Ex-Jamaican Track Olympian Races Away With Prestigious IOC Award
Jamaican Shevon Nieto (née Stoddart), a former track Olympian, has been awarded the coveted International Olympic Committee (IOC) President’s Award.
The 37-year old, who competed at the 400m hurdles in the 2004 Olympics and 2008 Games for Jamaica, won the prestigious prize for “honouring the fight and path of an Olympian”.
She proudly revealed her award over social media, and posted her letter from the IOC. She enthused: “Thank you to the Olympic Committee and president Thomas Bach for awarding me with the President’s Award, and for honouring the fight and path of an Olympian. Also thank you to my husband, Jamie Nieto, for bringing out the best in me.”
Nieto represented Jamaica at the Athens 2004 Games in Greece and the Beijing 2008 Olympics in China. She also ran at the World Championships in 2005 (Helsinki, Finland) and 2015 (Beijing).
She married two-time American Olympic high jumper Nieto in July 2017. 15 months after the American suffered a spinal cord injury on a misjudged backflip that left him partially paralyzed, with no feeling in his hands or feet.
Last month Nieto sped into the second round of NBC’s America’s Got Talent (AGT) when she performed her own original song in front of AGT judges Simon Cowell, Howie Mandel and Sofia Vergara as well as guest judge Eric Stonestreet and host Terry Crews.
Although Nieto is normally thriving with crowds watching her, having scooped the bronze medal at the 2005 Central American & Caribbean Championships, there was no audience present at her opening round audition because of the health restrictions due to the chronic coronavirus outbreak in the United States.
Nieto impressed the AGT judges with her tune of ‘Through the Good and the Bad’, a tribute to her partly paralysed husand. The ex-USA Olympic high jumper was confided to a wheelchair following a freak injury during a coaching accident, so she promptly retired from the sport and a year later got married.
She received yes votes from all four judges on the NBC reality show and a standing ovation. The Jamaican is a singer with the Art of the Olympians (AOTO), an organisation comprising Olympian and Paralympian artists who promote the core values of the Olympics with travelling exhibitions and workshops.
Over three million have viewed her AGT audition:
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