Past, Present and Future Talent Receive Top Honors at the Women's Sports Foundation's(R) 26th Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner; Collegiate Softball Player of the Year and Ten-Time Paralympic Gold Medalist Named Sportswomen of the Year.

NEW YORK -- At a press conference today, the Women's Sports Foundation named Olympic gold medalists Cat Osterman and Erin Popovich the 2005 Sportswomen of the Year. The award, which recognizes team and individual sport based on their athletic achievements between August 1, 2004, and July 31, 2005, will formally be presented this evening at the 26th Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner at New York City's Waldorf=Astoria.

In August of 2004, Osterman was the youngest member and lone collegian on the U.S. Olympic softball team that brought home the gold medal. Back at the University of Texas (UT), she led her team to a third-place finish at the 2005 Women's College World Series for the second time in three seasons. Throughout the season, Osterman was also recognized for her individual contributions to the women's softball team. In April of 2005, the women's athletics department at UT honored Osterman with its highest endowed scholarship honor - the V.F. "Doc" Neuhaus Endowed Presidential Scholarship, which pays tribute to both athleticism and academic performance. In the month of June, Osterman was granted the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Award, and named first-team All-American and Big 12 Pitcher of the Year. She also won the International Sports Invitational Award and the Honda Award in softball (national player of the year), which is voted on by administrators at 1,000 NCAA member schools as part of the Collegiate Women Sports Awards program. In July, Osterman picked up a pair of ESPY Awards at the annual ceremony when she was voted "Best Female College Athlete" and won "Best Female Olympic Performance" with the U.S. Olympic softball team at the 2004 Athens Games.

At the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, Popovich won a gold medal in every event that she competed in for Team USA. She won five individual titles in the 200m Individual Medley (IM), 100m freestyle, 100m breaststroke, 50m butterfly and 50m freestyle and two more medals in the 4x100m freestyle and 4x100m medley relays. Additionally, Popovich set Paralympic records in the 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 50m fly and 200m IM, world records in the 50m freestyle, 50m fly and 200m IM and new American records in all five individual events as well as both relay events.

In addition to the Sportswomen of the Year honors, the Women's Sports Foundation announced three new inductees into the International Women's Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the recipients of the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award, the Billie Jean King Contribution Award and the Women's Sports Foundation's High School Athlete of the Year Award. These awards will also be presented this evening.

The Hall of Fame recognizes the athletic achievements of those who have competed at least 25 years prior to the present year in the Pioneer category. Athletes whose accomplishments came within the past 25 years are inducted into the Contemporary category. The Coach category was added in 1990 and honors both active and retired coaches. To be eligible for nomination, an athlete must be retired from her sport for at least five years. In the coach category, she must have coached in the United States and have at least 10 years coaching experience.

Inducted into the Pioneer Category of the Hall of Fame, Lusia Harris-Stewart was honored as a three-time all-conference and all-region player (1971-1973), a two-time all-state recipient (1972-1973) in high school and earned a guaranteed college education at Delta State University as a student-athlete. During her four years in college (1973-1977), she was a four-time All-State, All-Region, team Most Valuable Player and team high scorer (1973-1977) and a three-time All-American (1975-1977) and Harris-Stewart was also a contributor to three consecutive Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) national championships that the Lady Statesman captured from 1975 to 1977.

When Harris-Stewart graduated, she held 15 of 18 Delta State team, single game and career records, finished her college career with 2,981 points (25.9 points per game) and 1,662 rebounds (14.4 rebounds per game). In 1977, Harris-Stewart won the Broderick Award as the nation's best collegiate basketball player and the Honda Broderick Cup as the best collegiate athlete in any sport. In 1975, Harris-Stewart played for the U.S. basketball team in the World University Games and won the gold medal in the Pan-American Games. She went on to become a member of the first women's Olympic basketball team in 1976 in which she scored the first points in Olympic women's basketball history and helped the team capture a silver medal. In 1977, Harris-Stewart became the first woman to be drafted by the National Basketball Association (NBA) when the New Orleans Jazz chose her in the seventh round. For her athletic prowess on the court, Harris-Stewart was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame (1990), the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame (1992) and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame (1999).

As the Contemporary inductee into the Hall of Fame, Katarina Witt began skating at the age of five in her hometown of Chemnitz, Germany. In 1981, at the age of 15 she captured the gold medal at the German national championships and would continue to do so over the next seven years (1982-1988). On the international stage, Witt won gold at the European Championships from 1983-1988. In 1984, Witt made her first Olympic Winter Games appearance in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, where she won the gold medal. That same year, she secured her first of four world championships (1984-1985, 1987-1988). In 1988, during her second appearance at the Olympic Winter Games, Witt became a two-time Olympic gold medalist, becoming the first woman in more than 50 years to win back-to-back Olympic championships in figure skating.

In the summer of 1988, Witt turned professional and spent her first three years on tour in the United States with Brian Boitano in "Witt and Boitano Skating" (1988-1990) and was part of the "Discover Stars on Ice" tour from 1994 to 1997 during which time she received the Golden Camera Award for her Olympic comeback (1994) and the Jim Thorpe Pro Sport Award (1995). In 1990, Witt was given an Emmy Award for her "outstanding performance" in HBO's "Carmen on Ice" and voted onto People Magazine's "The 50 Most Beautiful People" list (1991 and 1992). She then moved from the ice to the big screen with the lead role in Disney's "The Ice Princess" (1995) and a cameo appearance in "Jerry Maguire" (1996). Most recently, Witt has written Only with Passion, chronicling her career and offering advice to future generations of women athletes.

In her 21st season as head coach of the Fresno State softball program, Margie Wright has directed the Bulldogs to 15 outright or shared conference titles, a Western Athletic Conference (WAC) tournament championship (1998), a national title at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Women's College World Series (1998), 10 regional championship crowns and 20 consecutive NCAA postseason appearances. In addition, she has coached 50 All-Americans, 15 Academic All-Americans, four NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship Award winners, four NCAA ERA statistical champions, seven professionals, 13 Olympians and one NCAA Top VIII Award winner. She has been adorned with seven region coach of the year honors, nine conference coach of the year titles and National Coach of the Year in Softball honors by the United States Olympic Committee and the NCAA (1998). She has also been inducted into the National Fastpitch Coaches Association's Hall of Fame, twice into her alma mater's Hall of Fame at Illinois State and into the Decatur, Illinois City Hall of Fame. In August of 1989, Wright became the first softball coach to represent the United States Information Agency (USIA) in Czechoslovakia, where she served as a clinician in several cities for a variety of teams. She continued her international experience as the assistant coach of the 1991 USA Pan American gold-medal team and a coaching consultant for three years for the Netherlands Antilles fastpitch team for men and women in both the Latin American and Pan American Games. She helped the USA national team to its third consecutive world championship title in Newfoundland, Canada, in the summer of 1994 and led the USA national team to a gold medal as the head coach at the 1998 International Softball Federation World Championship. On U.S. soil, Wright served as an assistant coach who was responsible for pitchers and catchers during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga. helping the U.S. Olympic softball team capture the gold medal in its inaugural year as a medal sport.

Yuliana Perez was awarded the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award, an honor given to a female athlete who exhibits extraordinary courage in her athletic performance, demonstrates the ability to overcome adversity, makes significant contributions to sports and serves as an inspiration and role model for others. Perez, who never knew her father and lost her mother at a young age, was shuffled between foster homes and later sent back to live with her paternal grandmother in Havana, Cuba. It was in Cuba where Perez would discover a passion for track and field. After years of development and competition with the Cuban national teams, Perez won a silver medal in the triple jump at the 1997 Junior Pan-American Games. Although a stand-out athlete, Perez was dropped from the Cuban program in late 1999 after she refused to give up her American citizenship in exchange for a spot on the Cuban Olympic team heading to Sydney. After returning to the U.S., Perez enrolled as a freshman at Pima Community College in 2000, where she won the 2000 National Junior College triple jump and long jump championships, her first of five Junior College National Championships and eight Junior College All-American awards that she would collect during her years of competition. In addition to her collegiate career, Perez became a member of the U.S. track and field team in 2001 and was runner-up at the USA outdoor championships and ranked No.2 in the United States by Track and Field News in the triple jump. Perez captured the USA outdoor triple jump championships in 2002 and 2003. She also earned second place at the 2003 Pan American Games and was ranked No. 1 in the United States by Track and Field News. In 2004, Perez was one of two Americans to represent the United States at the 2004 Olympic Games in the triple jump.

Robin Roberts, the 2005 Billie Jean King Contribution Award winner, has a career spanning more than 20 years and has been dedicated to the advancement of women's sports opportunities. Annually, the Billie Jean King Contribution Award is given to an individual/group that has made significant contributions to development of women's sports and to the Women's Sports Foundation; and demonstrated lasting commitment and dedication to the growth of women's sports and fitness. Roberts has achieved well-deserved recognition as one of the most versatile figures in broadcasting. She hit the national spotlight in 1990 when she became an anchor for ESPN's "SportsCenter." While at ESPN, Roberts enjoyed a variety of assignments including coverage of women's and men's college NCAA Basketball Final Four competitions, NFL Prime Time, major LPGA events, WNBA games, 1996 Olympic Games, 1998 Olympic Winter Games and served as host of Classic Vintage NBA. In 1995, Roberts began hosting ABC Sports "Wide World of Sports," while continuing to host ESPN's "SportsCenter," and progressively began contributing to other ABC shows such as "World News Tonight" and "20/20." It was in 2002 that Roberts officially joined the team at "Good Morning America," for which she was recently promoted to co-anchor.

The Women's Sports Foundation's High School Athlete of the Year Award was granted to Cynthia Barboza for her accomplishments achieved during the 2004-2005 competitive season. The 6-foot-1-inch outside hitter/middle blocker averaged 18.3 kills, 1.57 blocks and 2.0 aces per match. Barboza's list of awards for the season include 2004 Gatorade National Volleyball Player of the Year, 2004 High School Player of the Year by Volleyball Magazine, All-California Interscholastic Federation (Southern Section) Division I-AA co-MVP and four-time first-team All-CIF recognition. She is currently a member of Stanford University's women's volleyball team.

The Women's Sports Foundation's 26th Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner is being co-presented by Advanta; ESPN and ABC Sports; Gatorade; Moving Comfort, a Division of Russell Corporation; and the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. With their support and the participation of more than 100 champion female athletes, tonight's event will raise more than $1 million for grassroots programming for girls' sports.

About the Women's Sports Foundation

Founded in 1974 by Billie Jean King, the Women's Sports Foundation is a national charitable educational organization seeking to advance the lives of girls and women through sports and physical activity. The Foundation's Participation, Education, Advocacy, Research and Leadership programs are made possible by individual and corporate contributions. The Foundation is located in Nassau County, N.Y. For more information, please call the Foundation at 800-227-3988. You can also visit our Web sites at www.WomensSportsFoundation.org, www.GoGirlGo.com or AOL Keyword: WSF.