By Scott N. Atkinson | April 23, 2021, 10:39 a.m. (ET)
The USA Water Ski & Wake Sports Foundation’s 38th Water Ski Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be live webcast on Saturday, April 24, beginning at 7:00 p.m. (EDT).
Wakeboard athlete Shaun Murray, water ski athlete Mandy Nightingale and adaptive water ski athlete Joe Ray are the 2020 Hall of Fame inductees. April Coble-Eller, Gene Davis (posthumously), Nikki Lee, Don Mixon Jr., and Eddie Roberts (posthumously) are Award of Distinction honorees. Ed Brazil will be honored posthumously as the 2020 recipient of the USA Water Ski & Wake Sports Foundation Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award.
While considered a formidable three-event water ski athlete, Nightingale was one of the greatest trick skiers of her era, winning back-to-back world championships in 2003 and 2005, and establishing a world record of 8,740 points in 2006. She was a five-time champion of the U.S. Open and two-time champion of the Masters. She was named USA Water Ski & Wake Sports’ Female Athlete of the Year in 2007 when she competed on two U.S. water ski teams and collected four individual medals in the process. She also won women’s tricks title that year at the Australian Open and U.S. Open and swept both events of the IWWF Water Ski World Cup. At the 2007 Pan American Games, she earned the silver medal in tricks and bronze medals in slalom and jumping. At the 2007 Water Ski World Championships, she was the lone U.S. team member to win an individual medal, earning the bronze in tricks.
Lee is a longtime AWSA tournament official and board member. She has served as chief judge at numerous international events over the past 30 years, including the 2003 Pan American Games, 2004 World University Games, 2009 World Games, 2011 Water Ski World Championships and 2017 Under 21 Water Ski World Championships, in addition to the Masters, U.S. Open and IWWF Water Ski World Cup. She was a member of the AWSA and USA Water Ski & Wake Sports board of directors from 1990-2005 and served on the AWSA International Activities, Rules and Awards committees. She was a recipient of USA Water Ski & Wake Sports’ Award of Merit, the organization’s highest honor for volunteerism, in 2010.
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