Tiger Woods Pips Phogat, Wins Laureus ‘Comeback of the Year’ Award

While Tiger Woods won the ‘Comeback of the Year’ award, Vinesh Phogat is the first individual athlete from India to be nominated for the Laureus Sports Awards.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

• Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat was nominated in the ‘Comeback of the Year’ category at Monday night’s Laureus Sports Awards
• She is the first individual athlete from India to be nominated for the Laureus Sports Awards
• Golfer Tiger Woods and American skier Lindsey Vonn were the other nominees

Golfer Tiger Woods won the Laureus ‘Comeback of the Year’ award on Monday, 18 February, over India's Vinesh Phogat and American skier Lindsey Vonn, among other nominees. The 2019 Laureus Awards was held in Monaco.

Woods, who won the US Tour Championship in 2018, ended a five year dry spell due to injury and drop in form.

Wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who won a gold medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and the 2018 Asian Games is the first Indian athlete, male or female, to be shortlisted in an individual category at sport’s prestigious awards.

Vinesh’s Successful 2018

Vinesh, who travelled to Monaco for the awards function with her husband Somveer Rathee, was up against some pretty big names in her category, ranging from Tiger Woods to Linsey Vonn.

To be nominated for the ‘Comeback of the Year’, Vinesh Phogat had an extremely successful 2018 in which she won the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games gold, along with a silver in the Asian Championships.

She was returning from a long lay-off after she had to undergo an operation following her knee injury that forced her to pull out of the 2016 Rio Olympics quarter-final.

The Other Nominees

Japanese men’s figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu couldn't even practise his jumps till three weeks before the Pyeongchang Olympics due to an injury, but reached peaked fitness just in time to win his second straight gold.

Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris was involved in a life-threatening snowboarding accident in March 2017 in which he suffered a broken jaw, broken arm, ruptured spleen, pelvic fracture and a collapsed left lung to win a bronze medal in the Winter Olympics a year later.

One of the most known names in ski racing history, Lindsay Vonn also made a successful comeback from injury to win a bronze in the Winter Olympics.

Bibian Mentel-Spee was the only paralympian nominated in this category. A cancer survivor, the snowboarder had to have the C6 vertebra in her neck replaced with titanium and just six weeks after the surgery, she won two gold medals at the Winter Olympics.