(L-R) Tori Bowie, the U.S. Women's Recurve Team and Christian Taylor earned Best of May honors for the Team USA Awards presented by Dow.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Standout performances during May earned triple jumper Christian Taylor (Fayetteville, Georgia), sprinter Tori Bowie (Sandhill, Mississippi) and the U.S. Women’s Recurve Archery Team Best of May honors for the Team USA Awards presented by Dow, the United States Olympic Committee announced today. Bowie, Taylor and the U.S. women’s archery team are among the qualified athletes and teams that are eligible for Best of the Year honors in 2017.
Taylor won the men’s triple jump at the Nike Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, unleashing a jump of 18.11 meters to set a world-leading mark on top of setting a new meet, Hayward Field and IAAF Diamond League record with the fourth-best jump in track and field history. He is second all-time in the event behind world-record holder Jonathan Edwards and currently owns the American record in the event.
Bowie proved to the world that she is one of the best, clocking the fastest time ever recorded in the women’s 200-meter before the month of June and upsetting reigning Olympic champion Elaine Thompson of Jamaica at the Nike Prefontaine Classic. She improved her personal best by 0.22 of a second to win in 21.77, setting Diamond League, meet and Hayward Field records.
The U.S. Women’s Recurve Archery Team captured its first world cup medal in nearly two years, taking silver at the first world cup stop of the season in Shanghai. The 11th-seeded U.S. team, comprised of Mackenzie Brown (Flint, Texas), Khatuna Lorig (Denver, Colorado) and LaNola Shepherd (Lehi, Utah), defeated three top-10 teams – including India, Japan and Malaysia – en route to the gold-medal match against No. 8 Russia.
In addition to Dow, the presenting sponsor, the Team USA Awards are supported by DICK’S Sporting Goods and USG.
About the Team USA Awards
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.
Each of the five monthly men's and women's finalists, and three team finalists automatically qualify for consideration for the 2017 Team USA Awards presented by Dow Best of the Year. Visit TeamUSA.org for a complete list of monthly finalists from the 2016-17 qualification period, which runs from September 2016-August 2017. The 2017 Best of the Year Awards will be held in December.
