Georgia’s Callie Dickinson Named Top 30 Honoree for NCAA Woman of the Year

Courtesy: Georgia Athletics

INDIANAPOLIS – Recent University of Georgia swimmer Callie Dickinson has been named one of the national Top 30 honorees for the 2023 NCAA Woman of the Year Award, as announced by the award’s selection committee Monday afternoon.

Dickinson was previously nominated by the University of Georgia and the Southeastern Conference as she advanced to the Top 30. Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award recognizes female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college careers. The honorees represent 15 sports, including two student-athletes representing NCAA Emerging Sports for Women.

The original pool of Woman of the Year candidates consisted of a record 619 nominees, which was later narrowed to 164 nominees by individual conferences. The Top 30 honorees include 10 from each of the NCAA’s three divisions. The NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee will determine three honorees from each NCAA division, for a total of nine finalists. Then, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will select the 2023 winner. The NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced, along with recognition of the Top 30, at the NCAA Convention this January in Phoenix, Arizona.

“We are thrilled to celebrate 30 incredible student-athletes who surpassed the standard of excellence on their campus, in their community and on their teams,” said Renie Shields, chair of the Woman of the Year Selection Committee and senior associate athletics director/senior woman administrator at Saint Joseph’s. “This decorated and diverse group represent the thousands of women competing in college sports each year and are contributing to the ongoing growth of women sports.”

Four Georgia student-athletes have won the NCAA Woman of the Year Award, including three swimmers: Lisa Coole (1997), Kristy Kowal (2000), and Kim Black (2001). Most recently, track and field athlete Keturah Orji was honored in 2018. Dickinson is the 17^th Georgia swimmer to be nominated by the university and the 14^th Bulldog to advance to the Top 30.

Dickinson, a native of Virginia Beach, Virginia, previously received the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and the SEC H. Boyd McWhorter Women’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award. She graduated in August with a master’s degree in Comparative Biomedical Sciences. In May 2022, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Human Development & Family Science, earning Summa Cum Laude honors with a 3.92 GPA. She is intending to pursue a career as an orthopedic surgeon, while continuing to train in preparation for upcoming international events.

During her five seasons in Athens, Dickinson qualified for the NCAA Championships in all five seasons and earned six CSCAA All-America honors, including a 2022 First Team honor in the 800-yard freestyle relay and an individual citation this season in the 200-yard butterfly. At the SEC Championships, she won four medals, including a silver medal this season in the 200-yard butterfly. She closed her career with top-10 times in program history in four events: 200-yard medley relay, 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard butterfly, and 100-yard butterfly. In international competition, she has competed at two U.S. Olympic Trials and reached two finals at this year’s Phillips 66 National Championships. This past August, she reached the semifinals of the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly at the World University Games in Chengdu, China.

Dickinson was named to the College Sports Communicators/CoSIDA Academic All-District Team in 2022 and 2023. She was also named to the CSCAA Scholar All-America Team and the SEC Academic Honor Roll in all five seasons, along with being named to the 2021 SEC Community Service Team. A member of the J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Honor Roll in each semester, she has received Presidential Scholar honors (4.0 GPA with 14+ credit hours) three times. She is the president of the UGA chapter of the Blue Key Honor Society, a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, a team representative on the UGA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and a member of the UGA Leadership Education and Development (L.E.A.D.) Academy.