Düsseldorf. Felix Champions Awards
The winners of the Felix Champions Awards 2021 were announced yesterday. The coveted audience award for “Sportsman of the Year” went to Borussia Düsseldorf’s exceptional player Timo Boll for the fifth time. In addition, the 40-year-old was named “Team of the Year” together with Dimitrij Ovtcharov and Patrick Franziska. The trio had won silver for Germany at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Around 40,000 citizens took part in the online voting. Timo Boll won the most votes and, after 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2019, emerged as the winner this year as well. “Thank you to all the fans who chose me and our team. Of course that pleases me.” The successful athlete said this in a video message to the population after the trophy was presented by moderator Claus Lufen. The award of the prize was planned as part of a large gala in the Mitsubishi Electric Hall in Düsseldorf, which, however, could not take place due to the current situation in the corona pandemic. Instead, Anke Feller and Claus Lufen, who traditionally moderate the award, presented the awards to the winners on a round tour together with Stefan Klett, President of the State Sports Association of North Rhine-Westphalia.
In 2021, Boll won silver at the Olympic Games with the German men’s national team, bronze in the individual at the world championship and celebrated winning the European championship, also in the individual. In addition, he won the historic triple (Champions League, championship, cup) with Borussia Düsseldorf. The likeable 40-year-old left the other eligible athletes Dimitrij Ovtcharov (table tennis), Max Rendschmidt (canoe), Andreas Sander (alpine skiing) and Eduard Trippel (judo) behind.
Andrea Milz, State Secretary for Sport and Honorary Office of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia: “The winners of this year’s Felix Champions Awards made a lasting impression on the citizens of North Rhine-Westphalia and far beyond. With their outstanding sporting achievements, even under the difficult conditions of the current corona pandemic, they are an inspiration for numerous people across the country. With the presentation of the awards, they now receive the attention they deserve outside of the sporting events. “
Borussia Düsseldorf’s Paralympic winner Valentin Baus was also nominated in the “Para Sport-Felix” category. For the award there was not enough for the “Para-Athlete of the Year”, who turned 26 on December 14th, the prize went to Annika Zeyen (cycling, handbike).
The Felix Champions Award honors the athletes in North Rhine-Westphalia who have distinguished themselves this year through top performance, fair play and personality. A total of seven categories (cat. 1: athlete, cat. 2 athlete, cat. 3: team, cat. 4: newcomer, cat. 5: soccer, cat. 6: disabled sport, cat. 7: coach [Jury-Entscheid]) Awarded athletes. The election is a joint action by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the State Sports Association of North Rhine-Westphalia and the North Rhine-Westphalia Sports Foundation.
The results of the NRW athlete election 2021:
Sportsman of the year: Timo Boll
Sportswoman of the year: Aline Rotter-Focken (wrestling)
Team of the year: Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov, Patrick Franziska (table tennis men)
Newcomer of the year: Alexandra Föster (rowing)
Soccer Felix: Simon Terodde (FC Schalke 04)
Para Sport-Felix: Annika Zeyen (cycling, handbike)
Trainer of the year: Florian Kehrmann (handball, TBV Lemgo)
Further information on the NRW athletes’ election 2021 and impressions of the handover of the awards can be found at www.nrw-sportlerdesjahres.de.
