Colorado Springs, Colo. – Taylor Phinney (Boulder, Colo./Trek-Livestrong) was named October Male Athlete of the Month by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) today for his performance at the UCI Road World Championships last month.

On Oct. 1, the 20-year-old Phinney became the first-ever American to win a medal in the Under-23 Road Race at the UCI Road World Championships in Geelong, Australia. In a rare occurrence, he tied for the bronze with Guillaume Boivin (CAN). The bronze was in addition to the U23 time trial world title he won two days earlier on September 29. The pair of gold and bronze medals which Phinney brought home from the Road World Championships mark the first time since 2004 that a U23 rider medaled in both the time trial and road race events.

The USOC named gymnast Alicia Sacramone Female Athlete of the Month for winning the world vault title at the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in the Netherlands while the USA Basketball Women’s World Championship Team received the Team of the Month honors for its average of 35.1 points a game which led to the gold medal at the 2010 FIBA Women’s World Championships.

Each sport’s National Governing Body may nominate up to but no more than one female, one male and one team per discipline. The winners are then voted on from that pool of nominees. Phinney and Sacramone had strong support in the USOC’s online fan poll. Utilizing their fan bases to perfection, both of this month’s individual winners garnered the most votes in the interactive component of the voting process.

Taking second place in this month’s female category is USA Basketball’s Diana Taurasi (Chino, Calif.) who helped lead the USA Basketball World Championship Team to an 89-69 victory over host Czech Republic at the 2010 FIBA Women’s World Championship on Oct. 3 in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic.
Third place went to speedskater Katherine Reutter (Champaign, Ill.) who had a dynamic start to the 2010/2011 Korean Air ISU Short Track World Cup season.

Coming in second for the men was Joey Mantia (Ocala, Fla.) who earned two gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal at the 2010 Inline Speed Skating World Championships in Guarne, Colombia, while third place went to reigning U.S. champion gymnast Jonathan Horton (Houston, Texas) who won the men’s all-around bronze medal at the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in the Netherlands.

Placing second in the team voting was the 2010 Women’s Gymnastics World Championship Team
which won the team silver medal at the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Coming in third was the U.S. Short Track Speedskating World Cup Team which began the season with outstanding performances in World Cup #1 in Montreal (10/22-25) and World Cup #2 (10/29-31), winning a total of 17 medals – reaching the podium in 15 out of 20 distances.

Women:
Alicia Sacramone, Gymnastics
Diana Taurasi, Basketball
Katherine Reutter, Speedskating

Men:
Taylor Phinney, Cycling
Joey Mantia, Roller Sports
Jonathan Horton, Gymnastics

Team:
USA Basketball’s Women’s World Championship Team
2010 Women’s Gymnastics World Championship Team
U.S. Short Track Speedskating World Cup Team