COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., May 8, 2013 – Paul Ruggeri of Manlius, N.Y./U.S. Gymnastics Development Center II, was named the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Male Athlete of the Month for April following his double gold medal performance at the Slovenia World Cup. This is Ruggeri’s first USOC honor and the first for a gymnast since 2012 Olympic team gold-medalist Jordyn Wieber of DeWitt, Mich./Geddert’s Twistars, was honored in June 2012.
Ruggeri brought home two gold medals for Team USA at the International Gymnastics Federation’s World Cup in Ljubljana, Slovenia, April 27-28. He won the vault title with a 14.912 and tied for the horizontal bar gold, scoring 14.975. Ruggeri also finished seventh in the floor exercise final.
Triathlete Gwen Jorgensen claimed the Female Athlete of the Month award, with the U.S. Women’s National Ice Hockey team taking the team award.
Each National Governing Body may nominate one female, one male and one team per discipline. A voting panel selects the winners from the pool of nominees with online fan voting via Twitter accounting for 10 percent of the total vote.