COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee today announced the finalists for the Team USA Awards presented by Dow, Best of September, 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, Oct. 7.
Eight sports – including cycling, Para-cycling, Para swimming, skateboarding, track and field, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling – 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:
Chloé Dygert Owen, Cycling
Won the individual time trial title by the largest margin ever (1:32.35) at the UCI Road World Championships, qualifying for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 and becoming the youngest winner – woman or man – in event history. Click here to vote for Dygert Owen.
Adeline Gray, Wrestling
Became the first American wrestler to earn five senior world championship gold medals, winning the 76 kg. division title at the World Wrestling Championships to improve to seven career world medals overall. Click here to vote for Gray.
Kate Nye, Weightlifting
Making her debut at the senior world championships at age 20, became the youngest U.S. women’s world weightlifting champion with a gold-medal sweep in the snatch (junior world record and Pan American record – 112 kg.), clean & jerk (136 kg.) and total (American record – 248 kg.). Click here Nye.
DeAnna Price, Track & Field
Became the first American to win a world title in the hammer throw, recording three of the four best throws on the day, including the winning toss of 77.54 meters. Click here to vote for Price.
Leanne Smith, Para swimming
Claimed four medals – including three golds and one silver – at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships, competing up a class and setting a world championship record time of 2:56.49 in the women’s 150-meter individual medley SM4. Click here to vote for Smith.
Male:
J'den Cox, Wrestling
Seeded No. 1, Cox won his second straight world title, with a gold-medal performance in the 92 kg. at the World Wrestling Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Click here to vote for Cox.
Robert Griswold, Para swimming
Took home four medals – including two golds and two silvers – at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships, highlighted by Pan American records in the 200-meter individual medley SM8 (2:22.72) and the 400 freestyle S8 (4:32.77). Click here to vote for Griswold.
Aaron Keith, Para-cycling
Won two medals at the 2019 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships, including gold in the men’s C1 time trial and bronze in the men’s C1 road race. Click here to vote for Keith.
Heimana Reynolds, Skateboarding
Won the men’ park skateboarding world championship title in Sao Paulo, Brazil, recording a score of 88.00 points in his final run. Click here to vote for Reynolds.
Christian Taylor, Track & Field
Captured his fourth world title – and third consecutive – in the men’s triple jump with a score of 17.92 meters at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. His win marked the 100th world title by an American man in track and field history dating back to 1983. Click here to vote for Taylor.
Team:
U.S. Men's Handcycle Relay, Para-cycling
The trio of Will Groulx (Portland, Oregon), Brandon Lyons (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania) and Tom Davis (Fremont, Indiana) secured the relay silver medal at the 2019 UCI Para-cycling Road World Championships. Click here to vote for the U.S. men's handcycle relay team.
U.S. Mixed 4x400-meter Team, Track & Field
Competing in the inaugural mixed gender 4x400-meter at the World Athletics Championships, the U.S. relay team of Michael Cherry (Chesapeake, Virginia), Allyson Felix (Los Angeles, California), Wil London (Waco, Texas) and Courtney Okolo (Carrollton, Texas) set a winning world-record pace of 3:09.34 ahead of the event’s Olympic debut in 2020. With the win, Felix became the winningest athlete, woman or man, in world championship history. Click here to vote for the mixed 4x400-meter relay team.
U.S. Women's World Cup Team, Volleyball
Captured the silver medal at the FIVB World Cup with a 10-1 record, defeating top-ranked Serbia, No. 4 Brazil and No. 5 Russia to become the only country to earn a medal in each of the last five world cup events preceding the Olympic Games. Click here to vote for the U.S. women's world cup team.
