slam singles titles and 23 grand slam doubles titles. She is one of two people to have won the Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability award more than once, winning again in 2008; she was also nominated in 2006, 2007, 2011 and 2012. The Brazilian swimmer Daniel Dias has the most wins, collecting the award three times with a further three nominations, while German racing cyclist Michael Teuber has been nominated the most times without winning. The 2004 winner, Canadian sprinter Earle Connor, had his award and his 2002 nomination rescinded after he failed a drugs test. Athletes have been the most successful at the awards with 6 wins and 28 nominations, followed by swimmers with 4 wins and 19 nominations. The winner of the 2020 Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability was the Ukrainian-born American Paralympic cross-country skier Oksana Masters.
List of winners and nominees
| Year | Image | Winner | Nationality | Sport | Nominees | Refs |
| 2000 | Athletics | Brian Frasure – athletics Béatrice Hess – swimming | ||||
| 2001 | – | Sailing | Shea Cowart – athletics David Hall – wheelchair tennis Béatrice Hess – swimming Lee Pearson – equestrian | |||
| 2002 | Wheelchair tennis | Heidi Andreasen – swimming Earle Connor* – athletics Gerd Schönfelder – alpine skiing Beat Schwarzenbach – cycling | ||||
| 2003 | Alpine skiing | Tanja Kari – cross-country skiing Chantal Petitclerc – athletics Paul Schulte – wheelchair basketball Michael Teuber – cycling | ||||
| 2004 | – | * | Athletics | Natalie du Toit – swimming Vitalis Lanshima – athletics Ronny Persson – alpine skiing Michael Teuber – cycling Nicola Tustain – equestrian | ||
| 2005 | Athletics | Cheri Blauwet – athletics Jonas Jacobsson – shooting Lee Pearson – equestrian Clodoaldo Silva – swimming Henry Wanyoike – athletics | ||||
| 2006 | Athletics | Kirsten Bruhn – swimming Zsuzsanna Krajnyak – wheelchair fencing Leo-Pekka Tähti – athletics Esther Vergeer – wheelchair tennis Henry Wanyoike – athletics | ||||
| 2007 | Alpine skiing | Kurt Fearnley – athletics Edith Hunkeler – athletics Javier Otxoa – cycling Kazem Rajabi – powerlifting Esther Vergeer – wheelchair tennis | ||||
| 2008 | Wheelchair tennis | Daniel Dias – swimming Darren Kenny – cycling Sarah Storey – cycling/swimming Michael Teuber – cycling | ||||
| 2009 | Swimming | April Holmes – athletics Jonas Jacobsson – shooting Darren Kenny – cycling Zhang Lixin – athletics Teresa Perales – swimming | ||||
| 2010 | Swimming | Justin Eveson – wheelchair basketball/swimming Kurt Fearnley – athletics Gizem Girişmen – archery Shingo Kunieda – wheelchair tennis Michael Teuber – cycling | ||||
| 2011 | Biathlon / Cross-country skiing | Matthew Cowdrey – swimming Daniel Dias – swimming Jakub Krako – alpine skiing Esther Vergeer – wheelchair tennis Lauren Woolstencroft – alpine skiing | ||||
| 2012 | Athletics | Daniel Dias – swimming Terezinha Guilhermina – athletics Esther Vergeer – wheelchair tennis David Weir – athletics Irek Zaripov – biathlon / cross-country skiing | ||||
| 2013 | Swimming | Patrick Anderson – wheelchair basketball Johanna Benson – athletics Alan Oliveira – athletics David Weir – athletics Alex Zanardi – cycling | ||||
| 2014 | Alpine skiing | Marcel Hug – athletics Tatyana McFadden – athletics Sophie Pascoe – swimming Sarah Louise Rung – swimming Olga Sviderska – swimming | ||||
| 2015 | Athletics | Shelley Gautier – cycling Roman Petushkov – Nordic skiing Anna Schaffelhuber – alpine skiing Sarah Storey – cycling Leung Yuk Wing – boccia | ||||
| 2016 | Swimming | Marie Bochet – alpine skiing Liu Cuiqing – athletics Omara Durand – athletics Pieter du Preez – athletics/cycling Leung Yuk Wing – boccia | ||||
| 2017 | Wheelchair fencing | Ihar Boki – swimming Omara Durand – athletics Marcel Hug – athletics Sophie Pascoe – swimming Siamand Rahman – powerlifting | ||||
| 2018 | Wheelchair athletics | Yui Kamiji – Wheelchair tennis Oksana Masters – Paralympic cross-country skiing Bibian Mentel-Spee – Para-snowboarding Jetze Plat – Paratriathlon/cycling Markus Rehm – athletics | ||||
| 2019 | Alpine skiing | Gold medallists from the 2018 Winter Paralympics Diede de Groot – wheelchair tennis Grigorios Polychronidis – boccia Markus Rehm – athletics | ||||
| 2020 | Paralympic cross-country skiing | Alice Tai – swimming Diede de Groot – wheelchair tennis Jetze Plat – Paratriathlon Manuela Schär – athletics Omara Durand – athletics |
Statistics
| * | Indicates totals which exclude rescissions |
| Country | Winners | Nominations |
| 3 | 6 | |
| 3 | 5 | |
| 3 | 2 | |
| 2 | 9 | |
| 2 | 9 | |
| 2 | 7 | |
| 1 | 5 | |
| 1* | 4* | |
| 1 | 3 | |
| 1 | 1 | |
| 1 | 1 | |
| 0 | 10 | |
| 0 | 3 | |
| 0 | 3 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 1 | |
| 0 | 1 | |
| 0 | 1 | |
| 0 | 1 | |
| 0 | 1 | |
| 0 | 1 | |
| 0 | 1 | |
| 0 | 1 | |
| 0 | 1 |
| Sport | Winners | Nominations |
| Athletics | 6* | 28* |
| Swimming | 4 | 19 |
| Alpine skiing | 3 | 7 |
| Wheelchair tennis | 2 | 9 |
| Cross-country skiing | 2 | 3 |
| Biathlon | 1 | 1 |
| Wheelchair fencing | 1 | 1 |
| Sailing | 1 | 0 |
| Cycling | 0 | 13 |
| Equestrian | 0 | 3 |
| Wheelchair basketball | 0 | 3 |
| Boccia | 0 | 2 |
| Powerlifting | 0 | 2 |
| Shooting | 0 | 2 |
| Archery | 0 | 1 |
| Boccia | 0 | 1 |
| Gold medallists | 0 | 1 |
| Nordic skiing | 0 | 1 |
| Snowboarding | 0 | 1 |
| Triathlon | 0 | 2 |
| Name | Wins | Nominations |
| 3 | 3 | |
| 2 | 4 | |
| 1 | 2 | |
| 1 | 1 | |
| 1 | 1 | |
| 1 | 1 | |
| 1 | 1 | |
| 1 | 1 | |
| 0 | 4 | |
| 0 | 3 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 | |
| 0 | 2 |