Countdown to Seoul Ceremony on May 9

The wait is almost over! The AIPS Sport Media Awards are ready to celebrate the fifth edition with a stunning ceremony in Seoul, South Korea, set for Tuesday, May 9, at 18:30 local time.

 

This will be the first time that the gala travels to East Asia, after three times in Europe and one in the Middle East. And, as always, it will be special. The Sofitel Ambassador Seoul Hotel & Serviced Residences will be the epicentre of #SportMediaExcellence, with an amazing menu of quality work from the five continents and representing all platforms.

 

PODIUM NOMINEES Twenty-four productions of the 8 senior categories in Writing, Audio, Photography and Video, have reached the final destination. It was a long way for the 1830 submissions that arrived last year from a record of 138 nationalities.

 

Submissions were subsequently judged in four stages, first by the AIPS panel of specialists (longlists), then by the Executive Committee members (shortlists), and then by the Jury members (top 10 and top 3). Now, a day before the ceremony, they will vote the winners, who will only be revealed on stage. Not even the Jury members will know the final positions until they are announced. In these days we will showcase what made these products so special, category by category.

 

PRIZES. Each of the winners of the 8 senior categories receives a trophy and a money prize depending on their final position: 8,000 US Dollars (first prize), 3,000 (second) and 2,000 (third). Three Young Reporter prizes (Writing, Photography, Broadcasting) and two special categories, Investigative Reporting and A Life in Sport, will also have their special moment on stage. The three winners of the Young Reporters category will be granted an AIPS scholarship at a top international event.

 

INTERNATIONAL CHARACTER As a true sports journalism festival, all colleagues in the sports media environment are welcome to participate, either employees or freelancers, AIPS members and non-members alike. To ensure the international character, all languages are accepted and all submissions (up to two per person) are free of charge. This is why there’s no other prize in the world that can match the international character and the thorough judging process.

 

AIPS CONGRESS The Korean Sports Press Union (KSPU) will be the host of the 85th AIPS Congress scheduled for 8-12 May 2023, the fourth time for the Korean capital, after 1987, 2011 and 2017. Delegates from the 161 national associations will be present.

 

NAMES AND COUNTRIES Based on voting from the 12-member AIPS Sport Media Awards Jury, here are the top 3 in each category, listed in alphabetical order of surname:

 

PHOTOGRAPHY SPORT ACTION
Xavier Bonilla (Spain), Thanks halo – DPPI Images
Andy Couldridge (UK), Derek Chisora vs Kubrat Pulev - Reuters
John Walton (UK), Flying into the crowd - PA Media

 

PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO
Dario Belingheri (Italy), Cycling and its beauties - Getty Images
Oliver Scarff (UK), Anita Alvarez Rescue - AFP
Ezra Shaw (USA), Flying and Sliding - Getty Images

 

VIDEO ATHLETE PROFILE
Nicolas Delloye (France), Donovan Carrillo: First Mexican Olympic figure skater in 30 years - Olympic Channel
Nikolaus Mahatsek, Nikolaus Strecha (Austria), MAXimum Verstappen: The Flying Dutchman – ServusTV
Joanne Mitchell, Tania Page (New Zealand), The real Ruby - Sunday Television

 

VIDEO DOCUMENTARY
Louis Myles (UK), Croatia: Defining a nation - FIFA+
David Tryhorn (UK), The Figo affair: The transfer that changed football – Netflix
Benjamin Unger (Germany), Olympics 1972: The GDR and the terror – NDR

 

VIDEO SHORT FEATURE
Maziyar Koopidar (Iran), I'm a girl, I'm a boy - YouTube
Adam Pretty (Australia), Bo Kramer - Getty Images
Mike Stypulkoski (USA), A face for her people: Rosalie Fish - CBS Sports

 

WRITING BEST COLOUR PIECE
Kouagheu Josiane (Cameroon), AFCON 2022: “Football makes me forget the Boko Haram attacks for a few hours” - Le Monde Afrique
Bernt Jakob Oksnes (Norway), A sick skiing nation - Dagbladet
Adam Williams (USA), An Indigenous Women’s Softball Team Beats Opponents, and machismo - The New York Times

 

WRITING BEST COLUMN
Alaa Abdel-Ghani (Egypt), Overseas aid - Al-Ahram Newspaper
Morgan Campbell (Canada), WNBA star Brittney Griner, detained in Russia, is guilty only of pursuing a salary that matches her skill - CBC
Marcela Mora y Araujo (Argentina), Thrown into the World Cup: The challenge of telling things as they are and at the same time believing in magic - eldiario.ar

 

AUDIO
Moritz Cassalette, Martin Seidemann (Germany), Jan Ullrich temporary hero - Norddeutscher Rundfunk
James Graham, Jessica Halloran, Jasper Leak, Claire Harvey, Lia Tsamoglou (Australia), Head Noise - The Australian
Kayley Thomas, Jenny Johnson, Lorraine Walsh, Cathy Robinson (UK), Transfer: The Emiliano Sala Story - BBC Wales

 

The Young Reporters category only crowns a winner (no second or third place) who will be unveiled at the ceremony. The Top 3 of each category are as follows:

 

YOUNG REPORTERS PHOTOGRAPHY
Mattia Ozbot (Italy), The Scudetto - Mattia Ozbot/CiamilloCastoria
Will Palmer (UK), Over the Top... - SWpix

Enzo Santos (Uruguay), At the feet of a giant - Peñarol

 

YOUNG REPORTERS BROADCASTING
Henrique Arcoverde (Brazil), The bricklayer's glove guy - Grupo Globo
Philip Dirnbeck (Austria), Emotions of the Special Olympics - ORF
Borislav Orlinov (Bulgaria), Evdokia Popadinova: Unbreakable - Max Sport

 

YOUNG REPORTERS WRITING
Camila Alves (Brazil), “Their lives were threatened by the Taliban”: the former captain who evacuated hundreds of athletes - Grupo Globo
Jonathan Harding (UK), ‘I'll die with cancer and can't change it but I can change these people's lives’ - Racing Post
Farai Shawn Matiashe (Zimbabwe), Zimbabwe’s girl footballers kick back against teen pregnancy - London Evening Standard

 

SPECIAL MENTIONS This year, following the growth in quantity and quality, the Awards will expand their celebration of special commendations to top-rated works that didn’t reach the final but are representative of the values of AIPS, values and topics that are taught in Young Reporters Programmes and embraced by President Gianni Merlo and the Executive Committee members.

 

These values include defending Human Rights & gender equality, fighting against racism and all forms of discrimination, promoting a clean sports environment, offering hope towards sports, promoting sports as an answer to violence in conflict zones, reporting with independence and freedom, defending the importance of access to sources for interviews, contributing to the development of women’s sport, acknowledging the future of sports, detecting and featuring original sports stories, raising awareness about mental health, and presenting innovative ways of sports reporting, among others.

 

The full list of mentions for this year will be as follows:

1) Sports for the Next Generation
2) Combatting Racism and Discrimination in Sport
3) Sport for Hope
4) Outstanding Interview
5) Original Story
6) Interactive Feature
7) Human Rights and Gender Equality
8) Total Reportage
9) Young Reporter Special Commendation
10) Defending Freedom of Press
11) Safeguarding Journalism Working Conditions
12) Long-form Journalism
13) Raising Awareness on Mental Health
14) Photography Special Commendation
15) Promoting a Clean Sports Environment
16) Contributing to the Development of Women’s Sport
17) Excellence in Remote Reporting
18) Special Commendation on Local Reporting
19) Celebrating sports history
20) Topic of the Year
21) Scoop & Breaking News
22) Special Commendation on Parasports
23) Special Report, Visual & Data Story
24) Climate Change & Sustainable sport
25) Docuseries Format

 

AIPS Media/Martin Mazur