Each month, the United States Olympic Committee celebrates the outstanding achievements of Team USA athletes through the Team USA Awards presented by Dow. The USOC announced today the five nominees in the female and male categories, and three nominees in the team category. Check out the list below to vote for your favorite performances from the month of October.
To cast your vote for the Best of October honors for Team USA Awards presented by Dow, visit TeamUSA.org/Awards. Voting ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on Monday, Nov. 7.
Summer Cook (triathlon)
Summer Cook earned two ITU World Cup podium finishes in October, highlighted by a winning performance in Tongyeong, South Korea. The first-place finish marked the second world cup win for Cook, who completed the sprint course with a time of 59:43. She then led a 2-3 U.S. finish at the final ITU World Cup stop of the 2016 season in Miyazaki, Japan, taking silver in 2:01:24. Click here to vote for Cook.
Tatyana McFadden (Paralympic track and field)
Less than one month after a U.S.-leading six-medal performance at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Tatyana McFadden defended her Chicago Marathon title in her quest for an unprecedented fourth consecutive wheelchair marathon Grand Slam. McFadden defeated Switzerland’s Manuela Schär by one second at the line in 1:42:28, taking home her sixth straight victory, and seventh win in Chicago, to make her the most decorated champion in event history. Click here to vote for McFadden.
Amber Neben (cycling)
Amber Neben won the women’s time trial at the 2016 UCI Road World Championships in Doha, Qatar. The oldest racer in the field at the age of 41, Neben won her second world title eight years after her first, posting a time of 36:37.04 for a 5.99-second margin of victory over the field. She became the second-oldest world champion in the event, behind France’s Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli who won at age 42 in 2001. Click here to vote for Neben.
Kim Rhode (shooting)
Kim Rhode won gold in women’s skeet at the ISSF World Cup Final on Oct. 12 in Rome. She sealed the victory with a perfect score of 16 hits in the gold-medal match, leaving behind two Olympic champions. The win marked Rhode’s first ISSF World Cup Final gold medal since 2011.Click here to vote for Rhode.
Ashley Wagner (figure skating)
Ashley Wagner claimed the women’s gold medal at Skate America. Determined to maintain her lead following the short program, she executed a near flawless free skate to secure the victory with an overall score of 196.44, ahead of teammate Mariah Bell (191.59) and Japan’s Mai Mihara (189.28). The event marked Wagner’s first major competition since her historic silver-medal-winning performance at the 2016 ISU World Figure Skating Championships. Click here to vote for Wagner.
Male:
Greg Billington (triathlon)
Greg Billington collected his first career world cup medal, taking bronze at the final ITU World Cup of the 2016 season in Miyazaki, Japan. He completed the course in 1:52:31. Click here to vote for Billington.
Jason Brown (figure skating)
Jason Brown landed his first quadruple jump in competition to take silver at Skate America. His quad toeloop helped boost him up from third place after the short program as he finished with a total score of 268.38, behind Shoma Uno of Japan (279.34) and ahead of teammate Adam Rippon (261.43). Click here to vote for Brown.
Race Imboden (fencing)
Race Imboden won gold at the first men’s foil world cup of the season on Oct. 22 in Cairo, Egypt. The win is the fifth senior world cup title of his career – a record for any U.S. men’s fencer – and propelled him up five spots in the world rankings to No. 7. He dominated throughout, defeating two-time Olympic Champion Andrea Cassara of Italy in the semifinals, 15-8, before winning the final bout by a 15-7 decision. Click here to vote for Imboden.
Michael McPhail (shooting)
Michael McPhail won gold in men’s prone rifle at the ISSF World Cup Final on Oct. 6 in Bologna, Italy. He defended his title with a final score of 209.1, topping Denmark’s Torben Grimmel, who dominated this year’s world cup series by winning three of the four stages. Click here to vote for McPhail.
Corben Sharrah (cycling)
Corben Sharrah won the final two world cup stops to claim first place in the overall world cup standings with 855 points – more than 250 points over the field. He is the first American to win the overall world cup standings since 2016 Olympic champion Connor Fields did so in 2013. Click here to vote for Sharrah.
Team:
U.S. Men's Foil Fencing Team
The U.S. Men’s Foil Team retained its No. 1 world ranking with a silver medal at the Cairo World Cup on Oct. 23. The U.S. team – comprised of Race Imboden (Brooklyn, N.Y.), Miles Chamley-Watson (New York City, N.Y.), Jerry Chang (Mountain View, Calif.) and Brian Kaneshige (Maplewood, N.J.) – won two of its three bouts and narrowly missed gold by two touches to France, the 2016 Olympic silver medalists. The silver medal marks the fourth straight podium finish for the Americans on the circuit. Click here to vote for the U.S. Men's Foil Fencing Team.
Matt Mortensen and Jayson Terdiman (luge)
Competing in only their third season together, Matt Mortensen (Huntington Station, New York) and Jayson Terdiman (Berwick, Pennsylvania) won the Lillehammer Cup on Oct. 9 to conclude a one-week training camp on the 1994 Olympic track. Upon returning home and training for two more weeks, USA Luge’s top doubles team captured its third straight Norton National Championship on Oct. 29 in Lake Placid, New York. Click here to vote for Mortensen and Terdiman.
Maia and Alex Shibutani (figure skating)
Maia Shibutani (Ann Arbor, Michigan) and Alex Shibutani (Ann Arbor, Michigan) claimed their first Skate America title, winning the ice dance gold medal handily with a 10-point margin of victory. Their winning overall score of 185.95 topped Americans Madison Hubbell and Zachary Donohue (175.77), and Russians Ekaterina Bobrova and Dmitri Soloviev (174.77). Click here to vote for the Shibutanis.
In addition to Dow, the presenting sponsor, the Team USA Awards are supported by Coca-Cola, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Kellogg’s, Samsung and USG.
