Team USA’s Todd Harrity has been honored with the 2018 United States Olympic Committee Athlete of the Year nomination, and will receive the recognition during the FS Investments U.S. Open Squash Championships in Philadelphia.
Harrity will receive the award on Monday, October 7, during the round of sixteen matches that evening at Drexel University’s Daskalakis Athletic Center. Purchase tickets to Monday’s matches here.
The twenty-eight-year-old had the most successful season for a male U.S. touring professional over the course of the 2018 season. The Wayne, Pennsylvania-native competed in sixteen PSA events over the course of the year, which included two victories in PSA Platinum events–the U.S. Open and Black Ball Open–and winning the PSA World Championship-qualifying Madeira International Open. Last summer, Harrity represented Team USA at the Pan American Championships, earning three bronze medals in the team, doubles and individual competitions. Harrity’s performances over the course of the year propelled him back in to the world’s top fifty-ranked players.
Harrity’s success has continued into 2019, having claimed his third S.L. Green U.S. Men’s Championship title and reached a career high ranking of world No. 44 in March. Harrity will lead Team USA into the Pan American Games this summer in Lima, Peru–his second appearance at the major quadrennial games.
Off the court, Harrity was trailblazer for the global squash community by becoming the first male openly gay squash professional in May of 2018.
Harrity has been supported by the US Squash Elite Athlete Program since joining the PSA World Tour full-time in 2013 following his graduation from Princeton.
Since 1991, the USOC Athlete of the Year has been US Squash’s highest award for outstanding achievement in international competition. Previous winners include Mark Talbott, Demer Holleran, Louisa Hall, Ivy Pochoda, Michelle Quibell, Gilly Lane, Timmy Brownell, Amanda Sobhy and last year’s honoree Olivia Blatchford Clyne.