Athletics: Valerie Adams up for Laureus award

Valerie Adams. File photo / NZ Herakd

Double Olympic shot put champion Valerie Adams has been nominated for the prestigious Laureus Sports Awards for the first time in her career.

Adams, who went unbeaten through all competitions in 2014, will be looking to add the award to the IAAF sportswomen of the year title won in November.

Fellow nominees are tennis players Serena Williams and Li Na, Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Bjorgen, Ethiopian middle and long-distance runner Genzebe Dibaba and Slovenian alpine skier Tina Maze.

Serena Williams has won the award twice before, the last being in 2010.

In the male category, tennis player Novak Djokovic, Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, golf's world number one Rory McIlroy, pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie and MotoGP driver Marc Márquez are up for the award.

The teams of the year nominees are the World Cup winning German football team, the McLaren F1 team, the European Ryder Cup team, Champions League winners Real Madrid, the San Antonio Spurs and the Swiss Davis Cup tennis team.

The All Blacks were nominees last year in the team category, losing out to Bayern Munich.

New Zealand golfer Lydia Ko missed out on the breakthrough performance of the year with the nominees being tennis player Marin Cilic, German footballer Mario Goetze, Australian Formula One driver Daniel Ricciardo, Colombian footballer James Rodriquez, female alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin and the Swiss Davis Cup tennis team.

The winners are announced in April.