Georgia’s Kim Black Is Named 2001 “NCAA Woman of the Year”

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., Oct. 22. KIM Black, a former Georgia swimmer and gold medalist at the 2000 Olympic Games, has been named the 2001 NCAA Woman of the Year.

The award was announced by the NCAA on Sunday night at an awards dinner at the Indiana Roof Ballroom in Indianapolis. The award honors outstanding female
students-athletes who have excelled in academics, athletics and community leadership and was presented by Rawlings.

There is no compaarble award for men.

This is the 11th year the NCAA has named a Woman of the Year, and Black marks the third Lady Bulldog swimmer to receive such distinction. Georgia is the only school to have more than one winner, and all three Lady Bulldog honorees have been a product of the swimming and diving program under head coach Jack Bauerle, all three coming in the last five years.

Georgia became the first institution to have multiple award winners when former Lady Bulldog and 2000 Olympic silver medalist Kristy Kowal captured the NCAA
Woman of the Year honor in 2000. Kowal became the second Lady Bulldog to earn the recognition after the late Lisa Ann Coole was honored as the NCAA Woman of the Year in 1997.

A native of Liverpool, N.Y., Black helped the Lady Bulldogs to their third straight NCAA championship and fifth consecutive SEC title this year. She was a member of the winning 800-yard freestyle relay team at the 2001 NCAAs and SECs, and she set season-bests in three events at SECs. Black was a member of the World University Games team after an eighth-place finish in
the 200-meter freestyle at World Trials. She won a gold medal as a member the U.S. 800-meter freestyle relay team at the World University Games in Beijing, China. That is the same event in which she earned a gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Games.

Black, who is the daughter of James and Nancy Black, is a two-time member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll and a Presidential Scholar at Georgia. During her freshman year at Ohio State University, Black was an OSU Scholar-Athlete and a member of the Dean's List.

Black has been active in many community service and campus activities, such as Athens-Clarke County Mentor Program, Athens Regional Medical Center and has spoken to numerous elementary schools about setting goals and her experiences at the 2000 Olympic Games. She was honored with the inaugural Community Service Award by the UGA Athletic Association this year. She also has been a member of the Alpha Lamda Delta, Phi Eta Sigma and Alpha Epsilon Delta honor societies. She was a State of Georgia finalist for a Rhodes Scholarship and a 2000-01 Ramsey Scholar as one of the top 10 Georgia
athletes by grade-point average. Black plans on serving a term in the Peace Corps beginning January of 2002 and later attending medical school.

Earlier this year, Black was honored as the Verizon Academic All-America Fall/Winter Women's At-Large Team Member of the Year as announced by Verizon and the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). She was recognized by the Boy Scouts of America (Atlanta division) by receiving the Peach of an Athlete Award, as well as being the female recipient of the 2000-2001 H. Boyd McWhorter Southeastern Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award. She has been honored by the NCAA on two occasions this year, becoming the first Georgia swimmer to receive the Walter Byers Post-Graduate
Scholarship and later with the NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarship.

Black was chosen from more than 350 nominations. A selection committee composed of representatives from member schools chose the 51 state winners, including a winner from the District of Columbia, and then narrowed the field to 10 national finalists. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics selected Black from the 10 finalists. Previous winners include Georgia's
Kowal (2000), California's Jamila Demby (1999), Peggy Boutilier from Virginia (1998) and the late Lisa Ann Coole from Georgia (1997).

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