The Stars Come Out At The FEVO Sport Industry Awards 2024
Dame Laura Kenny, Barbara Slater OBE, Kevin Sinfield CBE, Craig Maxwell and Yusra Mardini were all honoured at the biggest night of the sport industry calendar.
Dame Laura Kenny won the Outstanding Contribution to Sport Award at this year’s FEVO Sports Industry Awards on Thursday 25th April in front of an audience consisting of 1,600 sporting stars and industry executives at a sold-out Evolution London.
Kenny, who recently announced her retirement from professional cycling, was recognised for a truly special career on the track which, in addition to seven World Championship titles, has seen her claim five Olympic gold medals, making her the most successful British female athlete in history.
Kenny was one of five winners of the Judges’ Awards, which recognise individuals and organisations within sport who have contributed at the highest level through personal and professional achievements.
Barbara Slater OBE was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award following a remarkable 40-year career in sports broadcasting with the BBC which saw her become the organisation’s first ever female Director of Sport.
Elsewhere, Yusra Mardini, a member of the Refugee Olympic Athletes Team that competed under the Olympic flag at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, was presented with the Integrity & Impact Award in association with InsightX by incumbent recipient John Amaechi OBE for her work representing refugees around the world.
On accepting the award, Mardini said, “Thank you for honouring me with the Integrity & Impact Award, it means so much to be recognised by you all for something I truly believe in.
Everyone in the room tonight knows how powerful sport can be, I have seen the way it changes live, and it changed mine too.
“In fact, swimming saved mine in more ways than one. It was hard to believe that when I left Syria with nothing, that I would again get the chance to participate in the sport I had always loved, but just a few years after swimming for my life in the Aegean sea, I was swimming at the Olympic Games at Rio.
With over 114 million people displaced around the world, it is more important than ever to give refugees the chance to succeed. I am now dedicated to providing these opportunities for others. Together, through sport, we can create a better future for so many.”
Finally, Kevin Sinfield CBE and former Six Nations and Welsh Rugby Union commercial director Craig Maxwell were jointly presented with a Special Recognition Award by former Welsh Rugby captain Alun Wyn Jones for their respective charity fund-raising efforts.
In a series of challenges which began in 2020, rugby league legend Sinfield has raised more than £8m for people affected motor neurone disease, while Maxwell, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer in September 2022 at the age of 40 after a lengthy diagnosis, has raised more than £1.45m to help reduce the wait time for cancer patients in Wales and launched the Maxwell Family Genomics Fund to help support and improve the cancer pathway.
Hosted by sports presenter Laura Woods and TV personality Mark Durden-Smith, the star-studded FEVO Sport Industry Awards celebrates the immense work done around the sector, whether it’s the delivery of world-leading events or championing the use of sport as a platform to drive social change, to celebrating creative campaigns with an ingenious spark which spread throughout the industry and beyond.
In the main awards ceremony, Norwich City picked up Campaign of the Year, in association with Marsh Sport, for its work around World Mental Health Day, which included a viral video, produced in close consultation with suicide prevention charity Samaritans, which was viewed tens of millions of times within 24 hours of launch.
The purpose-driven theme continued throughout the evening with Women’s Aid walking away with two trophies for the domestic violence charity’s ‘He’s Coming Home’ campaign, which ran during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Elsewhere, thanks to on-course success and the incredible team spirit shown by Luke Donald and his team, Ryder Cup Europe won Team of the Year in association with FEVO, while Ear to the Ground added another coveted award to its trophy cabinet after the Manchester-based organisation won Agency of the Year for a second time.
Judges’ Awards recipients
🟠 Integrity & Impact Award in association with InsightX – Yusra Mardini
🟠 Lifetime Achievement Award – Barbara Slater OBE
🟠 Outstanding Contribution to Sport Award – Dame Laura Kenny
🟠 Special Recognition Award – Kevin Sinfield CBE and Craig Maxwell
FEVO Sport Industry Awards 2024 winners
🟠 Agency of the Year – Ear to the Ground
🟠 Best on Social – The AELTC
🟠 Branded Content Award – Standard Chartered Bank
🟠 Campaign of the Year in association with Marsh Sport – Norwich City FC
🟠 Environmental Sustainability Award – Liverpool FC
🟠 Event of the Year – England Rugby
🟠 Experiential Marketing Award – Just Eat
🟠 Fan Engagement Award – The AELTC
🟠 Original Content Award in association with Shutterstock – Women’s Aid
🟠 Partnership Award in association with Evolution London – 2023 Cycling World Championships & Zwift
🟠 Professional Services Team of the Year – Populous
🟠 Purpose Driven Sponsorship Award – Barclays
🟠 Specialist Agency of the Year – Little Dot Sport
🟠 Sport Organisation of the Year in association with RPC – The FA
🟠 Sport Team of the Year in association with FEVO – Ryder Cup Europe
🟠 Best Streaming Platform in association with PT SportSuite – The National League
🟠 Tech in Sport Award in association with Sportradar – ASB GlassFloor
🟠 Tessa Jowell Social Impact Award in association with Wasserman Live – Women’s Aid
Congratulations to all of the winners and to those who made the shortlist and were in attendance on the night. Thank you for your support.
