The Laureus World Sports Awards are awarded annually to sportspeople who have been outstanding during the previous year. The Laureus World Sports Awards were established in 1999 by Founding Patrons DaimlerChrysler and Richemont.

There is a two-part voting process to find the winners: Firstly, a Selection Panel of the world's leading sports editors, writers and broadcasters from over 80 countries votes to create a shortlist of six nominations in each category. The voting process is monitored by independent auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. The members of the Laureus World Sports Academy then vote by secret ballot to select the Award winners.

There are five categories voted for by the Laureus Media Selection Panel:

• Laureus World Sportsman of the Year
• Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year
• Laureus World Team of the Year
• Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year
• Laureus World Comeback of the Year

There are two categories voted for by Specialist Panels:

• Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year, chosen by a panel of the world's leading alternative sports journalists, and
• Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability, which is overseen by the Executive Committee of the International Paralympic Committee.

Three other honours are selected by the Founding Patrons and the Academy. These are the

• Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award
• Laureus Sport for Good Award
• Laureus Spirit of Sport (since 2005)

presented at the Laureus Academy's discretion to people who have made an outstanding contribution to society through sport. The Academy can, if it wishes, also bestow additional Awards.

Each winner receives a Laureus statuette exclusively produced by Cartier. The universal nature of sport is celebrated by the representation of the five continents, which are engraved on the base. The statuettes are 30 cm high and weigh 2.5 kg. Each figure contains 670 g of solid silver with a 650 g gold finish base.

The 2007 gala was held on April 2nd in Barcelona, Spain. King Juan Carlos I of Spain was the guest of honour. The 2008 awards was held on February 18th in St Petersburg, Russia, attended by President Vladimir Putin and hosted by Cuba Gooding, Jr.

World No. 1 tennis player Roger Federer has won Laureus World Sportsman of the Year for the last four years consecutively. He is also the only sportsman to have won the prize four times in the the history of Laureus World Sports Awards.