Team USA’s Olivia Blatchford Clyne and Harvard’s Mike Way will be recognized as the 2017 United States Olympic Committee athlete and coach of the year during the 2018 FS Investments U.S Open.
2017 was the most successful year to date of Blatchford Clyne’s professional career. The New York native entered ranked world No. 27 and finished at No. 12, an extraordinary leap at the elite level. She won her first National Singles title, reached the finals of the Cuidad de Floridablanca, a new tournament in Colombia, the quarterfinals of the Oracle Netsuite Open in San Francisco and the
second round at the U.S. Open. Today, the twenty-five year-old is ranked world No. 16.
Since 1991, the USOC Athlete of the Year has been US Squash’s highest award for achievement in international competition. Eighteen previous athletes have been honored with the award, including last year’s honoree Reeham Sedky.
Blatchford Clyne will be honored on the ASB Glasscourt on the evening of Wednesday, October 10 at the U.S. Open during Women in Sports Day.
For the past seven seasons, Mike Way has been the head coach at Harvard and has led the Crimson to unprecedented heights. The women’s team has won six national team titles during his tenure, and currently maintains a winning streak of three straight titles and fifty-three consecutive dual matches, the second-longest in Harvard’s history. On the men’s side, Way coached the Crimson to a national team title in 2014. In addition, Way has mentored world-class players at Harvard, including current world No. 2 Ali Farag—who won the men’s national intercollegiate individual title in 2012 and 2014—and U.S. No. 1 Amanda Sobhy who went undefeated in college and captured four straight individual titles from 2012-2015. Way also coached Georgina Kennedy and David Ryan to individual titles in 2017 and 2018, respectively. In addition, Farag was awarded the Skillman Award in 2014 and Sobhy the Richey Award in 2015, both for sportsmanship.
Since 1998, the USOC National Coach of the Year has honored the best coaches at the highest levels of the game. Last year’s honoree was Laurent Elriani of the Heights Casino in Brooklyn.
Way will be honored on the ASB Glasscourt on the evening of Tuesday, October 9 at the U.S. Open during Character in Sports Day.
