Kwan wins Sullivan Award

ORLANDO, Fla., April 9 (UPI) -- Michelle Kwan, the most decorated figure skater in American history, Tuesday was named the winner of the 2001 Sullivan Award, which is presented to the year's top amateur athlete.

Kwan becomes only the second figure skater to capture the prestigious honor, joining Dick Button, who won it in 1949.

Among Kwan's unprecedented 38 championships are four world titles and six national crowns. Earlier this year, she claimed her fifth straight American title.

The darling of the figure skating world for the better part of a decade, Kwan is the first American woman to win four world titles since Caros Heiss in 1959. She may have ended her amateur career at the Winter Olympics, where she settled for a bronze medal.

The Sullivan Award honors AAU founder James Sullivan and is given to the athlete who best exemplifies the qualities of leadership, character, sportsmanship and the ideals of amateurism.

Also named as finalists were Chicago Cubs prospect Mark Prior, track sensation Alan Webb, University of Calfornia swimmer Natalie Coughlin and gymnast Sean Townsend.

Prior was the second overall pick in the major league draft and winner of USA Baseball's Golden Spikes Award last year after finishing an extraordinary college career at Southern California.

Webb made history at the new Balance Games by becoming the first American high school athlete to run an indoor mile under four minutes, turning in a time of 3 minutes, 59.86 seconds.

Over a five-day span, Coughlin won nine events. She also broke two world records, two American marks and six meet records in butterfly, backstroke and freestyle.

Townsend won the 2001 World Championship in parallel bars and helped the United States to its first-ever team silver medal.

A 700-member panel of AAU board members, U.S. Olympic Committee members, the AAU Sullivan Committee, past winners and select members of the media vote for the winner.

Past recipients include wrestler Rulon Gardner (2001), NFL star Peyton Manning (1997), speed skaters Dan Jansen (1994) and swimmer Janet Evans (1989), former major league pitcher Jim Abbott (1987) and basketball star Bill Bradley (1965).