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.