This Evening at the USA Swimming House of Delegates meeting in Rosemont, Illinois the recipient of the 27th Athletes Appreciation Award was announced. This award was created in 1983 to recognize the individual or organization perceived by the Athletes Committee to have contributed most significantly to the Athletes' Movement.
Janet Evans is no stranger to the world of swimming. She is recognized as the best female distance swimmer of all time and her career highlights support this claim. 3-Time Olympian, 4-Time Olympic Gold Medalist, 17 International Titles, 45 National Titles, and she held the World Record in all 3 distance events from March 1988 - May of 2006.
Although impressive, its not her accomplishments in the pool that earned her this award. In 1978 the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act insured that the athlete voice would be heard in the U.S., but the rest of the world was lacking in athlete involvement. As a member of the inaugural FINA Athletes Commission in 1991 she worked with swimmers such as Alexander Popov of Russia and Daniel Kowolski of Austrailia to give the athlete’s perspective a voice. She served as the Chair of the Commission from 2000-2009 when her term ended. Most recently, she provided outspoken leadership on the negative impact of “tech suits” in our sport, but most importantly she opened the door for international athlete representation and US athlete representation internationally.
On behalf of the entire Athletes Committee, I thank Janet for all the work she has done in the swimming community.
No comments:
Post a Comment