STANFORD, Calif. – Maggie Steffens has been named a finalist for the Women's Sports Foundation Sportswoman of the Year award.
The award recognizes an individual sport athlete and team sport athlete whose performances over an 11-month time span have been exceptional. Past winners include Venus and Serena Williams, Abby Wambach, Meryl Davis, Simone Biles, Yani Tseng and Candace Parker. Fan voting is open now through Aug. 3 and can be accessed by clicking here.
The public and the Women's Sports Foundation's Awards Committee select the award winners by a 50-50 vote. The winner will be the athlete who receive the highest combined share of a public vote (50 percent of composite) and the Awards Committee vote (50 percent of the composite).
Winners will be crowned at the 39th Annual Salute to Women in Sport awards gala on Wednesday, October 17 in New York City.
Steffens recently wrapped up her first year as a professional with UVSE in Budapest, Hungary following a standout career at Stanford. After leading her club to a Hungarian League title in May, she scored seven times and Team USA won gold at the FINA World League Super Final in June.
A three-time NCAA champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time Olympic MVP, Steffens was Swimming World's Women's Water Polo Player of the Year for 2017. She concluded her Stanford career with a banner senior year in leading the Cardinal to its sixth NCAA championship 14 months ago. In addition to being named ACWPC and MPSF Player of the Year, she also was named a Pac-12 Tom Hansen Conference Medal winner, awarded an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and became the first Stanford women's water polo player to receive academic All-America recognition from CoSIDA.
Steffens earned her bachelor's from Stanford in science, technology and society with a concentration in innovations and organizations last June and was on campus in the fall quarter to pursue her master's in management science and engineering and before heading to Hungary.
Steffens, who is Stanford's only four-time, first-team All-American, finished her career third in program history and 20th in MPSF history in goals scored (229). In four seasons on The Farm, Steffens and the Cardinal went 102-9 overall, 23-1 in conference play and won three national championships.