Gator Swimmers Take Home USA Swimming Annual Awards, Head Coach Gregg Troy Named ASCA COY
Monday, September 19, 2011 | Women's Swimming & Diving
USA Swimming held its annual awards banquet this past weekend in Jacksonville, Fla. Three members of the Gator family found their names called at the prestigious event in head coach Gregg Troy, two-time Olympian Ryan Lochte and U.S. National Team Member Teresa Crippen.
After a summer in which he won five gold medals at the 2011 FINA World Championships, and became the first swimmer to break a world record since the ban of polyurethane suits, Ryan Lochte was named the USA Swimming Athlete of the Year. The award, the individual swimmer is voted on by the USA Swimming House of Delegates, and is given to the individual with the most outstanding year of swimming performances.
Lochte also took home the ConocoPhillips Performance of the Year Award for his gold-medal winning, world-record breaking 1:54.00 performance in the 200 IM at the 2011 FINA World Championships in Shanghai, China this past summer. The ConocoPhillips Performance Award is voted on by media members covering swimming, and given to the individual with the best performance in the event for the year.
Current Gator and 2012 U.S. Men's Olympic head coach Gregg Troy received the ASCA Coach of the Year award for the second consecutive year. He is only the second UF swim coach to be awarded the honor (Randy Reese, 1979 and 1984), and first to receive it in back-to-back years.
Since 1961, the ASCA Coach of the Year Award is given annually to the individual whose coaching effectiveness has contributed the most towards American Swimming Excellence at the World Level. The Award recipient is elected by the ASCA Board of Directors. Nominees are submitted by a three person committee appointed by the ASCA President at the previous year's World Clinic Board Meeting and chaired by the ASCA Vice-President. Nominees shall be ASCA Members at the time of the presentation of the Award.
Teresa Crippen, alongside the other members of her family, took home the Athletes' Appreciation Award, which recognizes an individual or organization perceived by the committee to have contributed most significantly to the Athletes' Movement. The Crippen family was instrumental with their efforts in increasing National Team Athlete support through the Athlete Partnership Agreement, following the death of brother and son, Fran Crippen, at a race in Dubai last October.
Tyler Storie, chair of the Athletes' Executive Committee, explained that the Crippen's “ongoing push for Open Water Safety and contributions to the athletes of USA Swimming are invaluable.”
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