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Your A-List: Best Athlete with Local Ties

By Michael Barnes | Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 06:17 PM

The ballot for Best Athlete with Local Ties could have expanded by leaps and bounds — and laps — given all the current, former and almost Longhorns on the U.S. Olympic team. Gosh, there was Aaron Piersol, Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker, Garrett Weber-Gale, Troy Dumais, Laura Wilkinson, Cat Osterman, Eric Shanteau, Kirsty Coventry — more than 30, once you include coaches such as Eddie Reese and Gail Goestenkors.

But there’s room for only one sports superstar in Austin and that’s Lance Armstrong, who won 31 percent of the vote for Best Athlete with Local Ties in the A-List poll. He’s mostly running now, but the seven-time Tour de France cycling winner is hard to beat, when you consider his historic accomplishments and global philanthropy — not to mention headline-grabbing social exploits.

In the end, though, this is Texas and football rules. Of the other athletes receiving votes, six are — or were — football players, five of those appearing in Burnt Orange — Earl Campbell (26 percent), Vince Young (23 percent), Colt McCoy (3 percent), Major Applewhite (3 percent) and Ricky Williams (2 percent).

One, Drew Brees, played high school ball here, only to move up to Purdue University and the NFL. That leaves softball pitching machine Osterman (6 percent), tennis pro Andy Roddick (3 percent) and roundball prodigy Kevin Durant (1 percent). Maybe if Andy wins the U.S. Open again, he’ll move up in the ranks!

Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment Categories: Sports, Your A-List

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By cowtown_horn

September 9, 2008 11:04 PM | Link to this

VY should've won this hands down. LA is the more international than Austin pick, so okay.

By Ian Gillespie

September 7, 2008 5:12 PM | Link to this

I'm glad you mentioned how many great Olympic athletes UT has produced. I completely agree with Lance winning the poll. He was the only reason why Americans cared about the Tour De France.
I'm kinda surprised that Vince Young did not win. Even though Lance is more worth in my opinion, Vince is a golden god in the ATX.
And maybe one day Roddick will win another grand slam.

By Christian

September 5, 2008 2:51 PM | Link to this

I'd have to say my fav. Austin athlete is Andy Roddick! Even though he chocked at the UP OPEN he's been on the tennis circuit for a long time and doing pretty well for himself.