U.S. Ski & Snowboard Wins Big at Team USA Awards
WASHINGTON (April 26, 2018) – U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes, coaches, and staff brought home four awards from the Team USA Awards, Best of the Games, recognizing Team USA’s outstanding performances and awe-inspiring achievements from the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.
Shaun White (Carlsbad, Calif.) was named Male Olympic Athlete of the Games, Chloe Kim (Torrance, Calif.) was named Female Olympic Athlete of the Games, U.S. Cross Country Ski Team coach Jason Cork was named Olympic Coach of the Games, and U.S. Ski & Snowboard Vice President, Communications Tom Kelly received the Building Dreams Award.
With an impressive 97.75-point final run to claim gold, White became the first snowboarder to win three Olympic gold medals and is the first American man to win gold medals at three Olympic Winter Games. He now owns the second-most gold medals among U.S. men in Olympic Winter Games history.
In her first Olympics, Kim nailed a 98.25-point on her victory lap run in halfpipe, that included two back-to-back 1080s, after posting a 93.75 on her first run to secure the gold medal. She is the youngest woman from any nation to win a gold medal in snowboarding.
As a coach for the U.S. Cross Country Ski Team, and the personal coach of two-time Olympian Jessie Diggins, Cork was instrumental in leading Team USA to its first-ever Olympic medal in women’s cross country skiing, and the first U.S. gold medal in the sport. In addition to the historic gold medal in the team sprint, Cork also guided Diggins to three individual top-five finishes – the best-ever for an American woman in Olympic cross-country skiing (prior to the gold medal).
In a career that has spanned 32 years and nine Olympic Winter Games, Kelly has dedicated his life’s work to telling the incredible stories of Team USA athletes and highlighting the historic milestones that have made U.S. Ski & Snowboard a perennial power on the world’s biggest stage. In a pioneering move that reimagined media coverage at the Olympic Games, Kelly was the mastermind behind the USOC’s Managing Victory tour, which is designed to help Olympic medalists capitalize on their success and promote their sport in the immediate aftermath of their podium performance. Now a cornerstone of both summer and winter versions of the Games, Team USA celebrated the sixth installment of the program at the PyeongChang Olympics, which also marked the final Games for Kelly in his current role with U.S. Ski & Snowboard.
Other Team USA, Best of the Games winners include:
- Olympic Team of the Games – U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team
- Female Paralympic Athlete of the Games – Oksana Masters, Nordic skiing
- Male Paralympic Athlete of the Games – Dan Cnossen, Nordic skiing
- Paralympic Team of the Games – U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team
- Paralympic Coach of the Games – Gary Colliander, Nordic skiing
- Jesse Owens Olympic Spirit Award – Kristi Yamaguchi, 1992 Olympic gold medalist, figure skating
The six athlete and team award winners were determined by online fan voting at TeamUSA.org/Awards, where nearly 600,000 fan votes determined 50 percent of the final tally. Members of the Olympic and Paralympic family – including an esteemed panel of Olympic and Paralympic journalists – accounted for the other 50 percent. For coaching awards, National Governing Bodies selected their nominees and the winners were determined via selection committee.
The awards were presented during a live recording of the Team USA Awards, Best of the Games ceremony, held on April 26 at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C. The awards show will be televised as a 90-minute feature for the first time ever and will air May 12 from 6-7:30 p.m. EDT on NBCSN.
