Europe's Sportsman of the Year (PAP)

This article deals with the annual election of the Polish press agency PAP; on the annual election of the Union of European Sports Journalists (UEPS) see European Sportsman of the Year (UEPS) ; for the award of the Association of National Olympic Committees see International Olympic Committee #ANOC-Award .

Europe's Sportsman of the Year ( Polish: Najlepszy sportowiec Europy ) is a survey that has been carried out annually by the Polish state press agency Polska Agencja Prasowa (PAP) since 1958 . Europe's best athlete of the past calendar year is determined, with men and women competing against each other. Journalists from European press agencies act as jurors. The result is usually announced at the end of December.

Award winners

The Polish athlete Irena Szewińska (birth name Kirszenstein), Europe's sportswoman of the year 1966 and 1974

1973 first female winner from the German-speaking area: GDR swimmer Kornelia Ender

Roger Federer (2009)

Prize winner 2016 and 2017: Cristiano Ronaldo

The Swiss tennis player Roger Federer , who won a total of five between 2004 and 2009, received the most awards . The most successful nation with 13 victories is Germany (including victories by GDR athletes), followed by Russia or the former Soviet Union (11 victories) and the United Kingdom (8). The most common sport among the winners is athletics (24 wins), followed by tennis (14) and Formula 1 (9).

In 17 of 62 cases, women were named Europe's Sportsman of the Year (including the ex-aequo victory of Russian pole vaulter Jelena Issinbajewa in 2005). Winter sports enthusiasts have been victorious four times.

In addition to the PAP, a record number of 26 other European news agencies participated in the 59th election at the end of December 2016, including Agence France-Presse (AFP), Austria Presse Agentur (APA), Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) and Sport -Informations-Dienst (SID), the Swiss Dispatch Agency (SDA), the Spanish EFE and the Russian TASS . Each of the agencies established its own top ten list in advance. A total of 70 athletes from 30 countries (44 men and 26 women) from 34 disciplines were proposed. The most frequently represented nation was Germany with nine athletes. Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo won with 204 points , followed by British tennis player Andy Murray (180 points) and Hungarian swimmer Katinka Hosszú (136). This is the first time a football player has won this award.

In 2017, Cristiano Ronaldo was able to successfully defend his title from the previous year.

year	Prize winner	sport
1958	Zdzisław Krzyszkowiak	athletics
1959	Vasily Kuznetsov	athletics
1960	Yuri Vlasov	Weightlifting
1961	Valery Brumel	athletics
1962	Valery Brumel (2)	athletics
1963	Valery Brumel (3)	athletics
1964	Lidija Skoblikova	Speed ​​skating
1965	Michel Jazy	athletics
1966	Irena Kirszenstein	athletics
1967	Jean-Claude Killy	Alpine skiing
1968	Jean-Claude Killy (2)	Alpine skiing
1969	Eddy Merckx	Cycling
1970	Eddy Merckx (2)	Cycling
1971	Juha Väätäinen	athletics
1972	Let Virén	athletics
1973	Kornelia Ender	swim
1974	Irena Szewińska (2)	athletics
1975	Kornelia Ender (2)	swim
1976	Nadia Comăneci	Apparatus gymnastics
1977	Rosemarie Ackermann	athletics
1978	Vladimir Yashchenko	athletics
1979	Sebastian Coe	athletics
1980	Vladimir Salnikov	swim
1981	Sebastian Coe (2)	athletics
1982	Daley Thompson	athletics
1983	Jarmila Kratochvílová	athletics
1984	Michael Gross	swim
1985	Serhiy Bubka	athletics
1986	Heike Drechsler	athletics
1987	Stephen Roche	Cycling
1988	Steffi Graf	tennis
1989	Steffi Graf (2)	tennis
1990	Stefan Edberg	tennis
1991	Katrin Krabbe	athletics
1992	Nigel Mansell	formula 1
1993	Linford Christie	athletics
1994	Johann Olav Koss	Speed ​​skating
1995	Jonathan Edwards	athletics
1996	Svetlana Masterkova	athletics
1997	Martina Hingis	tennis
1998	Mika Hakkinen	formula 1
1999	Gabriela Szabo	athletics
2000	Inge de Bruijn	swim
2001	Michael sSchumacher	formula 1
2002	Michael Schumacher (2)	formula 1
2003	Michael Schumacher (3)	formula 1
2004	Roger Federer	tennis
2005	Roger Federer (2)	tennis
	Elena Isinbayeva	athletics
2006	Roger Federer (3)	tennis
2007	Roger Federer (4)	tennis
2008	Rafael Nadal	tennis
2009	Roger Federer (5)	tennis
2010	Rafael Nadal (2)	tennis
2011	Novak Đoković	tennis
2012	Sebastian Vettel	formula 1
2013	Sebastian Vettel (2)	formula 1
2014	Lewis Hamilton	formula 1
2015	Novak Đoković (2)	tennis
2016	Cristiano Ronaldo	Soccer
2017	Cristiano Ronaldo (2)	Soccer
2018	Novak Đoković (3)	tennis
2019	Lewis Hamilton (2)	formula 1

See also

• Europe's Sportsman of the Year (UEPS)
• Sportsman of the year

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 59. Ankieta PAP: Cristiano Ronaldo najlepszym sportowcem Europy 2016 roku at pap.pl, December 26, 2016 (Polish; accessed December 28, 2016).