Tatyana McFadden (L), Auston Matthews (R) and the U.S. Women's National Ice Hockey Team (C) earn Best of April honors for the Team USA Awards, presented by Dow.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Exceptional performances during the month of April earned Paralympic track and field athlete Tatyana McFadden (Clarksville, Maryland), ice hockey player Auston Matthews (Scottsdale, Arizona) and the U.S. Women’s National Ice Hockey Team the Best of April honors for the Team USA Awards presented by Dow, the United States Olympic Committee announced today.
McFadden won the women’s wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon for the third consecutive year with a time of 1:52:54 on April 20. One week later, she earned her second three-peat of the month by winning the women’s wheelchair division of the London Marathon/IPC Athletics Marathon World Championships with a time of 1:41:14, marking her 10th-straight marathon victory.
Matthews led the U.S. to the gold medal at the 2015 IIHF Under-18 Men’s World Championships, held April 16-26 in Lucerne and Zug, Switzerland. Serving as an alternate captain, Matthews led the tournament in points (15), tied for the event-high in goals (8), finished tied for second in plus/minus (+11) and tied for fourth in assists (7). For his performance, he earned the Directorate Award as the tournament’s best forward and was selected to the media all-star team.
The U.S. women claimed their second consecutive IIHF Women’s World Championship title with a 7-5 victory over Canada on April 4 in Malmo, Sweden. Team USA went undefeated in the tournament and outscored their opponents, 30-6. Leading up to the gold-medal game, the U.S. defeated Canada, 4-2, Finland, 4-1, and Russia twice, 9-2 and 13-1. The win marked Team USA’s fifth title in six years.
Each National Governing Body may nominate one female, one male and one team per discipline. An internal nominating committee selects five nominees from both the male and female categories, and three from the team category to advance to the voting round. Votes received from NGB representatives account for 50 percent of the final tally, with the other half determined by online fan voting via TeamUSA.org.
In addition to Dow, the presenting sponsor, the Team USA Awards are supported by DICK’S Sporting Goods, Kellogg’s, Samsung and USG.
