For the 28th consecutive year, the United States Sports Academy will name an Athlete of the Year in conjunction with NBC Sports.
Sports fans from across the world will decide who the most outstanding male and female athletes were in 2012 through online voting on the Academy’s website at ‪https://www.ussa.edu/ballots/athlete-of-the-year/. The ballot of 12 males and 12 females goes live at midnight Saturday, Dec. 1 and closes at midnight Friday, Dec. 21.
This year’s ballot includes a mixture of athletes from 11 different countries representing a wide variety of popular sports. Their performances stood out and provided some of the best highlights and stories in sports during the past year.
This year, our very own J.R. Celski has been nominated because of his performance at the ISU Short Track World Cup in Calgary where he won a Gold medal and set a new World Record  in the men’s 500m final with a time of 39.937.  His record is the first sub-40-second time in Short Track history.
Celski is competing against 11 other very talented athletes for the Academy’s prestigious Athlete of the Year honor: 1) Drew Brees, Football, United States; 2) Usain Bolt, Track and Field, Jamaica 3) Miguel Cabrera, Baseball, Venezuela; 4) Novak Djokovic, Tennis, Serbia; 5) Ashton Eaton, Track and Field, United States; 6) LeBron James, Basketball, United States;  7) Rory McIlroy, Golf, Ireland; 8) Lionel Messi, Soccer, Argentina; 9) Andy Murray, Tennis, Scotland; 10) Michael Phelps, Swimming, United States; and 11) Bradley Wiggins, Cycling, Great Britain.
With this list of well-known, talented athletes, he is going to need all the support he can get. So please support his nomination by voting for him and passing the link (https://www.ussa.edu/ballots/athlete-of-the-year/) around to friends and family.
The Academy, in conjunction with NBC Sports, will announce the 2012 Male and Female Athletes of the Year on Christmas Day on Tuesday, Dec. 25.
Congratulations and Good Luck to J.R. on this nomination.
