Deschamps, Vonn to attend 2019 Laureus Awards

Twin World Cup-winning France football team’s former captain and current manager Didier Deschamps and the just-retired Lindsey Vonn, the greatest women’s skier of all time, will be attending the Laureus World Sports Academy later this month.

A glittering list of nominees who will be here competing for the most prestigious sports awards in the world, include Kenya’s marathon star Eliud Kipchoge, ironman triathlon world champion Daniela Ryf, seven-time surfing world champion Stephanie Gilmore and brilliant young Jamaican sprinter Briana Williams.

Among other nominees confirmed so far for the February 18 event are Ana Carrasco, Maya Gabeira, Anna Gasser, Diede de Groot, Brian McKeever, Bibian Mentel-Spee, Vinesh Phogat, Grigorios Polychronidis and Markus Rehm.

They will be joined by great sports stars of past and present, including football’s Kosovare Asllani, Fredi Bobic, Fabio Capello, Alex Scott, Mikael Silvestre and Patrick Vieira, ex-Formula One star David Coulthard, Olympic swimer Missy Franklin, rugby’s Bryan Habana and Nolli Waterman, hockey legends Luciana Aymar from Argentina among others.

Among the Laureus Academy members who have already confirmed are Giacomo Agostini, Marcus Allen, Franz Beckenbauer, Boris Becker, Sergey Bubka, Cafu, Fabian Cancellara, Nadia Comaneci, Marcel Desailly, Luis Figo, Emerson Fittipaldi, Sean Fitzpatrick, Dawn Fraser, Cathy Freeman, Edwin Moses, Alessandro Del Piero, Morné du Plessis, Steve Waugh among others.