Max Verstappen & Emma Raducanu among those honoured at the Laureus World Sports Awards

Emma Raducanu, Max Verstappen and Tom Brady have all been honoured at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards. 

The Laureus Awards is an annual ceremony honouring individuals and teams from the world of sports. 

Established in 1999, the awards support the work of Laureus Sport for Good, which supports over 160 community projects in countries all over the world. 

Tennis legend Roger Federer holds the record for the most awards won with six, while Lionel Messi is the only male footballer to win the World Sportsman of the Year honour. 

19-year-old Raducanu won the Breakthrough of the Year award after triumphing at the US Open last year.

The British teenager became the first qualifier to ever win a Grand Slam title, after beating Canada’s Leylah Fernandez in New York. 

This catapulted her up the world rankings and made her an internationally recognised sporting figure. 

Raducanu reached a career-high ranking of 11th on Monday, having won her first professional matches on clay last week. 

British skateboarder Sky Brown took home the Comeback of the Year award, having claimed a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics last summer. 

Brown suffered a serious injury in 2020 –– fracturing her skull during a fall in training. However, she recovered to become Britain’s youngest ever Olympic medal winner –– aged just 13. 

“This is insane,” she said, after beating fellow Brits Tom Daley and cyclist Mark Cavendish to the award.

“I had some ups and downs, falling, having a pretty bad accident and getting back up. I feel like the falling just pushed me [to succeed]. I’m so thankful for everything.”

The Sportswoman of the Year award was won by Thompson-Herah, who claimed gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay in Tokyo. 

The Jamaican is the