Shooter Brandy Drozd, archer Brady Ellison, U.S. men's basketball team earn U.S. Olympic Committee's September honors

Top performances throughout September earned shooter Brandy Drozd (Bryan, Texas) and archer Brady Ellison (Payson, Arizona) Athlete of the Month recognition, while the U.S. men’s basketball team received Team of the Month honors, the United States Olympic Committee announced today.

Drozd (Bryan, Texas) was crowned world champion in women’s skeet at the ISSF World Shooting Championship, held Sept. 6-20 in Granada, Spain. Drozd defeated Great Britain's Elena Allen to secure the world title and an Olympic quota spot in the event for USA Shooting.

Ellison (Payson, Arizona) claimed the men’s recurve gold medal at the WAF World Cup Final, held Sept. 7 in Lausanne, Switzerland. En route to the gold medal, Ellison defeated two of the world’s top Olympic archers and became the first recurve archer in history to win three world cup final titles.

The U.S. men compiled a perfect 9-0 record to capture the gold medal at the FIBA World Cup, held Aug. 30-Sept. 14 in Spain. It marked the first time the U.S. has captured back-to-back world cup titles since the event began in 1950 and just the ninth time any team has finished undefeated. Team USA won its nine games by an average of 33.0 points per game – the closest an opponent stayed with the U.S. was 21 points. As a team, the U.S. ranked first in nine separate statistical categories and finished second in three others.

Wrestler Adeline Gray (Colorado Springs, Colorado) finished runner-up and tennis player Serena Williams (Palm Beach Gardens, Florida) claimed third in the female vote. On the men’s side, basketball player Kyrie Irving (West Orange, New Jersey) and canoeist Fabien Lefevre (Bethesda, Maryland) earned second and third place. The U.S. men’s tennis doubles pair of Bob Bryan (Sunny Isles Beach, Florida) and Mike Bryan (Wesley Chapel, Florida) finished second, while the U.S. show jumping team finished third in the team category.

Each National Governing Body may nominate one female, one male and one team per discipline. A voting panel selects the winners from the pool of nominees with online fan voting via Twitter accounting for 10 percent of the total vote.

FEMALE

1. Brandy Drozd, Shooting

2. Adeline Gray, Wrestling

3. Serena Williams, Tennis

MALE

1. Brady Ellison, Archery

2. Kyrie Irving, Basketball

3. Fabien Lefevre, Canoe/Kayak

TEAM

1. U.S. Men’s Team, Basketball

2. Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, Tennis

3. U.S. Show Jumping Team, Equestrian