By United States Sports Academy |
The United States Sports Academy is kicking off 2020 with one of the most competitive ballots ever for its annual Male and Female Athletes of the Year program. Voting is now open for the coveted award, which is part of the Academy’s Awards of Sport program that annually recognizes the top male and female athletes in the world.
The ballot is open for voting here until 5 p.m. Central time on Friday, 17 January 2020. This year’s ballot includes 12 men and 12 women from 10 countries.
Nominees for Male Athlete of the Year include: Johannes Thingnes Boe, biathlon, Norway; Joe Burrow, football, United States; Nathan Chen, figure skating, United States; Caeleb Dressel, swimming, United States; Eliud Kipchoge, marathon, Kenya; Kawhi Leonard, basketball, United States; Noah Lyles, track and field, United States; Lionel Messi, football (soccer), Argentina; Rafael Nadal, tennis, Spain; Ryan O’Reilly, hockey, Canada; Stephen Strasburg, baseball, United States; and Tiger Woods, golf, United States.
Nominees for Female Athlete of the Year include: Ashleigh Barty, tennis, Australia; Simone Biles, gymnastics, United States; Brittany Bowe, speed skating, United States; Elena Delle Donne, basketball, United States; Sifan Hassan, athletics, the Netherlands; Jin Young Ko, golf, South Korea; Brigid Kosgei, athletics, Kenya; Dalilah Muhammad, athletics, United States; Megan Rapinoe, football (soccer), United States; Mikaela Shiffrin, alpine skiing, United States; Kelly Sildaru, freestyle skiing, Estonia; and Regan Smith, swimming, United States.
Each month, the public is invited to participate in the Academy’s worldwide Athlete of the Month program by nominating athletes and then voting online during the first week of every month. The online votes are used to guide the Academy selection committee in choosing the male and female monthly winners, who then become eligible for selection to the prestigious Athlete of the Year ballot. A worldwide public vote on the annual ballot is used to guide the committee in making the final selection.
Monthly and annual winners are announced on the Academy’s website, social media, and in the monthly e-newsletter, The Sport Update, as well as released to sports media around the world.
The 2018 Athletes of the Year were Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu and American gymnast Simone Biles.
The Athlete of the Year Award is part of the United States Sports Academy’s Awards of Sport program, which each year serves as “A Tribute to the Artist and the Athlete.” The Academy presents the awards to pay tribute to those who have made significant contributions to sport, in categories as diverse as the artist and the athlete in several different arenas of sport.
The awards honor exemplary achievement in coaching, all-around athletic performance, courage, humanitarian activity, fitness and media, among others. The Academy’s American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) annually recognizes these men and women through its Sport Artist of the Year, Honorary Doctorates, Medallion Series, Distinguished Service Awards, Outstanding Athletes, and Alumni of the Year awards. This is the 36th year of the Academy’s Awards of Sport program.
The United States Sports Academy is an independent, non-profit, accredited, special mission sports university created to serve the nation and world with programs in instruction, research and service. The role of the Academy is to prepare men and women for careers in the profession of sports.
Founded in 1984, ASAMA is dedicated to the preservation of sports art, history, and literature. The ASAMA collection is composed of more than 1,800 works of sport art across a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, assemblages, prints and photographs. The museum is open free to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. For more information, go to www.asama.org.
The Academy is based in Daphne, Ala. For more information, call (251) 626-3303 or visit www.ussa.edu.