Alexander Zverev as the first men’s tennis professional for 30 years, long jumper and serial winner Malaika Mihambo and the world record holders of the track four-wheeler are Germany’s “Sportsman of the Year” in 2021. The winners – all of them Olympic champions at the Tokyo Summer Games – received the awards on Sunday evening at the 75th gala in the Kurhaus in Baden-Baden.
The athletes refined their brilliant successes with it. Zverev had crowned himself the first German Olympic champion in men’s singles in Japan and particularly impressed him in the semifinals with his success over the exceptional Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic. In addition, the 24-year-old won the season finale of the best tennis professionals of the year and a total of six tournament victories – more than any of his competitors this year.
First professional tennis player since 1991
In the online voting of 980 sports journalists, the number three in the world (1739 points) prevailed clearly ahead of swimmer Florian Wellbrock (1198), the Olympic champion over ten kilometers in open water and Tokyo bronze winner over 1500 meters freestyle in the pool. Third place went to world ski jumping champion Karl Geiger (729).
Since 1991 no tennis professional has become “Sportsman of the Year” for men, since Wimbledon winner Michael Stich replaced his tennis rival Boris Becker and a series of honors for Becker came to an end. For women, the three-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber in 2016 and 2018 is in the more recent history of the list of winners. Zverev has set itself the goal of winning the first Grand Slam title for the new year. At the athletes gala, he succeeded ice hockey national striker Leon Draisaitl.
Sportsman of the year: Alexander Zverev
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Image: dpa
It is the third award in a row for Mihambo. Tennis icon Steffi Graf, who received the award four times in a row in the 1980s, recently achieved such a successful streak in the election for “Sportswoman of the Year”.
Mihambo had taken the lead in Tokyo with her seven-meter jump in the last attempt, but still had to wait for her strongest competitors to jump. The 27-year-old distanced her pursuers from the LG Kurpfalz (1845 points) more clearly than Zverev. Aline Rotter-Focken, who was the first German Olympic champion in women’s wrestling in her last fight, came second (942). Canoe gold winner Ricarda Funk came third (686).
Team of the year: the German track cyclist around Franziska Brauße, Lisa Brennauer, Lisa Klein and Mieke Kröger (from left)
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Image: dpa
The track cycling women dominated their discipline this year and succeed FC Bayern Munich as Team of the Year. Lisa Brennauer, Franziska Brauße, Lisa Klein and Mieke Kröger had delivered an almost unbelievable world record show in Tokyo with three best marks in three races and had rushed to gold in the team pursuit. The team then won gold in the European Championship and World Cup and made the triple title perfect.
In the vote, the women track cycling (1434 points) landed clearly ahead of the dressage team (875) and the men’s table tennis (719). The national soccer team played no role in the election after the knockout round at the European Championship.
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