Meeting last weekend in Paris on the occasion of its annual seminar, the Association of European Olympic Committees (EOC) awarded its traditional Piotr Nurowski prize. For its eighth edition, it rewarded a young Slovak ice hockey player, Nela Lopusanova (photo above, with Spyros Capralos, the president of the EOC). The 15-year-old athlete collected more than 40% of the votes, ahead of the four other finalists, all from winter sports: Mia Brookes (Great Britain), Erik Canovi (Italy), Oleksandra Merkushyna (Ukraine) and Nina Pinzarrone (Belgium). Voted best player of the tournament at the 2023 European Winter Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) in Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy, Nela Lopusanova was also named best player at the Under-18 World Championships, where she scored nine goals and totaled twelve points. In addition to the Piotr Nurowski trophy, awarded by the EOC since 2011 to the best young European athlete in memory of the former president of the Polish Olympic Committee, who died in a plane accident a year earlier, Nela Lopusanova won a scholarship training of 15.000 euros.
