Pikus-Pace (Orem, Utah) used December to establish her recent domination of women's skeleton. After starting the month with a ninth-place finish in Altenberg, Germany, she went on to win gold in her next two races in Igls, Austria and Sigulda, Latvia. The wins give Pikus-Pace three gold medals in her final four events of 2004. She finished December ranked No. 1 in the world in women's skeleton, the first woman from the USA to ever achieve that distinction.

Miller (Franconia, N.H.) won his sixth World Cup race of the season in an evening slalom Dec. 13 in Sestriere, Italy. The victory, which came on what will be the Olympic slalom course in 2006, made him only the second skier in history to record wins in all four alpine skiing disciplines in the same season, following Marc Girardelli's 1989 feat. It was Miller's sixth victory in 10 races, his fifth win in 16 days, and his first slalom win since last February at St. Anton, Austria. On Dec. 12 in Val d'Isere, France, Miller picked up his fifth win of the season - his second in giant slalom, overtaking three Austrians from the first run to further boost his points margin. Miller currently stands first in the overall World Cup rankings with 988 points. Austrian Benjamin Raich is in second with 690. Miller also holds the lead in giant slalom and super-G standings, is second in the downhill and ninth in slalom.

The U.S. Four-Man Boblsed Team - Todd Hays (Del Rio, Texas), Bill Schuffenhauer (Ogden, Utah), Pavle Jovanovic (Tom's River, N.J.) and Steve Mesler (Buffalo, N.Y.) - had an excellent month in December. They started off by winning their second consecutive gold medal in Altenberg and narrowly missed a third straight gold, settling for silver in Igls. A sled problem prevented the team from finishing as well as it could have in the final race of the year, but the foursome still placed fourth.

Second place in the women's ballot went to skier Lindsey Kildow (Vail, Colo.), who stormed to her first World Cup win on Dec. 3 in the downhill at Lake Louise, Canada. She finished second in a World Cup super-G in St. Moritz, Switzerland, and also took a seventh-place finish in Semmering, Austria, Dec. 28-29. Kildow is currently sixth overall in the World Cup rankings, rating first in the downhill and second in the super-G.

Gymnast Alicia Sacramone (Winchester, Mass.) finished third in the voting. Sacramone went 3-for-3 in December and toppled three Olympic medalists in winning the vault gold medal at the Dec. 12 World Cup Final. Performing the two most difficult vaults in the world, Sacramone scored an average of 9.481 to hold off 2004 Olympic champion Monica Rosu (9.456), Olympic bronze medalist Anna Pavlova (9.418) and 2000 Olympic champion Elena Zamolodchikova (9.412). One week earlier, Sacramone celebrated her 17th birthday (Dec. 3) by winning the vault and floor titles at the 2004 Pan American Gymnastics Union Individual Event Finals.

Second place in the men's ballot went to biatlhlete Jay Hakkinen (Kasilof, Alaska). Hakkinen had the best December of his career - and of any U.S. biathlete ever. He placed in the top 30 in seven of eight competitions (the top 30 competitors score World Cup points), finishing 28th, 27th, 24th, 23rd, 22nd, 16th and a December-capping seventh in the sprint at Ostersund, Sweden. His seventh place was the highest podium finish by an American biathlete since 2001 (also Hakkinen). At the end of the month, Hakkinen ranked 22nd in the world - a career and U.S. high-mark - and earned himself a start position in the World Cup Mass Start competitions, which are limited to the top 30 competitors in the world. Additionally, Hakkinen's seventh place achieved one of two necessary top-15 finishes to pre-qualify him for the Torino Olympic Winter Games.

Long track speedskater Shani Davis (Chicago, Ill.) took third place in the vote. Davis enjoyed an unprecedented December with a crossover from short track to long track in only a matter of days. After competing in the Dec. 5-6 World Cup short track and finishing seventh overall, Davis changed into long-track skates for the Dec. 18-22 competition at the National Ice Center in Milwaukee, Wis., where he set two track records and won the allround title as well as the silver medal in the overall Sprints competition at the U.S. Long Track Speedskating Championships. His performance in Milwaukee secured him a berth in the World Sprint Championships and the World Single Distance Championships.

The luge duo of Mark Grimmette (Muskegon, Mich.) and Brian Martin (Palo Alto, Calif.) finished second in the team vote. They picked up their 47th and 48th international medals together when they raced to a pair of luge World Cup victories in December. Following their fourth-place finish in Lake Placid, N.Y., Grimmette and Martin captured their 10th World Cup victory when they were first in competition at Calgary, Canada. They also helped to anchor Team USA to a gold-medal finish in the World Cup team relay event at Calgary.

The figure skating duo of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto (both of Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) took third on the ballot. By winning both of their 2004 International Skating Union Grand Prix events, Belbin and Agosto qualified for their second straight ISU Grand Prix Final, where the duo won the silver medal. At the prestigious event, the Americans beat out the 2004 World silver medalists and finished second to the 2004 World Champions. Their outstanding performance marks the best finish for a U.S. dance team in the history of the event and puts Belbin and Agosto on track to medal at the 2005 World Championships.

Results (first place votes in parentheses)

1. Noelle Pikus-Pace 25 (7)

2. Lindsey Kildow 18 (4)

3. Alicia Sacramone 15 (3)

Also receiving first place votes: Tina George (Wrestling) and Jennifer Rodriguez (Speedskating)

MEN

1. Bode Miller 39 (12)

2. Jay Hakkinen 12 (1)

3. Shani Davis 11

TEAM

1. U.S. Four-Man Boblsed Team 38 (8)

2. Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin, Luge 24 (3)

3. Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, Figure Skating 18 (4)

For more information, contact Marvin Olberding, USOC Media and Public Relations, at (719) 866-2221. This release is also available on the USOC's public Web site (

www.usolympicteam.com) and our media-specific Web site (http://usocpressbox.org)