With 75% (18 out of 24) of the jurors' votes, Rafael Nadal was unveiled as the winner of this year's Prince of Asturias sports prize in Oviedo earlier this morning. It is another milestone in what is turning out to be quite a year for the new world number one, who, apart from successfully defending his French Open title for the third time in a row, is also the new Wimbledon and Olympic champion.In a statement, the jury praised the 22-year-old for his "commitment to the most noble sports values both in and outside of the court" and his development and charity work in favour of the underprivileged.Rafael Nadal, the Spanish football team, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt and Yelena Isinbayeva are the five finalists for this year's Prince of Asturias prize, that will be announced tomorrow in Oviedo.
Among the candidates that failed to make the final shortlist are: Roger Federer, Olympic cycling veteran, Joan Llaneras, Gemma Mengual and the rest of the Spanish synochronised swim team, Pele, Alfredo di Stefano, Sir Alex Ferguson, Ethiopian athlete, Haile Gebrelassie, Pau Gasol and Ciudad Real handball team.
Previous winners:
1987 Sebastian Coe
1988 Juan Antonio Samaranch
1989 Severiano Ballesteros
1990 Sito Pons
1991 Sergei Bubka
1992 Miguel Indurain
1993 Javier Sotomayor
1994 Martina Navratilova
1995 Hassiba Boulmerka
1996 Carl Lewis
1997 The Spanish marathon team
1998 Arantxa Sánchez Vicario
1999 Steffi Graf
2000 Lance Armstrong
2001 Manuel Estiarte
2002 The Brazilian football team
2003 The Tour de France
2004 Hicham El Guerrouj
2005 Fernando Alonso
2006 The Spanish basketball team
2007 Michael Schumacher
In the meanwhile, Nadal has made it through to the semifinals at the U.S. Open and will meet bicep-popping Andy Murray this Saturday.
(Via thinkspain.com; image via Yahoo! Sports)
