American high jump record holder and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, who underwent double mastectomy following 2019 diagnosis of breast cancer, is first Georgia Tech graduate to receive award; Akins, Ellis and Leland to be recognized with Today’s Top 10 honors and Palomo set to earn Silver Anniversary accolades

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Chaunte Lowe, a 12-time U.S. champion, four-time Olympian and World Indoor high jump gold medalist, is being honored Wednesday with the NCAA Inspiration Award as part of the virtual NCAA Honors Celebration in coordination with the annual convention.

Lowe is the first Georgia Tech graduate to receive the NCAA Inspiration Award, which was first recognized in 2002. She is the first track and field athlete to receive the award since Norfolk State graduate April Holmes in 2015.

Lowe, who graduated from Georgia Tech in 2008 as a three-time NCAA champion and six-time All-American, was diagnosed in June 2019 with Stage 1 triple-negative breast cancer. Despite a double mastectomy and six rounds of chemotherapy, Lowe has continued to train for a fifth Olympic berth.

Lowe, the American high jump record holder at 6-8.75 (2.05) since 2010, was an Olympic bronze medalist in 2008. She captured a silver medal in the high jump at the World Outdoor Championships in 2005, along with winning the World Indoor title in 2012 after earning bronze at the same event in 2010.

Lowe is one of seven track and field athletes in any division to be acknowledged with the NCAA Inspiration Award.

In addition to the Inspiration Award, the NCAA is also presenting seven former student-athletes with the Silver Anniversary Award, along with recognizing the recipients of Today’s Top 10 accolades.

Texas A&M graduate Fernando Palomo, a 1996 NCAA javelin finalist who has held the El Salvador national record at 238-6 (72.70m) since 1998, was the first ESPN “SportsCenter” anchor during the inaugural broadcast for the Latin American market, in addition to being the first host for a “SportsCenter” show in Spanish that was viewed by an American audience.

Palomo is now the lead play-by-play commentator covering European soccer in the U.S. for ESPN, in addition to being an ambassador for Glasswing International, which operates health, education, migration and community development programs for children in Latin America, and the Salvadoran Foundation for Health and Human Development (FUSAL), which is a nonprofit group focused on health and education.

Three track and field athletes have also been selected among the Today’s Top 10 recipients, the most since 2016.

Nia Akins became the first Penn student-athlete to be recognized and only the 12th honoree from the Ivy League since the award was first presented in 1973 as Today’s Top Five.

Now a professional athlete representing the Brooks Beasts, Akins was a three-time All-American for the Quakers, in addition to being a nursing major. She ran the second-fastest indoor 800 meters in collegiate history at 2:00.71 last year and departed Penn with a pair of Ivy League records and eight program all-time marks.

Miami (Florida) graduate Brittny Ellis, who is currently working in Memphis as a trauma nurse, was an eight-time All-American. She was also the first licensed nurse to compete on any athletics team for the Hurricanes.

Ellis was also a five-time Atlantic Coast Conference indoor and outdoor champion in the 400 meters and 4x400 relay.

Whitworth graduate Kayla Leland was a seven-time Division 3 All-American in cross country and track, in addition to playing basketball. She ran the fastest time in Northwest Conference history in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and set the championship meet record in the 10,000, in addition to achieving 13-time all-time program marks, along with working as a coach at a youth basketball camp at volunteering for the Salvation Army.

Leland, who was a double major in health science and spanish, is currently a Doctor of Pharmacy Student at Washington State.

Since the NCAA award increased from the Top Eight to Today’s Top 10 in 2013, track and field honorees have included Georgia’s Keturah Orji in 2019, when she was also selected NCAA Woman of the Year, along with Arkansas’ Taylor Washington in 2017, Kentucky’s Keni Harrison and Florida State’s Colleen Quigley in 2016, Dartmouth’s Abbey Cooper in 2015 and Arizona’s Brigetta Barrett in 2014.