2023 Laureus World Sports Awards to be held in Paris on May 8

Paris: The 2023 Laureus World Sports Awards ceremony, the most prestigious honours in sport, will be held in the French capital here on May 8.

The event will mark a return to a physical awards format, following two years of virtual presentations as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic, read a statement from the organisers. The guest list for this year's event will be announced in due course and will include many of the sensational sporting figures nominated by the world's sporting media for the Laureus Award categories.

Providing local interest will be Paris-based global football star and winner of the 2022 FIFA World Cup with Argentina, Lionel Messi, who is nominated for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year Award alongside his Paris St Germain teammate Kylian Mbappé.

Competing for that same statuette will be Rafael Nadal, who picked up an unprecedented 14th French Open title in Paris last May which took him to top of the all-time list of men's Grand Slam champions with 22 titles.

Iga Świątek also triumphed at Roland Garros in 2022 and followed it up with a win at the US Open to earn a nomination in the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year category.

The France men's rugby team have been nominated in the Laureus Team of the Year category – alongside Messi's Argentina – for their heroics in winning the six-nations and completing the Grand Slam in 2022.

The 2023 Laureus World Sports Awards will join this year's Rugby World Cup and the 2024 summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in the French capital. Sebastian Coe, Laureus World Sports Academy member and former chairman of the Organising Committee for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, said: "I saw in 2012 the incredible impact the Olympic Games has on its host city. It's about far more than elite competition, the change can be societal and it lasts long after the medals are handed out.

"In London, that cycle began in earnest with the Laureus World Sports Awards, the greatest celebration of sport we have. With the Rugby World Cup and then the Olympics, Paris is about to become the centre of the sporting world.

"There's no better way to begin than with the Laureus Awards. As a member of the Laureus World Sports Academy, I'm looking forward to celebrating the best of sport in Paris on May 8." The awards show will honour the most memorable sporting performances of 2022 and will include the Laureus Sport for Good Award, which recognises an individual or organisation who has made a significant contribution to transforming the lives of children and young people through sport.

Laureus will return to the physical event format after 'virtual' presentations in 2021 and 2022 due to the global travel restrictions caused by the pandemic.

The in-person awards will celebrate last year's achievements in a ceremony which will reflect the prestige and style for which Laureus – and Paris – are recognised.

Among the many athletes and teams who were nominated for Laureus Awards are Steph Curry, Mondo Duplantis, Max Verstappen (Sportsman), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Katie Ledecky, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (Sportswoman), the England women's football team, Real Madrid, Golden State Warriors (team), Carlos Alcaraz, Scottie Scheffler, Elena Rybakina (breakthrough) and Christian Eriksen, Tiger Woods and Annemiek van Vleuten (comeback).

The winners of Laureus World Sports Awards are selected by the ultimate sports jury -- the 71 members of the Laureus World Sports Academy, the living legends of sport honouring the greatest athletes of today.