French ski sensation Marie Bochet Wins Laureus Disability Award
March 26, 2014
France was celebrating as brilliant teenage skier Marie Bochet won the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award, after becoming the first athlete to complete a Grand Slam of all five events at one Alpine Skiing World Championships.
Marie totally dominated her sport in 2013 and achieved her amazing feat at the age of just 19. She won Downhill, Slalom, Giant Slalom, Super Combined and Super-G at La Molina in Spain, with a remarkable display of fearless and technical skiing.
Marie, who suffers from agenesis of the left arm, started skiing at five and made her Paralympic Winter Games debut in Vancouver in 2010 at 15.
After receiving her Award from Eric Cantona and Franz Klammer, Marie said: “I am grateful to the Laureus Academy for nominating me and for giving me this prize. I am thinking about all the other nominees, all of them amazing champions in this category, and I want to thank all the people who have helped me and supported me.
“To win this prize is a real honour for me.”
The Awards were announced in seven categories. The winners are:
Laureus World Sportsman of the Year: Sebastian Vettel
Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year: Missy Franklin
Laureus World Team of the Year: Bayern Munich
Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year: Marc Márquez
Laureus World Comeback of the Year: Rafael Nadal
Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability: Marie Bochet
Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year: Jamie Bestwick
There were two additional Awards: the Laureus Spirit of Sport Award was presented to the Afghanistan Cricket Team and the Laureus Sport for Good Award was presented to Magic Bus, the sports-based community project in India.
