Bochet and Whitmore nominated for SportsWoman of the Year

Athletes were considered for the 2014 Individual and Team Sportswoman of the Year Award based on their athletic achievements between 1 August 2013 – 31 July 2014.

France’s alpine skier Marie Bochet and the USA’s para-cyclist Jamie Whitmore have been nominated for the 2014 Individual and Team SportsWoman of the Year Awards, an annual honour presented by the Women’s Sports Foundation.

Athletes were considered for the 2014 Individual and Team Sportswoman of the Year Award based on their athletic achievements between 1 August 2013 – 31 July 2014.

Within that period, Whitmore claimed two world titles at the 2013 International Cycling Union Para-cycling Road World Championships, where she set two world records, and two world titles at the 2014 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships.

Last month at the final 2014 UCI Para-Cycling Road World Cup in Segovia, Spain, she won the time trial and road race gold medals to secure the overall title in the women’s C3 class.

Meanwhile Bochet, at just 20-years-old, dominated the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games by winning four gold medals. The standing skier stood atop the podium for the women’s downhill, women’s giant slalom, women’s super-combined and women’s super-G races.

Whitmore and Bochet stand alongside other nominees, the USA’s Jamie Anderson (snowboard), Simone Biles (gymnastics), Stacy Lewis (golf), Serena Williams (tennis), Belarus’ Darya Domracheva (biathlon), Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (athletics), Hungary’s Katina Hosszu (swimming), Slovenia’s Tina Maze (alpine skiing) and the Netherlands’ Ireen Wust (speed skating).

The individual winner will be determined by a 50/50 split based on the highest combined share of a public vote and the Women’s Sports Foundation’s Awards Committee vote.

“It is a huge honour to be nominated for the Women’s Sports Foundation SportsWoman of the Year Award alongside such great female athletes,” said Whitmore, a Paralympic hopeful who hopes to make her first USA Paralympic Team in 2016.

“It really means a lot to me to be considered for this honour as a Paralympic athlete, along with the able-bodied athletes. I hope everyone will support me in the voting.”

The public can vote now through to 8 September at the Women’s Sports Foundation website.