Vanessa Aniteye, who won the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II championship for the 800-meter event in 2023, was nominated for the Women’s Sports Star of the Year award given every year to an outstanding women’s athlete. As an athlete, student and mother, all at the same time, she juggled many moving parts that few students or athletes have experienced.
The 89th Annual Seattle Sports Star of the Year Awards were held on Thursday, Feb. 15 at the Westin Seattle. This event is held yearly by the Seattle Sports Commission, with a history dating back to 1936, and it features awards given out to several outstanding athletes for various achievements.
The four other nominees for the award were Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd, Seattle Reign FC defender Lauren Barnes, Washington State University guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, and 14-year-old golf prodigy Angela Zheng. Aniteye was surprised that she was considered among these stars.
“I was kind of in awe at first, I would say, because I saw the other nominees because those are some big names, people that are well known with huge athletic accomplishments,” Aniteye said. “So I definitely felt honored, that’s probably the best way to describe it.”
Some of these stars also took note of her accomplishments. Lauren Barnes expressed admiration for Aniteye’s struggles and life story.
“It’s honestly something that seems impossible,” Barnes said. “Her story is truly incredible. Being a mom and an athlete is literally like a Wonder Woman.”
Unfortunately, Aniteye could not attend the event in person, as she now lives in Hamburg, Germany, and the Seattle Sports Commission does not pay for flights. Furthermore, she was competing professionally on Feb. 18, so flying out to Seattle and then back was not feasible. Still, SPU Athletic Director Dan Lepse and Assistant Sports Information Director Mark Moschetti attended the event, as did Vice President for Student Life Jeff Jordan and communications professor William Purcell.
Lepse in particular is a member of the Seattle Sports Commission, which not only organizes the Sports Star of the Year Awards but also helps organize big Seattle sports events, like the 2024 Winter Classic and the 2023 All-Star Game. Lepse said that he put Aniteye’s hat in the ring for the extremely competitive nomination.
“This year, we did think that because we had a national champion 800-meter runner in Vanessa Aniteye, that she’d be a strong candidate,” Lepse said. “We didn’t know that she’d be one of their five finalists.”
Jewell Loyd, who, after Sue Bird’s retirement and Breanna Stewart’s signing with the New York Liberty, is the last remaining member of the Seattle Storm big three, ended up the winner of the award. She overcame Aniteye and the other contestants in the fan vote held in the month leading up to the ceremony.
But Aniteye emphasized how the nomination itself was an incredible honor, being something unexpected.
“That was a huge testament to the hard work I put in, and it also showed me that hopefully, I’ve made an impact on Seattle,” Aniteye stated. “Just seeing that I was one of those people was already enough that I was not disappointed at all.”
Aniteye’s journey to being a nominee for the Seattle Sports Star of the Year was not anticipated. She did not expect to win the NCAA DII national championship, and everything else after it was another unexpected bonus.
“I knew there was a chance to win but I never expected to win. Then I won, which was great. I needed some time to process everything that had happened,” Aniteye said. “In the SPU community, there was already huge recognition. That was sufficient for me, and I wasn’t expecting that to go further on … I think it was really cool looking back on this last year.”
