Brazilian male soccer team, Olympic Champion in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, was chosen Team of the Year in a survey of Latin American news agency Prensa Latina, which also awarded sprinter Usain Bolt and jumper Catherine Ibargüen.
Led by culé striker Neymar Jr., the five-time world champions had their vendetta done by defeating Germany to achieve its first Olympic title. The Canarinha got the vote from 53 press media of the whole world.
The Brazilian soccer team has been selected the Best Team of the Year in this poll in 1994, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2009. Bolt was the Best Male Athlete of 2016; and Ibargüen was the queen among females.
The &Lighting" Bolt just became the top winner of the Prensa Latina poll, with six distinctions. He was recognized last year by winning three gold medals (100, 200 and 4 x 100 m relay) at Rio-2016.
Among women, Ibarguen clinched her hegemony in the Olympic Games and got the title in the Diamond League.
Other prominent athletes were Cuban wrestler Mijaín López, Argentine tennis player Juan Martín del Potro, female tennis player Mónica Puig, from Puerto Rico, female Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson, Colombian cyclists Mariana Pajon and Nairo Quintana, Chilean soccer player Alexis Sánchez, Argentine judoka Paula Pareto, and the Cuban pugilists Julio Cesar La Cruz, Arlen Lopez and Robeisy Ramírez. This year,113 media voted from 20 countries: Cuba, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico, Nicaragua, Ecuador, El Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, Canada, France, Lebanon, Vietnam, and China.
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