The shortlist of six nominees was drawn up by a specialist panel consisting of experienced representatives in the field of Paralympic Sport and the Paralympic Movement, based on submissions from the IPC membership. The shortlist is submitted to the Laureus World Sports Academy, which then elects the award winner.

The European athletes up for the 2009 award are:

- Darren Kenny (Great Britain), Cycling

- Jonas Jacobssen (Sweden), Shooting

- Teresa Perales (Spain), Swimming

Kenny won four golds and one silver medal in China. His gold medals came in the men's team sprint, the individual pursuit, the men's road race and the 1km time trial. He is nominated for the second year running.

Swedish marksman Jonas Jacobsson won three gold medals in Beijing 2008 in the R1 air rifle standing, R7 free rifle 3x40m and R6 free rifle 50m events, taking his total of gold medals to 16. This means he has won at least one gold in each of the last eight Paralympic Games, all the way back to Arnhem in 1980. He has since become the first person with a disability to be named Sweden's sports personality of the year.

For Perales, the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games were the highlight of her career. She won three gold, one silver and two bronze medals, breaking two world records in the process and becoming one of the most successful swimmers at the games.

The three European contenders will face stiff competition from the remaining three nominees:

- Daniel Dias (Brazil), Swimming

- April Holmes (USA), Athletics

- Zhang Lixin (China), Athletics.

Laureus World Sports Academy Chairperson Edwin Moses said: “This has been a great year for sport and the Academy is going to find it extremely difficult to decide who to vote for as winners. This is always the case in an Olympic and Paralympic year, but we have had some very strong performances from the non-Olympic sports. I congratulate all the nominees”.

The winners of this year's Laureus World Sports Awards will receive their awards individually at a series of presentations during May and June. The Laureus World Sports Awards, which will be given for the tenth time this year, celebrate sporting excellence across all disciplines and all continents. Awards are bestowed in a range of categories, including World Sportsman and World Sportswoman of the Year, World Team of the Year, World Breakthrough of the Year, World Comeback of the Year, World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability and World Action Sportsperson of the Year.

The 2008 award in the World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability category was won by Dutch wheelchair tennis player Esther Vergeer.

Laureus and its partners recently made the decision that due to the current economic situation it would be inappropriate to stage a full-scale Laureus World Sports Awards Ceremony at this time. Accordingly, Laureus will forego its usual spring celebration. A key focus for Laureus during 2009 will now be to support the funding and activities of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation.