Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel Finalists for U.S. Sports Academy Athlete of the Year

Katie Ledecky; Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick

Katie Ledecky, Caeleb Dressel Finalists for U.S. Sports Academy Athlete of the Year

Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky are among the finalists for the U.S. Sports Academy’s 2021 Athlete of the Year ballot, announced Monday.

Voting is being conducted online and will run through Jan. 14. The swimmers are among 12 male and 12 female finalists, hailing from a total of 12 countries.

The U.S. Sports Academy holds monthly balloting for Athlete of the Month Awards, which it uses to cull the list of finalists. The Athlete of the Year aims to further the academy’s aim to, “pay tribute to those who have made significant contributions to sport, in categories as diverse as the artist and the athlete in several different arenas of sport.”

The 2020 aware recipients included swimmer Lilly King as well as male figure skater Nathan Chen.

Ledecky was named Swimming World’s American Female Swimmer of the Year for 2021 after winning two gold and two silver medals at the Tokyo Olympics. Dressel, who won five gold medals in Tokyo, was a unanimous pick for World Male Swimmer of the Year.

Men’s finalists, in addition to Dressel, are:

Canelo Alvarez, boxing, Mexico
Giannis Antetokounmpo, basketball, Greece
Tom Brady, football, United States
Ryan Crouser, athletics, United States
Novak Djokovic, tennis, Serbia
Eliud Kipchoge, marathon, Kenya
Lionel Messi, soccer, Argentina
Shohei Ohtani, baseball, Japan
Andrei Vasilevskiy, hockey, Russia
Karsten Warholm, athletics, Norway
Bryce Young, football, United States

On the women’s side, Ledecky is joined by fellow finalists:

Ashleigh Barty, tennis, Australia
Jessie Diggins, cross-country skiing, United States
Brittney Griner, basketball, United States
Peres Jepchirchir, running, Kenya
Lee Kiefer, fencing, United States
Nelly Korda, golf, United States
Sunisa Lee, gymnastics, United States
Sydney McLaughlin, athletics, United States
Athing Mu, athletics, United States
Alexia Putellas, soccer, Spain
Elaine Thompson-Herah, athletics, Jamaica

Voting is live online now. The U.S. Sports Academy is an independent, non-profit, accredited, special mission sports university. It operates the American Sports Museum and Archives (ASAMA), founded in 1984 in Daphne, Alabama, to preserve the history of sports, including art and literature.

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