News

Empowering the Next Generation

Sportswomen of Colorado, founded with a vision to empower and celebrate the achievements of female athletes, is taking a proactive approach to support the next generation of sportswomen. By supporting and funding a summer camp scholarship program and by partnering...

Celebrating a Half-Century of Excellence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Save the Date: March 17, 2024 - Sportswomen of Colorado's 50th Annual Award Celebration Denver, Colorado - Sportswomen of Colorado is thrilled to announce the upcoming celebration of its 50th annual award ceremony, slated for March 17, 2024. This...

Celebrating Success in Colorado

Celebrating Success in Colorado

The 49th Annual Awards Celebration was truly a night to remember as Sportswomen of Colorado honored high school National Players of the Year, collegiate National Champions, Academic All-Americans, professional MVPs, World Champions, coaches with 800+ wins, and an...

Northridge Elementary Students Cheer on DU Women’s Basketball

A group of 50 students from Northridge Elementary School in the St. Vrain Valley School District recently attended the University of Denver women's basketball girls and women in sport day, sponsored by Sportswomen of Colorado. The University of Denver provided the...

Sportswomen of Colorado Names 2022 Honorees

Sportswomen of Colorado (SWOC) will honor an impressive lineup of 49 of Colorado’s top female athletes and contributors to women’s athletics at its 49th Annual Awards Celebration on Sunday, March 12, 2023 at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Center. The women, coaches,...

Sportswomen of Colorado Announces Keynote Speaker

Tanya Haave, a former star basketball and volleyball player at the University of Tennessee and now the Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Metropolitan State University of Denver, will be the keynote speaker at the 49th Annual Awards Celebration honoring the best female...

Mikaela Shiffrin 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018

Our Sportswoman of the Year became the first woman to win three slalom World Championship golds in a row. In December, Shiffrin celebrated a World Cup slalom win in Killington, Vermont with her 95-year-old grandmother, Nana cheering her on. Mikaela then headed west to...

Emma Coburn and Jenny Simpson 2016

For the first time ever, Sportswomen of Colorado named two Sportswomen of the Year. Our Sportswomen of the Year are two of America's best runners. Emma and Jenny have each won three SWOC Track and Field awards and are in our Hall of Fame. Additionally, Jenny is the...

Mikaela Shiffrin 2015

Our Sportswoman of the Year won her second World Championship title in Slalom in 2015. The reigning Olympic Champion, she had her first World Cup win ever in Giant Slalom. Since February of 2015, Mikaela won all seven of the slaloms she competed in.

Cindy Hill 1974

How did a 26-year-old golfer from Colorado Springs gain the distinction of being Sportswomen of Colorado’s inaugural Sportswoman of the Year? She collected a lot of trophies. In 1974, Cindy won the revered USGA Women’s Amateur Championship, played on the winning...

Dorothy Hamill 1976

The “Hamill Camel” and the “Hamill Haircut” were household words in the mid-1970s. Both were creations of Olympic figure skating champion Dorothy Hamill, who was applauded at competitions or exhibitions in nearly 20 nations by the age of 20. Between 1969 and 1975,...

Debbie Willcox 1977

She had taken up gymnastics just four years earlier, but the skills she had acquired served Debbie well in 1976. Obviously a quick learner, she already was a Top 10 finisher in the Elite Class of U.S. Gymnastics Federation competition and had competed with the...

Jayne Gibson 1978

The year 1977 meant much more to Jayne Gibson than the Broncos’ first trip to the Super Bowl. She was busy writing a little history of her own, leading her Arvada West Wildcat volleyball team to the Class AAA state high school championship. She also directed her Rocky...

Mary Decker 1979

Making a triumphant comeback after surgery for a painful calf muscle problem, versatile Mary logged a series of track, cross country and road racing victories which told the running world her career was far from over. The transplanted Californian, who set three indoor...

Lou Piel 1980

As a young farm girl in northeastern Colorado, Lou couldn’t hit the side of a barn, but it didn’t take her long to find the target. Practice paid off in 1979 as the University of Northern Colorado’s junior pitching ace lit up the scoreboard with 155 strikeouts, a 0.52...

Tanya Haave 1980

If “ultimate athlete” was defined in the dictionary, Tanya undoubtedly would be cited as an example. Performing almost to perfection, this Evergreen High School and University of Tennessee star excelled in two sports while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. In her final season of...

Evergreen High School Volleyball Team 1981

They shared a dream and they were the first “baker’s dozen” to share a coveted Sportswoman of the Year Award. How the Evergreen volleyball team and Coach Lo Hunter got from Point A to Point B was high sports drama in 1981. The Cougars started the season with 76...

Connie Carpenter Phinney 1982

At 14, Connie got her first taste of Olympic competition as a speed skater on the U.S. team for the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan. She then switched gears and concentrated thereafter on competitive cycling, except for a brief stint on UC Berkeley’s rowing team...

Karen Beer 1983

Karen won more athletic and academic awards during her collegiate career than any other woman in University of Denver sports history. Named Female Athlete of the Year three times in a row, she also was DU's Outstanding Senior Woman in 1983 and graduated cum laude with...

Connie Carpenter Phinney 1984

At 14, Connie got her first taste of Olympic competition as a speed skater on the U.S. team for the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan. She then switched gears and concentrated thereafter on competitive cycling, except for a brief stint on UC Berkeley’s rowing team...

Rhonda Blanford 1985

She missed the 100-meter hurdles finals by 1/100th of a second at the 1984 Olympic Trials. Disappointing? Yes. Discouraging? No, at least not for this University of Nebraska standard-bearer, who raced on to glory in 1985. Serving notice she was still in the chase for...

Join us for the 41st Annual Awards Celebration on Sunday, March 8

Please join Sportswomen of Colorado for our 41st Annual Awards Banquet, held at the Marriott Tech Center on Sunday, March 8, 2015. Colorado’s top athletes, coaches and mentors will be honored; winners have been chosen by a selection panel of Colorado media...

Fall Happy Hour

Join us on Wednesday, October 1 at Choppers Sports Grill in Cherry Creek (5-7pm) for a fun evening of drinks, food and a silent auction! Proceeds of the event will provide sports camp scholarships for deserving Colorado girls, and help support our work to honor and...

Camp Scholarship Donation Opportunities

The continued success of Sportswomen of Colorado helping girls and women throughout Colorado depends on the support of individuals, businesses and public and private organizations. Funds can be earmarked specifically for camp scholarships or the awards celebration. A...

Become a Banquet Sponsor

Contact Joan Birkland for more information about how to become a sponsor at our annual banquet. Joan Birkland 303-331-0376