NEW YORK - Two runners are among six finalists for the AAU Sullivan
Award. An inspiring athlete, Team USA member, mother and
ultramarathoner, Amy Palmiero-Winters of Hicksville, N.Y., on Monday was
named a finalist, as well as multi-time NCAA champion and Honda Award
winner Angela Bizzarri of the University of Illinois.
Other
finalists for the prestigious honor include University of South Florida
soccer player Zach Boggs, luger Erin Hamlin, Penn State volleyball
player Megan Hodge and West Point baseball player Clint Moore.
The
winner of the AAU Sullivan Award will be announced April 14 at the New
York Athletic Club. The Award annually honors the outstanding amateur
athlete in the USA. Presented since 1930, the Sullivan also is based on
leadership, character, sportsmanship and the ideals of amateurism. Track
and field athletes have won the Sullivan Award more than athletes from
any other sport. Past winners include National Track & Field Hall of
Famers Carl Lewis, Bruce Jenner, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Joan Benoit
Samuelson, Mary Decker, Michael Johnson, Florence Griffith-Joyner, Rafer
Johnson, Frank Shorter and Edwin Moses.
The first amputee ever
named to a USA national team, Palmiero-Winters’ year was culminated and
highlighted by the “Race to the Future” on New Year’s Eve, in which she
beat all able-bodied male and female finishers. Covering 130.04 miles in
the 24-hour race, her performance qualified her for the Team USA roster
at the 2010 International Association of Ultrarunners’ 24-hour Run
World Championship, to be held in Brive, France on May 13-14, 2010.
Competing
in no fewer than 10 ultra-distance races in 2009, Winters also won the
women’s division at the Heartland 100 Mile in October, earning USATF
Athlete of the Week honors. She became the first amputee to qualify for
Western States 100 mile ultra marathon and was the first amputee to run
the Mount Washington Race.
Palmiero-Winters is a single mother of
two who works as a youth fitness director, coach and motivational
speaker. She is particularly devoted to working with children who are
recovering from amputations. After a 1997 motorcycle accident and 27
surgeries, Palmiero-Winters had her left leg amputated below the knee.
She has subsequently become a single-leg below-the-knee amputee world
record holder in over a dozen events, including the marathon and Ironman
distance triathlon.
Named the National Cross Country Athlete of
the Year by the USTFCCCA, Bizzarri was a surprise winner at the 2009
NCAA Cross Country Championships in Terre Haute, Indiana. The University
of Illinois standout won the national crown in 19 minutes, 46 seconds
and took the Honda Award for cross country as well as the Dick Eddelman
Award as the University of Illinois’ Female Athlete of the Year. Earlier
in the year, Bizzarri won the 5,000m at the 2009 NCAA Outdoor Track
& Field Championships, besting the field by almost 10 seconds with
her winning time of 16:17.94. She went on to finish third at the USA
Outdoor Championships in 15:33.02.
Press Release by USA Track and Field.
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