USA’s Andrew Soule named January’s Athlete of the Month

The USA’s Andrew Soule has been voted the Allianz Athlete of the Month for January 2015 after a record breaking performance at the 2015 IPC Nordic Skiing World Championships.

On home snow in Cable, USA, Soule made history by winning the most ever medals by a US athlete at a Nordic Skiing World Championships, claiming three silver and two bronze medals.

The 34-year-old sit skier won silver in the 7.5km and 12.5km biathlon races as well as the 10km cross-country. In cross-country he also picked up bronze in the 1km sprint and the 15km races.

To win the poll, Soule claimed 37 per cent of the public vote to just edge out British snowboarder Ben Moore with 34 per cent. Moore has been in top form this year and won the first ever snowboard-cross head-to-head race in Aspen, USA. He secured his second World Cup win in the discipline in the upper-limb impairment class days later in Big White, Canada.

Also nominated in January’s poll were Dutch wheelchair tennis playerJiske Griffioen, Ukraine’s Oleksandra Kononova who won six world titles at Cable 2015, Norwegian sailor Bjornar Erikstad and the French Nordic skiing relay team.

The previous winners from 2014 were:

January – Markus Salcher, Austria, alpine skiing

February – Matti Suur-Hamari, Finland, para-snowboard

March best male – Declan Farmer, USA, ice sledge hockey

March best female – Marie Bochet, France, alpine skiing

March best team – Russia ice sledge hockey

April – Ali Jawad, Great Britain, powerlifting

May – Aled Davies, Great Britain, athletics

June - Safet Alibasic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, sitting volleyball

July – Markus Rehm, Germany, athletics,

August best youngster – Maria Lyle, Great Britain, athletics

August best male – Yevheniy Bohodayko, Ukraine, swimming

August best female - Sarah Morganti, Italy, equestrian

September – Eduardo Avila Sanchez, Mexico, judo

October – Siamand Rahman, Iran, powerlifting

November – Kelsey Diclaudio, USA, ice sledge hockey

December – Daniel Dias, Brazil, swimming