AIPS Sport Media Awards 2020: meet the juror Steve Wilson
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AIPS Media
LAUSANNE, June 4, 2020 – To participate in the AIPS Sport Media Awards means to join the highest international recognition in the sport media industry. For pursuing the concept of sport media excellence, the Awards have a respected and multinational jury whose members are seasoned journalists that represent such excellence through their careers and reputation.
Drawn from leading sports media organisations and with backgrounds ranging across the sports media spectrum and the Awards categories, the AIPS Sport Media Awards Jury is formed by 11 jurors, chaired by the AIPS President Gianni Merlo.
One of the members of the jury is Steve Wilson, with a vast experience on Olympic matters, who gave us a brief opinion regarding the novelties that the upcoming edition of the awards will bring along.
The 2020 edition of the Awards comes in an unforeseen global scenario. Do you think sport will fully recover?
2020 will be remembered as the year of Covid-19, a year when the entire world was upended by an invisible virus. Sport, like all parts of life, has been hit badly. Sport as we know it will not look the same for the foreseeable future. But the return of sport will be a powerful force, boosting morale and giving something people to cheer about again.
What do you expect from the upcoming edition?
After the overwhelming success of the 2019 AIPS Sports Media Awards, 2020 will surely bring a fascinating and unique set of entries due to the coronavirus epidemic that has shut down sports around the world and forced the unprecedented postponement of the Tokyo Olympic Games. I imagine we will see many stories, photos and videos that feature the challenges faced by thousands of Olympic athletes who are missing out on the Games in 2020 and are compelled to train at home or in parks or in makeshift locations.
We have witnessed the quarantine of many athletes who trained at home sharing their intimate life with fans and media. What is the secret to make a notable product out of it?
Stories of athletes in self-isolation and sports in lock down will form an important part of the 2020 Media Awards submissions. These stories should not all look the same or repeat the same narrative. For journalists, the key will be to break new ground, to dig beyond the surface, to tell something new, to find stories of tragedy, resilience, hope and triumph. These will mark the success of the Media Sports Awards in 2020.
ABOUT STEVE WILSON
Steve Wilson is a media, sports, Olympics & communications expert. A native of Washington D.C, USA, he became the correspondent for the Associated Press (AP) in in Rome, New Delhi, New York, Boston and Miami. He was AP European Sports Editor from 1991 to 2017, directing writers and editors in London and around the world and AP’s Olympic correspondent, reporting on all facets of Olympic Movement, becoming the go-to expert on all Olympic issues.
He has covered 15 summer and winter Olympic Games and all major international sports, including football, tennis, golf, athletics, skiing, boxing, basketball, and all American sports. He has also covered multiple IAAF Athletics World Championships, Wimbledon and French Open tennis championships, British Open golf championships and Ryder Cups. He is the winner of the prestigious “Sportswriter of the Year’’ and “Story of the Year” awards for Olympic reporting, and member of International Olympic Committee Press Commission since 1991.
ABOUT THE AWARDS
Split into 8 main categories, the Awards are a celebration of the best sport storytellers from around the world. Submissions for professionals are free and open until October 7, 2020. Find more and submit your work in www.aipsawards.com and look up our fast guide to submissions.