The ISPS Handa Halberg Awards are proudly brought to you by the Halberg Disability Sport Foundation

Halberg Awards

Judging Criteria

The criteria for the supreme Halberg Award is: The supreme Halberg Award will be awarded to the individual athlete, Para athlete / team , athlete in a team, or team whose achievement represented excellence in sport at the highest level.

This criteria is in turn applied to the Sportsman, Sportswoman, Para Athlete / Team, Team and Coach categories. 

The Voting Academy will consider the following guidelines when judging the supreme Halberg Award category finalists;

  1. Regarding the achievement, was it in that sport’s ‘pinnacle event’ (eg Olympics, Paralympics, World Cup)
  2. Regarding the achievement, was it a world record, world ranking or recognition (eg ‘World Player of the Year’)
  3. The quality of the field / competition
  4. The global nature of the sport
  5. Para sport achievements only for a Para Athlete/Team nomination

Event type definitions:

  • Pinnacle Event: A Pinnacle event is the most significant event in a sports four year competition calendar e.g. the Olympic / Paralympic Games or a World Cup or World Championship event that is held once every four years (e.g. Rugby World Cup, Netball World Cup, FIFA World Cup etc.).
  • Major Event: A Major event is the next most significant event (after a pinnacle event) in a sports four year competition calendar. These are other events that occur within a four year cycle that are considered major events (e.g. IAAF World Championships, Hockey World Cup, Basketball World Championships etc.).
  • Milestone Event: A Milestone event is the most significant event in a sports annual competition calendar. This includes annual World Championships and annual world level or domestic events.


*this aligns with High Performance Sport New Zealand.

The Academy votes in two phases:

1. Round one of voting is to select the category finalists from the list of nominations. 

2. Round two of voting is to select the category winners and supreme Halberg Award winner.


Voting is conducted by independent ballot and the results are unknown to Voting Academy members.  The audit of the totalled votes is conducted by Deloitte.