Holland Wins Wilma Rudolph Award

The National Association of Academic and Student-Athlete Development Professionals (N4A) has announced the recipients of its 2020 Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Awards. Nebraska sophomore pole vaulter Maddie Holland was honored as one of five recipients of the award. 

The Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award is intended to honor student-athletes who have overcome great personal, academic, and/or emotional odds to achieve academic success while participating in intercollegiate athletics. 

Holland, a native of Madison, Indiana, was honored after battling an eating disorder and anxiety throughout high school and college. At Nebraska as a freshman in 2018, Holland finished seventh in the pole vault at the Big Ten Indoor Championships with a mark of 13-2 1/2 (4.03m), and she set a personal-best clearance of 13-8 1/2 (4.18m) to claim the pole vault title at the Nebraska Tune-Up with the No. 9 mark in NU history. She redshirted the 2019 season to get help with her personal battles and returned in 2020. Holland is a Big Ten Distinguished Scholar, Academic All-Big Ten selection and Tom Osborne Citizenship Team member.

"Maddie Holland always wanted to be the best version of herself, which entailed having perfect grades and excelling as a pole vaulter," the official N4A press release reads. "During her senior year of high school, this passion suddenly turned to an obsession. Holland began worrying about her weight and felt that the more weight she lost, the more accomplished she would feel. When she entered the University of Nebraska, her fear of weight gain escalated, and she began restricting food even more. She began meeting with a dietitian and sports psychologist who diagnosed her with Major Depressive Disorder, Anorexia Nervosa, and Generalized Anxiety. Holland did not want to believe it because she thought everything was going well in her life but soon realized her eating disorder had taken over her life and she entered an inpatient treatment center to get help. She spent the next six months in an inpatient treatment center and took a season off from track, which ended up saving her life. With the overwhelming support from the University of Nebraska track coach, academic department, and teammates, Holland is back on the track team and has found her passion in pole vaulting again. She has also immersed herself in organizations dealing with mental health with the hope of helping others become their best self."

The other 2020 Wilma Rudolph recipients are Bailey Deason, King University; Casey O'Brien, University of Minnesota; Robert Paylor, University of California, Berkeley; and Sydney Wetterstrom, University of Michigan.

"The 2020 class of N4A Wilma Rudolph Award recipients characterize the utmost examples of resiliency and bravery. I am in awe of their accomplishments and thrilled to honor them in this special and unique way", stated current N4A President and Director of Student Success Initiatives at Pennsylvania State University, Denise Poole. "Wilma Rudolph was a phenomenal woman who was once quoted as saying, 'The triumph can't be had without the struggle'. Ms. Rudolph defied odds and overcame the significant challenges that were presented to her over the course of her lifetime. After being diagnosed with Polio at the age of five, she was faced with the likelihood of lifelong paralysis. However, Wilma not only taught herself to walk again but persevered to become the first American female to be a three-time Olympic gold medal winner in track and field. Ms. Rudolph is one of the most decorated athletes in U.S. history, who not only broke records in her sport but also transcended gender barriers on her path to historical greatness. On behalf of the N4A Board of Directors and our membership, it's an honor and privilege to congratulate the recipients of the 2020 N4A Wilma Rudolph Award.  We are so proud of their accomplishments and excited to honor them for all they have and will continue to achieve," she concluded.