COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – The United States Olympic Committee has honored USA Swimming with the female and male Athlete of the Month awards and the Team of the Month award for March. This marks the first time that one sport has dominated the results. Swimmers Kristy Kowal (Athens, Ga.) and Neil Walker (Austin, Texas) won the female and male Athlete of the Month awards, respectively. The U.S. Men's 800-meter freestyle relay team captured the Team of the Month award.<\/p>\n
Kowal led the University of Georgia to its second straight national title
\nat the NCAA Division I Swimming Championships in Indianapolis, Ind., March
\n16-18. She won four events including the 400m medley relay, 200m
\nindividual medley, 100m and 200m breaststroke. She set a world-record time
\nin the 400m medley relay and American records in the 100m and 200m
\nbreaststroke. Kowal, who scored 34 points in the Athlete of the Month
\nvoting, also earned the NCAA Swimmer of the Year award.<\/p>\n
Closely following in the voting was tennis star Lindsay Davenport (White
\nPlains, N.Y.) who was one point shy of first place in this month's voting
\nwith a total score of 33. Davenport defeated Martina Hingis 4-6, 6-4, 6-0
\nto win the Tennis Masters Series in Indian Wells, Calif., March 19. It was
\nDavenport's second singles title in four finals this year – the 28th of her
\ncareer – and her fifth consecutive victory against Hingis. Finishing third
\nin the monthly voting was Cheryl Haworth (Savannah, Ga.) with 28 points.
\nHaworth, 16, dominated the U.S. women's weightlifting circuit breaking six
\nAmerican records (three senior and three junior). She was the only lifter
\nfrom the USA Weightlifting Championships to break records in all three
\ndivisions, including the snatch record (120.0kg) and clean and jerk record
\n(145.0kg) for a total of 265.0 kg.<\/p>\n
Walker won seven medals at the FINA Short Course World Championships,
\nbecoming the third swimmer in history to win seven medals at a major
\ninternational competition. En route to his five gold medals (50m and 100m
\nbackstroke, 100m individual medley, 800m freestyle relay, 400m medley
\nrelay) and two silver medals (50m butterfly, 400m freestyle), Walker broke
\nfive world records, nine World Championship meet records, and 10 national
\nrecords. Walker, who scored 70 points in the Athlete of the Month Voting,
\nwas also honored with the FINA Trophy as the meet's outstanding performer.<\/p>\n
Scoring 33 points, Daron Rahlves (Truckee, Calif.) finished second in the
\nAthlete of the Month voting after securing back-to-back World Cup wins in
\nNorway. Rahlves captured the downhill gold on March 3 for his career-first
\nWorld Cup win. On March 4 he competed in the downhill again, becoming the
\nfirst American man to have back-to-back World Cup wins since Bill Johnson
\nin 1984. He also won the Super G at the U.S. Championships in Jackson Hole,
\nWyo. Speedskater Daniel Weinstein (Brookline, Mass.) finished third in the
\nvoting after earning three medals at the World Short Track Championships in
\nSheffield, Great Britain. Weinstein, who missed most of the international
\nseason to concentrate on his studies at Harvard, broke the American record
\nin the 500m, winning the silver medal with a time of 42.058 seconds. He
\nalso earned bronze medals in the 1,000- and 3,000m competitions.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Men's 800m Freestyle Swimming Relay Team consisting of Josh Davis
\n(San Antonio, Texas), Scott Tucker (Largo, Fla.), Chad Carvin (Laguna,
\nCalif.) and Walker (Austin, Texas), broke the Australian-set world record
\nand 22-year-old American record at the FINA Short Course World
\nChampionships. The team, who scored 74 points in the Team of the Month
\nvoting, went 7:01.33, breaking the Aussies' previous record from 1999 of
\n7:01.60, and shattering the U.S record from 1978 by a staggering 13 seconds.<\/p>\n
The Stanford University Indoor Track Team finished second scoring 31 points
\nin the Team of the Month voting. The team captured the men's distance
\nmedley relay with a winning time of 9:28.33 at the NCAA Division I Indoor
\nChampionships. Team Stanford set an American record and world best time
\nwith its win. Jared Palmer (Palo Alto, Calif.) and Alex O'Brien (Amarillo,
\nTexas) finished third in the voting with 16 points. Palmer and O'Brien won
\nthe doubles title at the Tennis Masters Series in Indian Wells, Calif. The
\nduo, the No. 1- and No. 2- ranked doubles players in the world,
\nrespectively, defeated their competition 6-4, 7-6 in the final. They will
\nrepresent the U.S. in the Davis Cup quarterfinal against the Czech
\nRepublic, and are considered favorites for the 2000 Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
RESULTS (First-place votes in parentheses)
\nMen
\n1. Neil Walker, Swimming 70 (13)
\n2. Daron Rahlves, Skiing 33 (3)
\n3. Daniel Weinstein, Speedskating 17
\n4. Jack Huczek, Racquetball 7
\n5T. Chris Horner, Cycling 6 (1)
\n5T. Corey Wilkes, Weightlifting 6<\/p>\n
Women
\n1. Kristy Kowal, Swimming 34 (4)
\n2. Lindsay Davenport, Tennis 33 (6)
\n3. Cheryl Haworth, Weightlifting 28 (3)
\n4. Stacy Dragila, Track & Field 23 (2)
\n5T. Kristina Koznick, Skiing 8 (1)
\n5T. Karen Scavotto, Archery 8<\/p>\n
Team
\n1. U.S. Men's 800m Freestyle Team, Swimming
\n2. Stanford University Indoor Team, Track & Field 31 (1)
\n3. Jared Palmer and Alex O'Brien, Tennis Doubles 16 (1)
\n4. North Salem High School Team, Racquetball 12
\n5. Laura Delaney Team, Curling 5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – The United States Olympic Committee has honored USA Swimming with the female and male Athlete of the Month awards and the Team of the Month award<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[5727,5737,1349,5742,707,101,452,2668,176,80,5722,5730,129,5733,3469,5729,5744,32,248,549,31,294,5728,5725,364,5735,5736,5724,488,5739,5734,5723,5731,66,1787,507,519,4308,1273,1726,369,508,599,5732,190,87,293,769,366,50,5741,350,290,5666,5740,165,62,196,246,5726,5743,5738,474,276],"class_list":["post-1381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zzzzzzzzz","tag-alex-obrien","tag-alto","tag-antonio","tag-archery","tag-athens","tag-athlete","tag-austin","tag-bill-johnson","tag-california","tag-chad-carvin","tag-cheryl-haworth","tag-chris-horner","tag-colorado","tag-corey-wilkes","tag-czech-republic","tag-daniel-weinstein","tag-female-and-male-athlete","tag-florida","tag-georgia","tag-harvard","tag-indiana","tag-indianapolis","tag-jack-huczek","tag-jared-palmer","tag-josh-davis","tag-karen-scavotto","tag-kowal-win-athlete","tag-kristina-koznick","tag-kristy-kowal","tag-laguna","tag-laura-delaney-team","tag-lindsay-davenport","tag-martina-hingis","tag-massachusetts","tag-ncaa-swimmer","tag-neil-walker","tag-new-york","tag-norway","tag-palo-alto","tag-plains","tag-san-antonio","tag-scott-tucker","tag-sheffield","tag-stacy-dragila","tag-stanford-university","tag-swimmer","tag-swimming-championships","tag-tennis","tag-texas","tag-the-2000-olympic-games","tag-the-davis-cup","tag-the-ncaa","tag-the-ncaa-division-i","tag-the-u-s-championships","tag-the-usa-weightlifting-championships","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-olympic-committee","tag-university-of-georgia","tag-walker-win-athlete","tag-weightlifting","tag-wells","tag-world-championship","tag-world-cup"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n