Double Olympic 400m hurdles champion Ed Moses is named as the winner of the Jean Borotra World Fair Play award for 2010 in recognition of his outstanding career on and off the track as a champion of drug free sport.
“Fair play has certainly meant a lot to me. It has been a long fight and an ethical fight. I’ve seen sport change from when it was virtually like war when it was US against the Soviet Union, East bloc versus the West, there were a lot of elements that led into more doping in sport,’ he said.
“ A lot of us that were good enough to be world class athletes are very very lucky. I come from a family of educators and when I communicate kids that I come into contact with, I always talk about education because that is something that is going to be tangible and stay with you for the rest of your life.”
The first winners of the AIPS Power of Sport Award included another hurdler, Nawal El Moutawakel the first Moroccan woman to win Olympic gold. She has been trailblazing ever since. A senior IOC member , she leads the coordination commission for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.and has been a dedicated champion of women’s participation in sport.
‘Sport taught me honesty and determination , gave me respect for others and so many things that however much I am able to give back, it will never be enough,”she said
May El Khalil of the Lebanon showed courage and determination to recover from a life threatening accident whilst training for the marathon.
“I had developed a love for sport and my dream was to run in every single marathon I could," she said.
“The accident where I was sandwiched between a mini-van and a wall, was a turning point in my life. I woke up in intensive care to realise that my life was no longer the same but when I regained consciousness I decided it had happened for a reason. I decided to try and organise a marathon to put the Lebanon on the map.”
The result was the Beirut Marathon. “It was a difficult time, the Lebanon had just come out of a civil war, in which there was nothing civil. But I was able to share the passion and since the marathon started, the media have played a very positive role in bringing out the essence of what the marathon is all about.” she said.
The late Erlingur Johannsson devoted his life to coaching and was still active until the day he died from cancer last year. Receiving the award on his behalf was Icelandic Paralympic swimmer Halldor Gudbergsson who competed at the Paralympics in 1988 and 1992.
‘ Erlingur was a very special man, I met him when I started swimming as a young boy, we went to the Paralympic games together. He was so much more than a good coach, he was also a good friend . You have to remember it is always nice to win gold but that is not the main reason we are doing this.” he said.
“Even though he was fighting for his life he always tried to continue coaching.It is a great honour to receive this award for my friend I am sure he is looking down and laughing at me now, ” he said.
Iranian striker Amin Motavassel Zadeh has won the Pierre de Coubertin World Fair Play Trophy for his outstanding act of sportsmanship during an Iranian first division match for his team Mogha Vat Sepasi.
Opposing goal keeper Amid Neshatjoo was injured whilst diving at the feet of an forward but instead of putting the ball in the net Amin put the ball out of play to allow the keeper to receive treatment.
“For a few minutes the supporters were confused and then they started chanting my name,” he said.
“The manager was not angry with me because in our culture, these things are very important. For us we believe that doing something with fair play is more important even than scoring goals or winning a medal. Nobody was angry with me.”
Lithuanian Decathlete Darius Draudvila was also honoured for his actions at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona. Leading the competition after seven events, he loaned his own pole to Belarussian Andrei Krauchanka to enable him to continue in the competition after his own had broken.Arguably the gesture cost Draudvila a medal.
“I have always felt that the decathletes are a much tighter group than most other events so when he asked me I did not have to think twice about it “ said Dradvila.” It was just did what I did.
Wrestler Gao Feng’s award comes after he won bronze in the 60kg freestyle at the Asian Games in Guangzhou. He carried his opponent, Iranian Ahmadi Zarinkolaei Said from the mat after he’d suffered a knee injury in the final moments of the bout.
“ I did not think about it. I just saw my opponent had fallen to the ground. I did not look upon him as an opponent by this time but as a fellow wrestler.”
The youngest winner of an award was Yoana Damyanova of Bulgaria. She received a diploma after her gesture during the Judo at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.
She sportingly waited for her opponent to arrive instead of enforcing a walkover in the judo competitions.
“The decision was not only made by me, my coach who happened to be my father, asked me if I wanted to wait and I said yes we will wait.”
Honorary IOC member in Germany Walter Troger is an appropriate winner of the Willi Daume Trophy. He worked closely with Daume on the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and served as an IOC member from 1989 to 2010.
Kenyan marathoner Tegla Chepkite Loroupe is also honoured for her work in promoting peace marathons. A world class marathoner who competed at the 2000 Olympic Games, she was named as a UN Ambassador of Sport and used her profile to set up a series of peace marathons amongst the tribes of the region.
“I was not expecting to be given such an international award. I was out at the border at the time and didn’t believe it until I got a text,” she said.
“It will help others at home to realise that sport is a universal thing,’ she said.
“I am here not because I am a good athlete, but because of what I have given back to the people and sports.”
AIPS Power of Sport Awards
Nawal El Moutawakel
May El Khalil
Erlingur Johansson
Act of Fair Play
Pierre de Coubertin Trophies:
1. Amin Motavassel Zadeh
2. Darius Draudvila
3. Gao Feng
Diplomas:
1. Rodrigo Pessoa
2. Yoana Damyanova
3. Raquel Mafra Roda
Promotion of Fair Play
Willi Daume Trophies:
1. Walther Tröger
2. Tegla Chepkite Loroupe
Diplomas:
1. Philippe Housiaux
2. Claude-Louis Gallien
3. University of Cadiz
Sports Career
Jean Borotra Trophy:
1. Edwin Moses
Diplomas:
1. Elena Dementieva
2. Christine Caron
3. Richard Oribe Lumbreras