Reem Acra, the international fashion designer and title sponsor of the FEI World Cup™ Dressage series, is lending her support to the FEI’s Best Athlete Award for the third consecutive year.
 
The Reem Acra Best Athlete Award honours an athlete (equine or human) or a combination that, over the past year, has demonstrated exceptional skill and fair-play in any FEI discipline (Jumping, Dressage and Para-Equestrian Dressage, Eventing, Driving, Vaulting, Reining or Endurance).
 
New York-based Reem Acra said she was “delighted” to support this award, which has rewarded Meredith Michaels-Beerbaum (2009), Edward Gal and Totilas (2010) and Adelinde Cornelissen (2011).
 
“I am very proud to associate my name with this prestigious award, “ said Ms Acra, whose clientele includes Madonna, Angelina Jolie, Eva Longoria and Halle Berry.  “I love horses and my partnership with the FEI has enabled me to have a much deeper understanding of the top level of the sport and the personal investment necessary to reach it.
 
“The past winners of the Best Athlete Award are to horse sport what some of my clients are to showbusiness. They have that extra sparkle that results from a combination of great talent, determination, commitment and unstinting hard work. I hope everybody will take the time to nominate the athletes they most admire because there are many whose names should be known way beyond the equestrian community.”
 
Photos of Dutch Dressage rider Adelinde Cornelissen looking stunning in a Reem Acra gown at the 2011 FEI Awards ceremony in Rio de Janeiro appeared in publications worldwide and captured a moment that embodied the stylish partnership between the FEI World Cup™ Dressage series and the Reem Acra brand.
 
Five months after receiving the award, Cornelissen clinched the Reem Acra FEI World Cup™ Dressage title for the second consecutive season before her ecstatic home crowd in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
 
Nominations for the FEI Awards (Reem Acra Best Athlete, HSBC Rising Star, Best Groom, Against All Odds and Development) are open until 31 July at www.feiawards.org.
 
 
Photo: Dutch Dressage rider Adelinde Cornelissen receiving the 2011 Reem Acra Best Athlete Award at the FEI Awards ceremony at the Copacabana Hotel, Rio de Janeiro
© FEI/Rosane Bakierman