Steffi Graf Prince of Asturias Award for Sports 1999

The Jury for the 1999 Prince of Asturias Award for Sports, convened in Oviedo, comprised of H.R.H. Princess Pilar de Borbón, Mr. Carlos Arthur Nuzman, Mr. José Joaquín Brotons, Mr. José Antonio Camacho, Mr. Ángel Mario Carreño Rodríguez-Maribona, Mr. José Ángel Castro Savoie, Mr. Miguel Ángel Escamilla, Mr. Julián García Candau, Mr. Alfredo Goyeneche Moreno, Mr. Daniel Gutiérrez Granda, Mr. Miguel Induráin, Mr. Luis Infante Bravo, Ms. María del Carmen Izquierdo, Mr. José Antonio Luque, Mr. Herminio Menéndez, Mr. José Luis Vilaseca i Guasch, Mr. Francisco Villar García-Moreno, Ms. Olga Viza, chaired by Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch and with Mr. José María García as secretary, have agreed by a majority vote to award the 1999 Prince of Asturias Award for Sports to Steffi Graf.

Steffi Graf has just retired after a long and successful professional career in which she won 22 Grand Slam tournament victories and was leader of the Professional Tennis Players ranking for 377 weeks.

In 1987, Steffi became the youngest ever Roland Garros winner, when she beat Martina Navratilova, and in 1988 she won the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the USA Open, becoming the third woman in the history of tennis to complete a Grand Chelem.

On her retirement Steffi Graf announced the creation of a foundation called "Children for Tomorrow", which she will dedicate special attention to, thereby trying to help young victims of violence, persecution and wars by providing access to physical-therapeutic rehabilitation.

Oviedo, 23rd September 1999