COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee today announced finalists for the Team USA Awards presented by Dow, Best of November, which recognize the outstanding achievements of Team USA athletes from last month. Fans are invited to vote for their favorite athletes and teams at TeamUSA.org/Awards through midnight Monday, Dec. 9.
Nine sports – including alpine skiing, climbing, curling, cycling, fencing, figure skating, long track speedskating, Para track and field and sitting volleyball – are represented among the 13 finalists across men’s, women’s and team categories. The finalists’ collective accomplishments tell the inspiring story of U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes year-round.
Female:
Brittany Bowe, Long Track Speedskating
Took home two medals, gold in the 1,000-meter—setting a track record—and bronze in the 1,500-meter, at the world cup season opener in Minsk, Belarus. Click here to vote for Bowe.
Hannah Roberts, Cycling
Became the first woman to ever land a 360-tailwhip in competition, thereby scoring a total of 90 points – 4 points ahead of the second-place finisher – to clinch the world title, ending a perfect season in which she won every world cup in 2019 and secured the overall world cup series title. Click here to vote for Roberts.
Mikaela Shiffrin, Alpine Skiing
Earned her 41st slalom skiing world cup victory at the season opener to break a 33-year-old record held by Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark for the most world cup wins in the event and became the first skier to win four world cup races in Levi, Finland, breaking a tie with German Maria Höfl-Riesch and Austrian Marcel Hirscher. Click here for Shiffrin.
Jennifer Valente, Cycling
Claimed gold in omnium at the season-opening world cup, beating Italy’s second-place finisher by a margin of 24 points. Click here to vote for Valente.
Deja Young, Para Track & Field
Won three medals – two golds and one silver – at the world championships, protecting her world title in the women’s 200-meter T47 with a new world championship time of 24.47 seconds, winning gold in the 4x100-meter universal relay alongside teammates Noah Malone (Fishers, Indiana), Jaleen Roberts (Kent, Washington) and Erik Hightower (Glendale, Arizona), and claiming silver in the 100-meter T47. Click here to vote for Young.
Male:
Nick Bruce, Cycling
Took home a bronze medal at the world championships by landing his famous 720-downside tailwhip as well as a 540-flair and earning a total score of 90.40. Click here to vote for Bruce.
Nathan Chen, Figure Skating
Captured gold at the Internationaux de France with a score of 297.16 – topping the field by over 30 points after landing six total quadruple jumps between his short program and free skate – to qualify for his fourth consecutive Grand Prix Final and earn his eighth consecutive win dating back to the 2018 world championships. Click here to vote for Chen.
Nathaniel Coleman, Climbing
Secured his Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 spot after finishing eighth at the IFSC Combined Qualifier in Toulouse, France. Click here to vote for Coleman.
Joey Mantia, Long Track Speedskating
Notched gold in the mass start at the second world cup stop of the season, going from eighth to third place with two laps to go, passing two world champions and crossing the line in 7 minutes, 45.1 seconds. Click here to vote for Mantia.
Roderick Townsend, Para Track & Field
Defended his 2017 high jump world title as he claimed two medals – gold and silver – at the world championships, standing atop the podium in the men’s high jump T47 and earning silver medal in the men’s long jump T47. Click here to vote for Townsend.
Team:
Team Dropkin, Curling
The Korey Dropkin (Boston, Massachusetts) rink and his team of Joe Polo (Duluth, Minnesota), Mark Fenner (Bemidji, Minnesota) and Tom Howell (Bentleyville, Ohio) made USA Curling history by becoming the first men’s team to win a grand slam event – which features the top curling teams in the world – with a 5-4 victory over Canada’s Tanner Horgan rink. Click here to vote for the Korey Dropkin U.S. team.
U.S. Men's Foil World Cup Team, Fencing
Alexander Massialas (San Francisco, California), Gerek Meinhardt (San Francisco, California), Race Imboden (Brooklyn, New York) and Nick Itkin (Los Angeles, California) defeated superpower South Korea, 45-31, to win gold at the world cup in Bonn, Germany, and help secure the country’s spot at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Click here to vote for the U.S. men's foil world cup team.
U.S. Women's World ParaVolley Super 6 Team, Sitting Volleyball
Capped off an undefeated season by clinching the World Super 6 title, winning all seven tournament games and defeating reigning world champion Russia in three straight sets (25-12, 25-18, 25-22) to cement a No. 1 world ranking. Click here to vote for the U.S. women's world sitting volleyball team.
Selection Process
Each National Governing Body may nominate one female, one male and one team per sport discipline. An internal nominating committee selects finalists 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.
