© John Cheng

INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 2, 2011 – 2011 World and U.S. all-around champion Jordyn Wieber of DeWitt, Mich./Gedderts’ Twistars USA, is among 12 women nominated for the United States Sports Academy’s 2011 Female Athlete of the Year. The 27th annual award is made in conjunction with USA Today and NBC Sports.

Worldwide online voting, which ends at midnight Dec. 24, has begun. To vote for Jordyn Wieber, please visit http://ussa.edu/ballots/athlete-of-the-year. The winner will be announced on Christmas Day, Dec. 25. Go to the website and vote now!

In 2010, votes were received at a rate of 12 per second at one point during the process and hundreds of thousands of sports fans from across the world participated. Last year’s Male Athlete of the Year was Spain’s star soccer player David Villa and the Female Athlete of the Year was South Korea’s No. 1 figure skater Yuna Kim.