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Jonathan White

Sophia Floersch, the teenage driver who suffered severe injuries in a crash at the 2018 Macau Grand Prix, has won the Laureus Comeback Award for her return to racing.
The 19-year-old Formula Three driver described it as “a dream come true when she picked up her award in Berlin at the 20th anniversary Laureus World Sports Awards on Monday. She also thanked the Laureus Academy, her family and her doctor.
“I started this sport when I was four and loved it from the first moment onwards. I had this crash in Macau and it was bad, the video was very bad, but for me in the car it didn’t feel that bad. I remember everything. It happened so quick you don’t really realise it.
“It was hard times but for me I always had the goal to come back in race car, which was happening 106 days later.”

"This is a dream come true."

"Standing in front of you all, you're actually all of my idols."

We'll definitely be seeing you again @SophiaFloersch

What a comeback! What a fighter #Laureus20 #SportUnitesUs pic.twitter.com/puynWDKYfd
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) February 17, 2020

“Hopefully I am going to be up on this stage in some years again, Sportswoman of the Year,” she said to applause from the crowd of sports stars gathered in the German capital.
The German driver was injured after coming off the track at the Lisboa Bend at the Guia circuit. She entered the bend at 276km/h, clipped a raised kerb then hit the top of Japanese driver Sho Tsuboi’s TOM'S Dallara-Toyota car.

Her car went through the catch fencing before landing backwards in a photographer’s hut through the safety fencing and into a photographers’ platform.
Floersch, just 17 at the time, suffered life-threatening injuries, according to her Van Amersfoort Racing team owner Fritz van Amersfoort.

She was rushed to the Conde S. Januario Hospital along with Tsuboi, two photographers and a race marshal. The 17-year-old underwent 11 hours of spinal surgery at the Macau hospital before months of recovery where she could not move her neck or back.
Within a month, Floersch was telling the BBC that she not only wanted to get back in a car but was dreaming of becoming Formula One world champion.

Never fear Mystic Laureus Academy member Michael Johnson is here... @Simone_Biles we can't hear you but we'll assume your practising..."

"I'm going to assume she said it's amazing, it's fantastic..."#Laureus20 pic.twitter.com/JNsFjRPJgj
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) February 17, 2020

“I’ll see how it goes, but my goal is to get to Formula One and have success there and maybe be world champion,” she said in December 2018.
Floersch was back racing within four months of the crash and was back in Macau in November for the 2019 event, on a course that had seen several safety changes after her crash.
She described her as a return as a “very, very emotional moment” as she drove for HWA Racelab, a drive she picked up in the weeks before the Macau event.

With World Championships and Ballon d'Ors between them, @LewisHamilton and Lionel Messi share the #Laureus20 World Sportsman of the Year award - a moment of sporting history!

Congratulations guys!#SportUnitesUs pic.twitter.com/7akYcykux2
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) February 17, 2020

Other winners at the Berlin awards, which are voted for by journalists from around the world, included six-time Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton. The 35-year-old shared the World Sportsman of the Year with Barcelona footballer Lionel Messi.
This was the first time the award had been shared in its 20 years of running and the first time a footballer had won.
Elsewhere, gymnast Simone Biles led the US’ four-award haul. Biles won Sportswoman of the Year after five more world championships golds cemented her place as the most decorated gymnast in history.

The people's champion @SiyaKolisi_Bear

A special and moving speech from the incredible World Team of the Year @Springboks' captain

"We really touch lives in the way governments and politicians can't do."

A true sporting inspiration #Laureus20 #SportUnitesUs pic.twitter.com/e4h6P1Yvfx
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) February 17, 2020

Snowboard star Chloe Kim won the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year Award for the second year running, while Oksana Masters won the Laureus Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability category.
Cycling and skiing star Masters, who won medals in both events in 2019, was born with limb impairments caused by radiation fallout from Chernobyl before being adopted by an American.
South Africa’s men’s rugby team won the Team of the Year Award for lifting the Rugby World Cup in Japan, beating out strong competition from Uefa Champions League winners and English Premier League runners-up Liverpool, and the US women’s national football team that won the Fifa Women’s World Cup in France.

"I try to help a lot of kids, connect and unite and I'm proud of where my journey has taken me."

"To the next generation, try everything, find what you really love."

A legend on and off the court but it's more than basketball for @swish41 #Laureus20 #SportUnitesUs pic.twitter.com/aCDGJd5NxX
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) February 17, 2020

Egan Bernal, the youngest winner of the Tour de France in 110 years, won the World Breakthrough of the Year, while at the other end of the scale NBA legend Dirk Nowitzki won the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The German retired at the end of the 2018-19 season after 21 years in the NBA, all with the Dallas Mavericks.
The Spanish Basketball Federation became only the fourth winner of a Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement Award in two decades. The men’s team won the Fiba 2019 World Cup in China and are expected to challenge in Tokyo 2020, while the women have been European champions in three of the last four years.

Sound on

A powerful, strong and moving tribute to a room full of sporting legends from @sachin_rt in honour of Nelson Mandela and the incredible power of sport to unite and inspire #Laureus20 #SportUnitesUs pic.twitter.com/0z3mNatUFh
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) February 17, 2020

In a first public vote, Indian cricket star Sachin Tendulkar won the ﻿Sporting Moment award for guiding his country to the 2011 ICC World Cup, with success for the “Little Master” coming at the sixth attempt and on home soil. The award looked at a moment in the past two decades where sport brought people together.


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Macau Grand Prix: from Ayrton Senna to Charles Leclerc, the Hong Kong racing team breeding stars for 50 years

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Macau Grand Prix

Sophia Floersch’s Macau GP crash return   wins Laureus Comeback Award

Formula Three driver Sophia Floersch in her HWA Racelab car at the 2019 Macau Grand Prix. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

German F3 racing driver Sophia Floersch attends a press conference at a hospital in Macau to discuss her injuiries and recovery before flying home on November 26, 2018. - Floersch, who fractured her spine in a horrifying crash at the Macau Grand Prix, said on November 26, 2018 she was flying home to Germany for further treatment. (Photo by ISAAC LAWRENCE / AFP)

F3 driver Sophia Floersch (#18) from HWA Racelab team during the Suncity Group Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix - FIA F3 World Cup. German Sophia Gloersch makes a return to the scene of her crash a year on at the 66th Macau Grand Prix. 14NOV19 SCMP / K. Y. Cheng

Macau Grand Prix: Sophia Floersch makes ‘emotional’ return to Guia circuit a year on from horror crash

German racing driver Sophia Floersch driving for HWA Racelab at the 2019 Macau Grand Prix’s first qualifying session. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

German racing driver Sophia Floersch at the 2019 Macau Grand Prix. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

German racing driver Sophia Floersch wearing custom footwear at the Macau Grand Prix. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

‘Macau is deep in my heart’: Sophia Floersch confirms Macau Grand Prix return 12 months after spectacular crash

German teenage racer Sophia Floersch will return to the Macau Grand Prix a year after surviving a spectacular crash. Photo: Instagram

Sophia Floersch in her HWA Racelab car during F3 testing in Valencia

Second Prize, Sports category. Picture shows German Formula Three racer Sophia Floersch's car going airborne in Macau Grand Prix. 18NOV18 Photo:Sing Tao Daily/So Ching Him

Sofia Floersch

Miracle crash survivor Sophia Floersch hints of return to the 2019 Macau Grand Prix – ‘I really want to go’

Germany’s Sofia Floersch is poised to return to next month’s Macau Grand Prix after her spectacular crash in 2018. Photo: Twitter

Macau miracle survivor Sophia Floersch returns to racing track for the first time since horror crash

Sophia Floersch smiles in the garage after driving her Van Amersfoort Racing team test car at the Monza racetrack, northern Italy. Photo: AP

Formula 3 pilot Sophia Floersch smiles in the garage after driving for a Van Amersfroot Racing team test car at the Monza racetrack, northern Italy, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Floersch started training in Monza just four months after her severe race crash in Macao last year which caused a broken cervical. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Formula 3 pilot Sophia Floersch steers her Van Amersfroot Racing car during a Van Amersfroot Racing team test driving at the Monza racetrack, northern Italy, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Floersch started training in Monza just four months after her severe race crash in Macao last year which caused a broken cervical. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Sport

Motorsport


Teenage driver was back to racing within four months of life-threatening crash and dreaming of Formula One success
Lewis Hamilton and Lionel Messi share award, with Simone Biles, South Africa rugby and Sachin Tendulkar also honoured



Macau GP return sees Sophia Floersch win Laureus Comeback Award on a night where F1 champion Lewis Hamilton and Lionel Messi share award.


Sophia Floersch’s Macau GP crash return wins Laureus Comeback Award

Teenage driver was back to racing within four months of life-threatening crash and dreaming of Formula One success Lewis Hamilton and Lionel Messi share award, with Simone Biles, South Africa rugby and Sachin Tendulkar also honoured

Teenage driver was back to racing within four months of life-threatening crash and dreaming of Formula One success

Lewis Hamilton and Lionel Messi share award, with Simone Biles, South Africa rugby and Sachin Tendulkar also honoured