Springboks: World Team of 2007
Brad Morgan
19 February 2008The Springboks conquered the world of rugby when they claimed the World Cup in Paris in October 2007. Now they have conquered the world of sport after being named World Team of the Year at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Saint Petersburg, Russia on Monday night.
The award was presented to the Springboks by two legends of the game, Laureus Academy members' Sean Fitzpatrick and Hugo Porta.
On hand to receive it were International Rugby Board (IRB) Coach of the Year Jake White, accompanied by IRB Player of the Year Bryan Habana, former IRB Player of the Year Schalk Burger, the top points' scorer at the World Cup Percy Montgomery, and fellow World Cup winners' Butch James and Bakkies Botha.
A worldwide television audience witnessed the prestigious event, in which the major awards went to the Springboks, Sportsman of the Year Roger Federer and Sportswoman of the Year Justine Henin.
Stiff
competition
The Boks faced stiff competition for the Team of the Year award. Probably the team that South Africans most enjoyed beating was the Australian men's cricket team, which won the World Cup for the third successive time in the West Indies, as well as recording a record-equalling 16 test wins on the trot.
No doubt, it feels good to finally get one over the Aussies, but that reaction is also a back-handed compliment to the enduring success of the men from Down Under.
Uefa Champions League and Fifa World Club champions AC Milan, with Fifa World Player of the Year Kaka - also nominated as Sportsman of the Year - in the team's ranks, were also in the running, along with two other football teams.
The German women's national team won the World Cup for the second time in succession - the first team ever to do so - and they did it without conceding a single goal, while the Iraq men's team provided one of the feel-good stories of the year when they won the Asian Cup against huge odds to bring a sense of unity to the war-torn country.
The Ferrari Formula One team completed the line-up after winning both the F1 drivers' title and the constructors' championship.
Positive effect
Both the Springboks and Iraq football team no doubt benefited from the hugely positive effect their victories had on their respective nations, with all people in those countries uniting behind their title-winning teams in very visual outpourings of joy and happiness.
Bryan Habana touched on the unifying ability of sport, saying that the Springboks were able to inspire, and adding that they hoped their success would make South Africa a better place for all.
Percy Montgomery, meanwhile, paid tribute to the players who couldn't be at the awards evening, and to everyone who had ever pulled on a Springbok rugby jersey.
Four in a row
Federer, whose mother is South
African, won the Sportsman of the Year Award for a record fourth time in succession. The Swiss superstar Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open and reached the final of the other Grand Slam, the French Open.
He has been world number one since February 2004.
Belgium's Justine Henin struck another winner for tennis when she was named Sportswoman of the Year. She won 10 tournaments to become the first player in a decade to achieve the feat, which included Grand Slam victories at the French Open and the US Open. She lost only four times in 67 matches.
There was further success for tennis as the Netherlands' Esther Vergeer won the Disability Award for a second time. Regarded as the greatest wheelchair player of all time, Vergeer went through 2007 unbeaten, winning the four Grand Slam tournaments, the NEC Wheelchair Tennis Masters, and the World Team Cup for the Netherlands.
Pistorius beaten
Paralympic
sprinting star Oscar Pistorius was beaten by Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton in the category of Breakthrough of the Year. The Briton, in his rookie season, missed out on the F1 title by a single point to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
In a record-breaking season for a newcomer, Hamilton's many records included the most pole positions in a debut season (six) and the most consecutive podium finishes from his debut race (nine).
The Comeback of the Year Award went to British long-distance athlete Paula Radcliffe. After a two-year absence to recover from a stress fracture in her lower back and to give birth to her first child, she returned to action with a second place finish in the Great North Half Marathon in September. Five weeks later, she won the New York Marathon.
Shaun White was named the Action Sportsperson of the Year. The American skateboarder and snowboarder excelled in both disciplines, winning gold medals at both the Summer and Winter X Games with stylish and gravity-defying moves.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The Lifetime Achievement Award went to the Ukraine's Sergey Bubka, the greatest pole-vaulter in history. During his career he won the world title an astonishing six times in succession.
He was the first man to break the six-metre barrier in 1985. In 1991, he became the first to clear 20-feet (6.10 metres). He broke 35 world records during his career and still holds both the outdoor (6.15 metres, 1994) and indoor records (6.15 metres, 1993).
Further awards went to the former head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Dick Pound, who was presented with the Spirit of Sport Award, and to Brendan and Sean Tuohey of PeacePlayers International, who won the Sport for Good Award; PeacePlayers International uses the game of basketball to unite and educate children and their communities around the world.
SA's Laureus history
South Africa has a rich history in
the Laureus World Sports Awards: its patron, one of its founders, three members of its Academy and three previous award winners are South African.
Former President Nelson Mandela is the patron of the "Oscars of sport", which were co-founded by another South African, Johann Rupert, the executive chairman of Richemont, along with Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche.
Three South Africans have won Laureus awards: Mike Horn (World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year 2001), Ernst van Dyk (Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability 2006), and Gary Player (Laureus Lifetime Achievement award 2003). Swimmer Natalie du Toit was nominated for the Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability award in 2004.
And three South Africans - Horn, Player, and rugby player Morné du Plessis - are among the 46-member Laureus Academy, which reads like a who's who of sporting greats.
Gary Player
Player, one of only five men to win each of golf's Grand Slam events, is the most widely
travelled golfer in history, having flown over 17.5-million kilometres.
He has also won 163 tournaments, 63 more than Jack Nicklaus, including titles in six different decades. He is the only man in the 20th century to win The Open Championship in three different decades.
Player is also well known for his philanthropic work. He was named an honorary member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at Saints Andrews in 1994, and won a Laureus Lifetime Achievement award in 2003.
Morné du Plessis
Morné du Plessis is a highly respected former Springbok rugby captain and was the manager of the 1995 World Cup winning team that was captained by Francois Pienaar.
A member of the International Rugby Hall of Fame, Du Plessis is the owner and director of Sports Plan, a company that is engaged in the development of sports and service facilities. One of its greatest achievements is the establishment of the Sports Services Institute of South Africa in Cape Town.
The former Bok captain is also the chairman of the Chris Burger/Petro Jackson Players' Fund, which provides financial assistance to rugby players who sustain serious injuries, and he heads up Laureus South Africa, which operates projects for South Africa's underprivileged.
Mike Horn
Mike Horn is recognised as one of the world's greatest adventurer-explorers. In 2001 he won the Laureus World Alternative Sportsperson of the Year award for completing a solo journey around the equator without motor transport.
He was elected a member of the Laureus World Sports Academy in January 2007 in recognition of his many achievements. They have been varied, unique and astonishing.
He has descended the Mont Blanc glacier on hydrospeed, swum the entire length of the Amazon River, crossed the Atlantic Ocean by trimaran, travelled from Brazil to Ecuador by foot, bicycle and canoe, and traversed the Amazon jungle and the Andes Mountains.
Horn also undertook a solo circumnavigation of the Arctic Circle by boat, kayak, ski kite and foot, a challenge that took him over two years to complete. It earned him his second Laureus nomination in 2005.
In 2006, he and Norwegian explorer Borge Ousland became the first men to travel without dog or motorised transport to the North Pole in permanent darkness. The journey included frequent swims in the Arctic Ocean.
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