The Billie Jean King Contribution and the Wilma Rudolph Courage awards.
Gatorade (Billie Jean King Contribution Award)
The Gatorade Company has a long history of supporting women and girls in sport. For more than 10 years Gatorade has worked with the Women’s Sports Foundation on grants and scholarships, such as the College Athletic Scholarship Guide, Equipped 2 Play Grant, GoGirlGo! Curriculum and GoGirlGo! Ambassador Team Awards. Through its support, the Women’s Sports Foundation has been able to reach out to at-risk and underserved girls. In addition to the grant and scholarship work with the Foundation, over the past decade Gatorade launched two programs to get more children involved in physical activity to create a healthier environment for children. Get Kids in Action launched in July of 2004, in partnership with the University of North Carolina, as the first body mass indicator (BMI) to assess children’s body weight and risk for obesity. In December 2005, Gatorade launched Get 60, a program created to get all children involved in physical activity for 60 minutes a day. Celebrities such as Mia Hamm, Jennie Finch and Vince Carter have challenged five million children to “Get 60” over the course of the program’s history. The Gatorade Sports Science Institute has also worked hard to show the importance of physical activity for youth through research summaries about obesity in youth as well as guides for tween and teen athletes’ nutrition and hydration needs. Up-and-coming high school athletes are continuously recognized through the Gatorade Player of the Year awards program, which celebrates not only star athletes’ athletic achievements, but also their academic success and service to the community. Most recently, Gatorade launched its “What’s G” campaign in 2009, which features many female athletes, including Billie Jean King, Jessica Mendoza, Kerri Walsh, Misty May-Treanor, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Candace Parker. In recognition of the brand’s ongoing support of women and girls in sport and its years of contributions to the development of women’s sports, The Gatorade Company is the 2009 recipient of the Billie Jean King Contribution Award.
Tiffara Steward (Wilma Rudolph Courage Award)
Tiffara Steward has shown her courage ever since she was born, three months premature, at only 2½ pounds and eight inches long. Born without a cornea in her right eye, she underwent six surgeries by the time she was 3 years old to fight the multiple physical conditions she had. Steward still battles multiple physical disabilities to this day, including blindness in her right eye, 50 percent hearing loss in both ears, severe scoliosis due to the fact that her spine still has not completely fused and a leg disparity. Despite all of this, 21 years later, standing at 4 feet 6 inches tall, Steward has played college basketball for three seasons and is now entering her fourth season and senior year at Farmingdale State College. Earning major minutes off the bench during her freshman and sophomore years, Steward’s basketball accolades continued to multiply during her junior year. The 2008-2009 season was highlighted by Steward being named team captain and averaging 27.4 minutes per game, earning career-high single-season marks of 156 points and 63 steals. Steward’s amazing display of courage and athleticism has earned her spot as the 2009 recipient of the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award.
Starting August 1st, be sure to log back on and vote for your Sports Woman of the Year team and individual winners!