In recognition of their combined 10 medals at the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain in August, Missy Franklin and Ryan Lochte have been named the United States Olympic Committee’s (USOC) athletes of the month for August, 2013.
Franklin became the first woman to ever win 6 gold medals at the same World Championship when she won the 100 and 200 back, the 200 free, the 400 free relay, the 800 free relay, and the 400 medley relay.
That pushed her to 9 career gold medals at the long course World Championships, which is more than any female swimmer in the official FINA era.
Lochte took 3 golds in 4 medals, including a third-straight win in the 200 IM. He now has 15 career World Championship medals and 23 total career medals.
Franklin received 43 votes online (31% of the total votes cast), which is worth one tenth of the overall decision, among 19 different athletes. The second-leading vote getter, rower Mary Whipple, received 31 votes (22%).
Lochte, meanwhile, received only 18 votes in the male category – just 2% of those cast. The leading popular vote getter was wrestler Jordan Rogers, with 339 votes (34%), followed by shooter Josh Richmond (221 votes – 21%) and archer Brady Ellison (123 votes – 12%). Lochte was just 9th in fan voting.
No disrespect to Franklin, but Ledecky’s Barcelona performance was superior to Franklin’s.
I was going to ask.. if there was no mention at all to Ledecky,..
Ledecky and Sun were the stars of Barcelona (But Sun was boring.. Ledecky was exciting)
Ledecky’s probably going to win swimmer of the year but Franklin’s performance was also historic so it’s nice to see her win some recognition too.