RIO DE JANEIRO (AP):

Usain Bolt has been named sportsman of the year at the Laureus Sports Awards, with Europe's Ryder Cup golfers honoured as the best team.

Bolt has won his third Laureus Award after another dominant Olympic performance on the track at London, winning the gold in the 100, 200 and 4x100-metre relay. The European Ryder Cup team was also rewarded yesterday for its remarkable rally against the US at Medinah.

British heptathlete Jessica Ennis has been chosen the sportswoman of 2012, while Andy Murray has been named the top breakthrough athlete and Felix Sanchez the main comeback athlete.

Jamaica sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was also nominated for the sportswoman of the year award.

Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner was the winner in the action category after becoming the first skydiver to go faster than the speed of sound. Brazil's Daniel Dias won the disability award.

Dias, aged 24, was once again the outstanding swimmer of the Paralympic Games, winning six individual gold medals in London, all in world record times. It was an achievement which won him the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award for the second time.

There was a warm welcome from the audience in the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro for two outstanding Olympians who received special Laureus Awards.

Legendary swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time with a career total of 22 medals, including 18 gold medals, eight of which he won in one Olympiad in Beijing, was presented with a new award - the Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement Award.

And Laureus World Sports Academy Member Sebastian Coe, the Chairman of the Organising Committee of the highly successful London Olympic and Paralympic Games, received the Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award.