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German Sports Personality of the Year

December 22, 2014

2014 was a good one for German sports. Alpine ski racer Maria Höfl-Riesch, discus thrower Robert Harting and the World Cup-winning football team have been named this year's German Sports Personalities of the year.

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German Sports Personality of the Year 2014
Image: T. Kienzle/AFP/Getty Images

For Germany's national football team, 2014 marked their tenth year receiving the prize, which was awarded on Sunday evening (21.12.2014) at Baden-Baden's Kurhaus in western Germany.

There was no doubt that Joachim Löw's World Cup-winning football team would be taking home the "team" category prize after lifting the cup in Brazil this summer, adding a fourth star to their national jerseys.

"It was the cohesion, it was the team," German Football Association (DFB) president Wolfgang Niersbach said, looking back on the World Cup. "In those six weeks in Brazil, we did not have any internal stress."

Discus thrower Harting, who took the award for the third time after winning gold at the London 2012 Olympics and a third-straight title at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow, said he was "happy that everything had gone so well this year."

"Until the end," he re-phrased, referring to his cruciate ligament injury in September.

Thirty-year-old Maria Höfl-Riesch, who retired from competition in March after taking Gold at the Sochi Winter Olympics, won the award for the second time. Ahead of Sunday night's ceremony, Höfl-Riesch said winning the prestigious prize "would be the perfect ending."

ksb/cd (dpa, SID)