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Ons Jabeur is the 2022 Peace Champion of the Year.
Tunisian Tennis star, Ons Jabeur has been awarded the 2022 Peace Champion of the Year Award.
This prestigious award which rewards an athlete who has led a significant and sustainable sports initiative towards peaceful change, was presented to her during the Peace and Sport Awards ceremony, held in Monaco on November 30 and December 1, as part of the 13th edition of the international forum ‘Peace and Sport’.
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The 27-year-old is the highest-ranked African and Arab tennis player in the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings history, attaining a WTA career high of world No. 2 achieved on 27 June 2022.
This year, Jabeur became the first and only Muslim and Arab player, male or female, to reach a grand slam finals in singles at both 2022 Wimbledon and 2022 US Open, where sadly, she finished as runner-up on both occasions.
Her influence extends well beyond the tennis world. Her country has followed her achievements, representing so much to many people outside her native Tunisia, becoming a role model for women athletes in the Arab and Muslim world.
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Jabeur has shown that a woman can be a champion, win, and compete with the best; without losing her identity or forgetting her roots.
Popular amongst her peers on the circuit, Jabeur is helping change the face of the game, both within tennis and the wider sporting community.
She succeeds French basketball player Rudy Gobert, Springbok captain Siya Kolisi, and international footballers Lionel Messi and Blaise Matuidi as previous winners.
Some top dignitaries present at the award ceremony include the President of Liberia, George Weah, as well as two other soccer legends, Rai and Didier Drogba (Vice-President of Peace and Sport), in addition to 50 high-level speakers from four continents, including several Champions of Peace.
They all talked in the presence of 250 participants on the theme - “Sport, a response for Peace.” Major players in the world of sports called on international decision-makers to use sports as a tool for transmitting the values of peace; based on its universality, its role models, and the actions of field players trained in the demands of daily life.
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