Lausanne,
January 20, 2019— Words are a powerful tool that have the ability to
tell stories that generate emotion, alter opinions and even change the
world. The inaugural AIPS Sports Media Awards will take place this
Monday, January 21, at 7 pm CET. There are two separate categories for
writing: Best Colour Piece and Best Column.
Best Colour Piece
In Antje Windmann’s Der Mensch im Trikot (Der Spiegel), Windmann
gives an insight to the in-life of a world-class football
player interview in the final stage of his career at Arsenal, but also
about his whole way there. The struggling and suffering of Per
Mertesacker makes her writing strong and special. Showing the “brutality
of the football business” is also a warning: to see not only the
performance and privileges, the show and shining, but also the human
behind, the dark side of the dream. The story was quoted all over the
world and led to massive discussions on how the media, the audience and
the business itself perceive sport stars.
Der gafallene Star (Das Magazine/Tamedia) is
the story about the moment when sport lost its virginity, but also the
moment where a legend became obsolete: Ben Johnson’s run from Seoul 1988
became history, not for the record as he wished but for testing
positive. Christof Gertsch and Mikael Krogerus met Johnson 30 years
afterwards, and they tell a story about meeting a legend a.d. who still
treats his record as a trophy and who feels betrayed from all others
still today; the story about a man who is still not able to get along
with his own past.
There is no more cruel part in recent history
than what happened in the concentration camps of the Nazis. For that,
it takes a secure sense of balance to not overpaint the scenes. In Yo jugue al futbol en Auschwitz (Marca), Jose
Ignacio Perez Hernandez manages to catch the absurdity of the scene,
playing football, the game of joy and pleasure, in the atmosphere of
death, the Holocaust. He tells his story slow and steady and leaves the
drama to the reader, letting the scenery speak for itself, combining the
voices of executioner and the condemned in excellence, in an
interactive special reportage.
Best Column
The
pure joy and pride that sport can bring to a country is unlike any
other feeling. Dumitru Graur portrays these exact emotions in his
piece, Tears of an Old Commentator (Sport in Romania), when he
discusses watching, “one of Romania’s all-time best sportspersons”,
Simona Halep achieve her dream of winning her first Grand Slam title.
Although he has many accolades in his life as a commentator, this
experience brought him to tears.
Is
boycotting the Olympics the answer for Russia? According to Russian
journalist Igor Rabiner, it does not benefit anyone—that is, except
their opponents. In his column, Athletes or Slaves? Rabiner Against Boycotting the Olympics (Sport-Express) Rabiner gives his opinions of boycotting the PyeongChang Olympics.
“When
you have spent your whole life preparing for something important, the
Olympic Games, and you have the right and the opportunity to go there,
then in the modern world, a person can only give up this just in one
case; and that if he is not an athlete, but a slave,” is Rabiner’s
powerful statement.
The Larry
Nassar, Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics scandal has become
one of the worst sexual abuse scandals in sports history. In Oliver
Brown’s column, Abuse Scandal is Lesson Unlearned (The Daily Telegraph),
Brown mentions examples of wrong-doings by Nassar, MSU and USAG and he
also mentions how USAG is doing nothing to learn from the mistakes of
the past and that the victims are still hurting. Brown also suggests
that Simone Biles —a quadruple gold-medal winner at the Rio Olympics—has
the ability to have her voice be heard after she admitted to being
assaulted by Nassar as well.
You can see all the submissions in the AIPS Sport Media Awards podium section.
Prizes
Each
of the finalists will receive an award for their work. The first-place
winner will receive an original trophy and prize money of USD 8.000,
second place will receive USD 3.000 and third place will receive USD
2,000.
The winners of the
awards will be announced at the AIPS Sports Media Awards ceremony held
at the Beau-Rivage Hotel on January 21, at 7pm CET, broadcast on
Facebook Live on AIPS Media and on TV with Eurovision.