COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., February 2. SIX-TIME Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps (Towson, Md.\/Club Wolverine) was voted the 2004 United States Olympic Committee SportsMan of the Year Wednesday, the first time a swimmer has received the award since Pablo Morales won in 1992. <\/p>\n
Olympian Natalie Coughlin (Concord, Calif.\/Cal) and Paralympian Erin Popovich (Silverbow, Mont.\/Colorado State) tied for the runner-up spot in the SportsWoman of the Year voting. <\/p>\n
Phelps is the first American \u2013 and the only person in a non-boycotted Olympic Games \u2013 to win eight Olympic medals at a single Games. He won four individual titles (100m fly, 200m fly, 200m IM and 400m IM) at the Athens Games \u2013 matching Mark Spitz\u2019s individual total \u2013 plus the bronze medal in the 200m free and three relay medals, including gold leading off the 800m free, gold swimming in the preliminaries of the 400m medley (teammate Ian Crocker replaced him in the finals) and bronze in the 400m free. <\/p>\n
Additionally, Phelps broke the 400m IM world record, the American records in the 200m free and 800m free relay, and Olympic records six times while competing in the Athens Games. Returning to competition a mere two months after the Olympic flame was extinguished, Phelps won the gold medal in 200m free and set a new American record at the Short Course World Championships before pulling out of the meet with an injury. <\/p>\n
The first American to twice win five national titles at one championship \u2013 and to do so in three different strokes, Phelps won the 100m free, 200m free, 200m back, 100m fly and 200m IM at the U.S. Spring Nationals. His five titles brought his career total to 20, ranking him first among active American male swimmers. <\/p>\n
At the U.S. Olympic Trials, Phelps also became the first American to qualify in six individual events, winning the 200m free, 200m fly (in U.S. Open record time), 200m IM and 400m IM (lowering his own world record), and placing second in the 200m back and 100m fly, two events in which world record times were needed to beat him. <\/p>\n
Named "World Swimmer of the Year" by Swimming World Magazine<\/i> for the second year in a row, Phelps ranked first in the world in the 200m fly, 200m IM and 400m IM, and placed in the top-three for three other events.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am extremely honored to win this award,\u201d Phelps said. \u201cYou look at all of the great athletes who could have won, and I\u2019m definitely in a line of some of the greatest athletes in the world. Being able to have an opportunity to win this award is an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
The fourth swimmer selected for the annual award, Phelps joins John Naber (1976), Matt Biondi (1986, 1988) and Pablo Morales (1992) as USOC SportsMan of the Year recipients. <\/p>\n
Gymnast Carly Patterson and the U.S. Olympic Softball Team were voted the 2004 USOC SportsWoman and Team of the Year, respectively. <\/p>\n
The USOC SportsMan and SportsWoman of the Year awards have been presented annually since 1974 to the top overall male and female athlete from within the USOC member organizations. The team award was added in 1996. Winners are selected from the individual female and male Athlete of the Year and Team of the Year nominations of the National Governing Bodies for the Olympic, Pan American and Affiliated Organizations within the U.S. Olympic Movement.<\/p>\n
USOC SportsMan of the Year Honorees: 1974 – 2004<\/b><\/p>\n
1974 \u2013 Jim Bolding, Athletics <\/p>\n
1975 \u2013 Clinton Jackson, Boxing<\/p>\n
1976 \u2013 John Naber, Swimming<\/p>\n
1977 \u2013 Eric Heiden, Speedskating<\/p>\n
1978 \u2013 Bruce Davidson, Equestrian<\/p>\n
1979 \u2013 Eric Heiden, Speedskating<\/p>\n
1980 \u2013 Eric Heiden, Speedskating<\/p>\n
1981 \u2013 Scott Hamilton, Figure Skating<\/p>\n
1982 \u2013 Greg Louganis, Diving<\/p>\n
1983 \u2013 Rick McKinney, Archery<\/p>\n
1984 \u2013 Edwin Moses, Athletics<\/p>\n
1985 \u2013 Willie Banks, Athletics<\/p>\n
1986 \u2013 Matt Biondi, Swimming<\/p>\n
1987 \u2013 Greg Louganis, Diving<\/p>\n
1988 \u2013 Matt Biondi, Swimming<\/p>\n
1989 \u2013 Roger Kingdom, Athletics<\/p>\n
1990 \u2013 John Smith, Wrestling<\/p>\n
1991 \u2013 Carl Lewis, Athletics<\/p>\n
1992 \u2013 Pablo Morales, Swimming<\/p>\n
1993 \u2013 Michael Johnson, Athletics<\/p>\n
1994 \u2013 Dan Jansen, Speedskating<\/p>\n
1995 \u2013 Michael Johnson, Athletics<\/p>\n
1996 \u2013 Michael Johnson Athletics<\/p>\n
1997 \u2013 Pete Sampras, Tennis<\/p>\n
1998 \u2013 Jonny Moseley, Skiing<\/p>\n
1999 \u2013 Lance Armstrong, Cycling<\/p>\n
2000 \u2013 Rulon Gardner, Wrestling<\/p>\n
2001 \u2013 Lance Armstrong, Cycling<\/p>\n
2002 \u2013 Lance Armstrong, Cycling<\/p>\n
2003 \u2013 Lance Armstrong, Cycling<\/p>\n
2004 \u2013 Michael Phelps, Swimming<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., February 2. SIX-TIME Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps (Towson, Md.\/Club Wolverine) was voted the 2004 United States Olympic Committee SportsMan of the Year Wednesday, the first time<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72780,"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":[7,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n