LAUSANNE, March 22, 2021 – Eleven months and six days. That’s how long it has been since the call for submissions for the AIPS Sport Media Awards 2020 was first made on April 16 last year amid a raging pandemic that shut down the entire sports world.
Yet, this exceptional edition of the highest international accolade in the sport media industry did not only receive a record number of submissions but also showcased outstanding quality across all categories – the distinguished jury can attest to having to make tough calls.
Following tonight’s stunning virtual ceremony in Vigevano, Italy, which crowned the winners, AIPS is pleased to share the Top 10 rankings for each senior category and Top 5 rankings for the Young Reporters category.
The list, compiled from 1 to 10, shows the final positions of the most voted works for each category.
Cases that involved ties were published in alphabetical order, sharing the position with the others with similar votes.
AUDIO
1. Tracey Holmes (Australia), The Ticket - Black Lives Matter and Athletes' Right to Protest – ABC
2. Dario Ricci (Italy), Italy 4 – 3 West Germany: The match of an entire nation - Radio24-IlSole24Ore
3. Moritz Cassalette (Germany), Enke-life and tragedy of a goalkeeper - NDR2, Norddeutscher Rundfunk
4. Pablo Juanarena (Spain), How long does mourning have to last? Sport has the answer – MARCA
4. Sanny Rudravajhala and Mark Crossley (UK), Out of our League - BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Sounds
6. Boštjan Reberšak and Franci Pavšer (Slovenia), Back to the future: Mt. Everest - RTV Slovenija, Radio Slovenija, Val202
7. Edward Knowles (UK), Olympic Channel Podcast: Surya Bonaly-a figure skating pioneer on discrimination and backflips - Olympic Channel
8. Youssouph Bodian (Senegal), In the den of the dragons from Deny where Rugby is a springboard to go from the street to raising the national flag at the top level - RFM Dakar
8. Laura Ruiz (Colombia), Women and football - Colmundo Radio
10. Ronny Blaschke (Germany), "World Games" – Sports and Colonialism // Series 12 - Deutschlandfunk
PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO
1. Adam Pretty (Australia), Climbings Olympic debut - Getty Images;
2. Roman Vondrouš (Czech Republic), Football fans of Bohemians Prague 1905 during the coronavirus pandemic - Czech News Agency
3. Clive Brunskill (UK), Kings & Queens of Swing - Getty Images
4. Roman Kruchinin (Russia), Skateboard in Kazan - Extreme Magazine
5. Odd Andersen (Norway), Spectacular crash of Wang Xiaofei - AFP
5. Alan Crowhurst (UK), The sport of kings - Getty Images
7. Dario Belingheri (Italy), Cycling life - BettiniPhoto
8. Toh Leng (Singapore), Al Adaid Desert Challenge - Facebook Al Adaid Desert Challenge
9. Luis Henry Agudelo Cano (Colombia), The decisive moment - Facebook HenryAgudelo.Photojournalist
10. Eduardo Erben (Czech Republic), Veterans at the start - CPA Czech Photo Agency
10. Julian Finney (UK), Sport Portfolio - Getty Images
10. Christian Petersen (USA), Sports portfolio - Getty Images
10. Andrea Staccioli (Italy), Light on divers - Calcioefinanza.it
PHOTOGRAPHY SPORT ACTION
1. Andrzej Grygiel (Poland), Crash - Polish Press Agency
2. Andrew Bernstein (USA), LeBron walking on air - NBAE/Getty Images
3. Eduardo Alvarez del Fresno (Spain), Until the last breath - Zuma Press
4. Richard Heathcote (UK), Redemption punch - Boxing News
4. Dzianis Kastsiuchenka (Belarus), Dangerous game - Belarusian Telegraph Agency
6. Manjunath Kiran (India), Spring in the step - AFP/NDTV Sports
7. Vegard Wivestad Grøtt (Norway), Wrestling - Bildbyran / Aftenposten
7. Lili Wang (China), Broken Pole - Xinhua News Agency
9. Leonhard Foeger (Austria), Silent concentration - Reuters
9. Alex Livesey (UK), Back of the net - Liverpool Echo Newspaper
VIDEO ATHLETE PROFILE
1. Pierre Deprez (Belgium), Piotr Van Montagu: An archer (not) like the others – Rtbf
2. Lewis Johnson (USA), Gift of life - NBC Sports and USA Track & Field TV
3. Jermain Raffington, Peta Jenkin and Mehdi Benhadj-Djilali (Germany), Sadio Mané - Made in Senegal - Rakuten.tv
4. Nicolas Delloye (France), Meet Aaron Wheelz Fotheringham the godfather of extreme wheelchair sports - Olympic Channel
5. Bawuah Juliet (Ghana), Pursuit in passion in kids' gloves: Prince 'The Buzz' Larbie takes early steps to greatness - TV3 Network
5. Maziyar Koopidar (Iran), Don’t tell me I can’t - YouTube Maziyar Koopidar
7. Nick Hope (UK), The 'topless Tongan's' Tokyo quest - BBC
8. Nicolas Picquet (France), Warriors - Canal+
9. Saša Grujović (Serbia), Champion of Serbia now sweeps streets and lives in a shack: Moving story of a boxer KO'd by life - Telegraf.rs
10. Yodeni Masó Aguila (Cuba), The mythical 3 - Cubavisión Internacional
10. Edward Knowles (UK), Pure euphoria - Overcome Film Festival
10. Pierre Rateau (France), Max, hand to horn - Trois Heures moins le Quart
VIDEO DOCUMENTARY
1. Louis Myles (UK), Stop the tour - BT Sport
2. Grit Hartmann, Nick Butler & Hajo Seppelt (Germany), Doping Top Secret: The Lord of the Lifters. The Destruction of an Olympic sport - ARD Sportschau
3. Jean-Marie Goussard (France), Red Blood - Canal+
4. Joe Heslinga (USA), Foosballers - ESPN
5. Patrick Oberli (Switzerland), Fixed! A football comedy - Ziggosport TV
6. Marc Sauvourel (France), Out of the rain - Canal+
7. Celestine Karoney (Kenya), Rwandan genocide: how football saved my life - BBC Africa
8. Jürgen Schmidt (Germany), The biggest opponent is the cliché – 50 years of women's football - ARD/ Sportschau/ Das Erste
9. Thomas Glavany (France), Basta! - Canal+
10. Marcio Iannacca Pinto da Silva (Brazil), Pelé 80 years - TV Globo Brazil
10. Sergio Rangel & Fred Justo (Brazil), Mafia on the field - How a criminal organization fixed soccer scores to make money and profaned Brazil's biggest passion - TV Globo Brazil
VIDEO SHORT FEATURE
1. Hassen Guedioura (France), Ines Ibbou's open letter to Dominic Thiem - Mag.team
2. Stuart Pollitt (UK), Rob Burrow: my year with MND - BBC Breakfast
3. David Sandona (France), Thierry Corbalan, the Corsican dolphin - France Télévisions, France3
4. Nicolas Delloye (France), After unspeakable sadness, Skujyte finds redemption in reallocated medal - Olympic Channel
4. Juliet Mafua (Nigeria), Dambe: the Nigerian combat sport with worldwide aspirations – BBC
4. Yueshan Zhang (China), I, robot, ping pong - Xinhua News Agency
7. Wan Muiz (Malaysia), 10 centimetre - Astro Arena
8. Bright Yaw Ofosu Larbi (Ghana), The tale of Abu Imoro - Media General GH LTD
9. Chris Gillett (Australia), The mother and daughter rally champions - ABC
10. Mohammad Farahpour (Iran), Best: a talent gone to waste - Football 120 TV Show, IRIB Varzesh
10. Nan Shen (China), Captain She - Xinhua News Agency
WRITING BEST COLOUR PIECE
1. Bernt Jakob Oksnes (Norway), Mom is dying - Dagbladet
2. Lars Spannagel (Germany), The time is ripe - Der Tagesspiegel
3. Julian Linden and Jessica Halloran (Australia), Katia's story: On thin ice - News Corp Australia
4. Didem Tali (Turkey), How wheelchair basketball changed these women's lives - National Geographic
5. Matthias Fiedler (Germany), The Defiant Ones - Der Spiegel
6. Fabian Van der Poll and Marco Knippen (The Netherlands), The family Wevers: a success story, with a dark side - NRC and Noordhollands Dagblad (Mediahuis)
7. Ben Collins (UK), NFL: Fritz Pollard's pioneering role in American football history - BBC Sport Online
7. Jose Encarnacion (Puerto Rico), Selling dreams to Puerto Rico's young
9. Britt Ghiroli (USA), #MoStrong: The boy who inspired athletes and rallied a city - The Athletic
9. José Ignacio Pérez Hernández (Spain), Soccer between bombs - MARCA
9. Bin Su (China), Dare to dream! How a one-armed basketball-playing teenager from China inspired the world - Xinhua News Agency
9. Marc Ventouillac (France), My Fourcade for myself - L'Equipe
ballplayers - Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI)
WRITING BEST COLUMN
1. Dina Asher-Smith (UK), Think racism hasn’t affected me? It’s there almost every day - The Telegraph, Women's Sport Monthly
2. Andreea Giuclea (Romania), How do we reconcile the legend of Kobe Bryant with sexual abuse allegations - Lead.ro
3. Alexey Avdokhin (Russia), Now the world is sure that Russian sport is a complete fraud. And this is true - Sports.ru
4. Enrique Ballester (Spain), The home football pitch - El Periódico de Catalunya
5. Eddie Comeaux (USA), Five ways to advance racial justice in college sports - Forbes
5. Avineshwaran Taharumalengam (Malaysia), Kick out the racists in football - The Star Media Group
7. Emanuela Audisio (Italy), Alex Zanardi: The Superman of the Via Emilia who forced pity to turn away - La Repubblica
7. Jason Burt (UK), Rashford's intelligent activism puts society and Government to shame - The Daily Telegraph
7. Andrew Downie (UK), Pelé at 80: A true great battling for due supremacy in the era of Lionel Messi - The Times
7. Daniel Gallan (South Africa), South Africa World Cup win is a beacon of hope but it doesn’t change problems that still grip a nation - London Evening Standard
7. Petz Lahure (Luxembourg), The attempted rescue of Tokyo 2020, Tageblatt
7. Loanny Picado (Nicaragua), Playing with death among a pandemic - La Lupa
AIPS Sport Media Awards 2020 - Young Reporters Top 5 ranking
YOUNG REPORTERS BROADCASTING
1. Clarisse Sih (Cameroon), Karate Tai Sabaki, more than meets the eyes - Cameroon Radio Television
2. Wan Muiz (Malaysia), 10 centimetre - Astro Arena
3. Alondra Naupari (Peru), "Sand track". The story of Víctor Chávez-Zona Mixta Perú - Sport Media
4. Borislav Orlinov (Bulgaria), Damir – The son of war - Kanal 3
5. Zabihullah Shahzaad (Afghanistan), From out of a city with full of smoke and fire, he dreams of going to the UFC (Ismail Haidary) - Afghanistan Sport Journalists Federation
YOUNG REPORTERS PHOTOGRAPHY
1. Anna Szilágyi (Hungary), European Champions - Fradi.hu
2. Filipe Amorim (Portugal), It's all about determination - The Guardian
3. Zhenbin Zhong (China), Symmetrical Moment - ImageChina
4. Lucas Marinelli (Argentina), Flying across the mountains - Flickr IOC Young Reporters
5. Morgan Hancock (Australia), The pace of a world champion - NurPhoto
5. Mattia Ozbot (Italy), My Olympic dream - Sony Experience
YOUNG REPORTERS WRITING
1. Ari Schneider (USA), Two climbers. Best friends. Only one ticket to the Olympics. - The New York Times
2. Danielle Allentuck (USA), For 16 transgender hockey players, a groundbreaking weekend - The New York Times
3. Fiona Tomas (UK), Special report: the damaging effects of concussion on our sportwomen - The Telegraph, Women's Sport Monthly
4. Wufei Yu (China), China has amazing rock climbing. But will racism keep people away? - Outside Magazine
5. Farai Shawn Matiashe (Zimbabwe), Rugby saves school girls from child marriage in rural Zimbabwe - Thomson Reuters Foundation
5. Arslan Sheikh (Pakistan), ‘Coaches discussed abusing kids with pride’: The dark side of Pakistan sport - The Independent
