At the 78th annual Sports Star of the Year banquet in Seattle, Washington last week, Olympic 100 freestyle champion Nathan Adrian was honored as the 2012 Male Amateur Sports Star of the Year. That makes him the first swimmer to win the award since Megan Quann (now Jendrick) took the honor after winning gold at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Adrian ended up with the same medal count at the 2012 Olympics as Quann scored at the 2000 games: two golds and one silver. Despite missing a chance at a 4th medal when he failed to make the team in the 50 free, he was still a runaway winner for this award.
Adrian was born in Bremerton, Washington and swam for Bremerton High School before moving to Northern California to attend Cal in 2006.
Adrian won the award over athletes like University of Washington golfer Chris Williams, who was the top-ranked amateur golfer in the world in 2012 and Stanford All-American offensive lineman David DeCastro.
The names of the awards are a tad misnomered, as Adrian is a professional athlete who was grouped among true collegiate amateurs, but the intent was to separate-out those athletes who compete for the city’s major professional sports teams or in other major professional sports. That award was won by Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch.
Another Seattle native, Ariana Kukors, was nominated for the women’s Amateur Athlete of the Year award after finishing 5th in the 200 IM final in London. She was bested in the voting by rower Mary Whipple, who was the coxswain on her second Olympic gold medal in women’s 8’s rowing. Her team has not lost since 2006 and also set a World Record at the World Championships.