Gymnasts Simone Biles and Sam Mikulak, and the U.S. Women’s Softball World Championship Team earn August accolades COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Standout performances during August earned artistic gymnasts Simone Biles (Spring, Texas) and Sam Mikulak (Newport Coast, California), and the U.S. Women’s Softball World Championship Team Best of August honors for the Team USA Awards presented by Dow, the United States Olympic Committee announced today.
Biles claimed her fifth senior women’s national all-around title at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, becoming the first woman to win five titles (2013-16, 2018) in USA Gymnastics’ history. Making her historic feat even more impressive, she claimed the title by a 6.55-point margin of victory (the largest of any of her five titles) just eight months after returning to training. She also won all four individual event titles – vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise – becoming the first woman to win the all-around and all four event titles in 24 years. At age 21, she is the oldest woman to win the all-around title since 1971 and the first gymnast in the world this quad to score a 60 or above after posting a 60.100.
On the men’s side, Mikulak claimed his fifth senior men’s all-around title at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships, held Aug. 16-18 in Boston. The two-time Olympian previously won the all-around title from 2013-16, and with his 2018 victory, became the first man to win five all-around national titles in 18 years. He also won individual event titles in floor exercise, parallel bars and horizontal bar.
The U.S. Women’s Softball World Championship Team qualified for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 with its gold-medal performance at the World Baseball Softball Confederation Women’s World Championship in Chiba, Japan. Set before a field of 16 teams, Team USA finished the tournament with a perfect 10-0 record and claimed the world title after a 7-6 walk-off win over world-ranked No. 2 Japan. The win marked Team USA’s 11th world title.
In addition to Dow, the presenting sponsor, the Team USA Awards are supported by DICK’S Sporting Goods and USG.
About the Team USA Awards
Each National Governing Body may nominate one female, one male and one team per discipline. An internal nominating committee selects five nominees from both the male and female categories, and three from the team category to advance to the voting round. Votes received from NGB representatives and select members of the media account for 50 percent of the final tally, with the other half determined by online fan voting via TeamUSA.org/Awards.