The applause wouldn’t stop.
Among those standing up in respect for a remarkable woman on the world sport’s most glamorous stage were legends who have won several Olympic golds, World Cups, Grand Slams and major leagues between them.
Novak Djokovic, Sergey Bubka, Edwin Moses, Nadia Comaneci, Missy Franklin, Cafu, Boris Becker and Monica Seles could only watch in amazement at the achievement of Henrieta Farkasova, a visually impaired downhill skier from Slovakia who won the Laureus World Sports Award of the Year with a Disability on a night most memorable at the Sporting Club here.
Last year, she had won her sixth Paralympic gold at the Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
Hers is an amazing story that proves how inspiring sport could be. The night belonged to her as much as it did to Djokovic, who won the Sportsman of the Year for the fourth time in the last nine years.
After accepting the award from Seles, who was also born in Serbia, he revealed he had nearly quit tennis because of injuries. The current men’s World No. 1 said to the former women’s World No. 1: “Thank you for inspiring me on the court; I had to grunt like you and be aggressive like you.”
Simone Biles wasn’t there in person to make a speech like that after winning the Sportswoman of the Year award, which she had taken home in 2017 as well. The American gymnastic sensation said through video that she could not make it to Monaco because she was hosting a gymnastics event in Houston.
Team of the year
Earlier, the distribution of the awards — that have over the last couple of decades become the equivalent of cinema’s Oscars — was kicked off with the one for the team of the year.
It went to France, the 2018 World Cup champion. Accepting it, coach Didier Deschamps thanked his players, who all came up with great individual performances, and the French football federation for helping the team prepare.
The winner of the Comeback of the Year award was just as popular. It was Tiger Woods, the golfing legend, of course.
The short film on him was among the several well-made ones. Among the nominees in that category was wrestler Vinesh Phogat, the first Indian ever to make this far at Laureus.
The other winners of the night were Naomi Osaka (Breakthrough of the Year), Chloe Kim (Action Sportsperson), Eliud Kipchoge, Arsene Wenger (Lifetime Achievement), Lindsey Vonn (Spirit for Sports), Yuwa (Sport for Good) and Xia Boyu (Sporting Moment), the man who climbed Mount Everest, 44 years after he lost both his lower legs due to frostbite on his first attempt.
(The writer is in Monte Carlo at the invitation of Laureus)