On Monday, Virginia senior Kate Douglass added another award to her resume, as she was named the 2023 Honda Sport Award Winner for Swimming and Diving, marking her second year in a row winning the award. She was chosen by a vote of administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools, beating out finalists Virginia’s Gretchen Walsh, LSU’s Maggie MacNeil, and UNC’s Aranza Vazquez.
Douglass is the first swimmer to win the Honda Sport Award more than once since Natalie Coughlin, who was a recipient of the honor in both 2003 and 2002.
The Honda Sport Award has been presented yearly for the last 47 years by the Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA) to the top female athlete in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports (cross country, soccer, field hockey, volleyball, swimming and diving, basketball, track and field, softball, gymnastics, golf, and tennis). Winners of the Honda Sport Award become finalists for the Honda Cup, which is presented to the top Division I female athlete in collegiate sports. The Honda Cup winner will be announced in late June on a live broadcast run by CBS Sports.
According to the CWSA, the Honda Sports Award is “considered by many to be one of the highest honors a female college athlete can receive in the nation”.
Douglass earned this award by virtue of her record-breaking 2022-23 NCAA season, where she won and broke NCAA records in the 200 IM, 100 fly, and 200 breast at the 2023 NCAA Championships. In addition, she also contributed to four NCAA-winning relays and helped Virginia to their third-straight national title.
“I’m so honored to win the Honda Award for the second year in a row,” Douglass said. “I never really thought I’d be able to outdo my performance last year, so I’m just really proud of all the hard work I put in this year to make that happen. My team is my motivation, so this one’s for them too.”
In addition to athletic performance, the Honda Sports Award also factors in “scholastic and community involvement”. Outside of the pool, Douglass boasts a 3.56 GPA, and was on the 2022-23 College Sports Communicators first-team Academic All-American team for Division I swimming and diving. She will be graduating Virginia with a degree in statistics this spring.
“Excited for Kate to be honored as one of the best female athletes in the NCAA,” Virginia head coach Todd DeSorbo said. “For the second year in a row, she’s done something not many in our sport accomplish, winning three individual NCAA titles, in record fashion. She has been a dominate force that many young female athletes in our sport aspire to emulate. Not only did she win three individual NCAA titles this year, she did so in NCAA record fashion and was also instrumental in four NCAA record setting relays that also won national titles. Seven national titles, in back-to-back years, and team titles, three-straight years.”
“It’ll be decades before another student-athlete accomplishes that same feat. She was surrounded by arguably the best supporting cast in history that rose to the same level to help her, and UVA, stand above all. Kate is truly a titan.”
Honda Sport Award swimmers for swimming and diving that have gone on to win the overall Honda Cup include Simone Manuel (2018), Katie Ledecky (2017), Tara Kirk (2004), Cristina Teuscher (2000), Mary T. Meagher (1987), Tracy Caulkins (1982, 1984), and Jill Sterkel (1981).
RECENT WOMEN’S SWIM & DIVE HONDA SPORTS AWARD WINNERS
- 2023 — Kate Douglass Virginia
- 2022 – Kate Douglass, Virginia
- 2021 – Sarah Bacon, Minnesota
- 2020 – Abbey Weitzeil, Cal
- 2019 – Lilly King, Indiana
- 2018 – Simone Manuel, Stanford
- 2017 – Katie Ledecky, Stanford
- 2016 – Kelsi Worrell (Dahlia), Louisville
- 2015 – Missy Franklin, Cal
2023 Honda Sport Winners/Finalists (As Of April 13, 2023)
- Cross Country winner: Kaetlyn Tuohy, NC State
- Other finalists: Kesley Chimel, NC State; Elise Stearns, Northern Arizona
- Soccer winner: Lilly Reale, UCLA
- Other finalists: Tori Hanson, UNC, Jenna Nighswonger, Florida State; Reyna Reyes, Alabama
- Field Hockey winner: Erin Matson, UNC
- Other finalists: Bente Baekers, Northwestern; Sophia Gladieux, Penn State; Beth Yeager, Princeton
- Volleyball winner: Logan Eggleston, Texas
- Other finalists: Gabby Blossom, San Diego; Claire Chaussee, Louisville; Kendall Kipp, Stanford
- Swimming & Diving winner: Kate Douglass, Virginia
- Other finalists: Maggie MacNeil, LSU; Gretchen Walsh, Virginia; Aranza Vazquez, UNC
- Basketball winner: Caitlin Clark, Iowa
- Other finalists: Mackenzie Holmes, Indiana; Aliyah Boston, South Carolina; Maddy Siegrist, Villanova
this girl has the world by the balls
Who won over coughlin in 2001 & 2004?
Misty Hyman and Tara Kirk.
Manuel won over Eastin in 2018? Eastin swept her individual events at NCAAs with NCAA records in the 200 IM/400 IM and the third fastest swim of all time in the 200 fly, after her own NCAA record a month prior at Pac12s and Breeden’s previous record from 2009 Pac12s. What more did she need to win?
Deserved
I hope Clark wins the bball so they can finally meet and put an end to the Clark v Douglass conundrum by 200 IM and logo shot contest
Are you saying we should do a Shaq vs. Phelps 2.0?
Update: Clark did, in fact, get the basketball award.
Remarkable career.
Downvoters are jealous! Facts are facts.
To each their own, but the tone of the quotes by Douglass and DeSorbo in the release seem more than a bit arrogant–so that could account for the downvotes. No appreciation of other nominees. In essence from KD, I thought I was great last year, but I am even better now and proud of myself in outdoing my own self. From Todd, she is a “titan”, others aspire to emulate her dominance, it will be decades for someone else to accomplish the same–very presumptuous. But hey, we live in an age of narcissism.
Lmao you think thats “arrogant”? Really?
she *was* great last year and *is* better now. It’s perfectly okay for someone who has achieved huge success to be proud of what they’ve accomplished.
If you knew KD like I know KD, you would never ever call her a narcissist. She continues to truly seem surprised at her successes and improvements. Hard work and natural talent paying off. Todd praising his star swimmer who has led UVA to the Promised Land — what would you prefer he say? “She’s OK, but I think it’s all about my coaching.”
BTW, her low-key persona and attempts to deflect the praise in light of her amazing swimming is due, in large part, to exceptional parenting.
Anyone watching her NCAAs interview after the 100 Fly would not say arrogant.
What a weird response … sounds like some sour grapes maybe?