Katie Ledecky (L), Ashton Eaton (R) and the U.S. Parapan American Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team (C) earned Best of August honors for the Team USA Awards presented by Dow.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Outstanding performances during the month of August earned swimmer Katie Ledecky, decathlete Ashton Eaton, and the U.S. Parapan American Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team Best of August honors for the Team USA Awards presented by Dow, the United States Olympic Committee announced today.
Katie Ledecky (Bethesda, Md.) earned five gold medals at the 2015 FINA World Championships, held August 5-16 in Kazan, Russia, and in doing so became the first swimmer in history to win the 200-, 400-, 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle races in a major competition. Ledecky also anchored the women’s 800 freestyle relay team to the gold medal and broke her own world records in both the 800 and 1,500. For her efforts in Kazan, Ledecky was honored as FINA’s Female Swimmer of the Meet.
Ashton Eaton (Eugene, Ore.) broke his own world record in the men’s decathlon to win the gold medal at the 2015 IAAF World Championships, held August 22-30 in Beijing. Scoring 9,045 points, Eaton defeated the field by more than 300 points. He also set a world decathlon best of 45.00 in the 400-meter, breaking a record that had stood for more than 40 years.
The U.S. women’s wheelchair basketball team punched its ticket to Rio and earned the gold medal at the 2015 Parapan American Games, held August 7-15 in Toronto. With an average margin of victory of 55 points per game, Team USA retired squads from Peru, Argentina, El Salvador and Brazil en route to the final against Canada. In the gold-medal match, the U.S. defeated the defending world champions, 80-72, led by a 37-point effort from Rose Hollermann to claim the title and earn a bid for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
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 and select members of the media account for 50 percent of the final tally, with the other half determined by online fan voting via TeamUSA.org/Awards.
In addition to Dow, the presenting sponsor, the Team USA Awards are supported by DICK’S Sporting Goods, Kellogg’s, Samsung and USG.
