La Estrella de Panamá voted in this 60th edition of the Survey for Santa Lucía’s sprinter Julien Alfred, Cuban wrestler Mijaín López and Argentina’s soccer team, America’s Cup champion, as the best female and male athletes, and team, respectively.
Alfred was crowned Olympic champion in Paris 2024 in the 100m race, ahead of the favorite US runners, including ShaCarri Richardson, and was runner-up in the 200m race and won a world title in the 60m contest at the World Indoor Championships held in the Scottish city of Glasgow last March.
Mijaín won his fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal in the Greco-Roman super heavyweight division in Paris 2024 to engrave his name in the Olympus of sports as the only athlete to achieve such a feat, after climbing to the top of the podium in Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
The Cuban wrestler was also voted by Bayano Digital (Panama) and Alma Plus TV (Venezuela), so he is leading the survey from the very beginning of the voting.
Bayano Digital also voted for Dominican triple jumper Thea LaFond, crowned Olympic and world champion (indoor track) this year, and for the Cuban Baseball5 team, world champion at the Hong Kong 2024 event. Meanwhile, Alma Plus TV chose Dominican sprinter Marileidy Paulino as best female athlete (gold in the 400m race in Paris 2024, best world time of the year (48.17 seconds) and titleholder of the Diamond League) and the Cuban Baseball5 team.
The poll will be open until December 23 and the winners will be announced a day later in the three categories called for: Best Male Athlete, Best Female Athlete and Best Team. The media, in all its forms – radio, television, print press, news agencies, digital portals – must send their selections to the following email address: deportes@prensa-latina.cu, from where the general vote will be compiled.
All media outlets that participate in Prensa Latina’s Sports Survey will vote on equal terms and may choose any athlete from Latin America and the Caribbean, even those not included in the partial list of proposals that we offer at the end of the article.
It is worth remembering that Prensa Latina’s first Sports Survey was launched in 1964, when Cuban sprinter Enrique Figuerola was the first winner, and since 1980 it was decided to include the category of Best Team of the Year, while male and female athletes have been chosen separately since 1988.
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