Celebrating Women’s Athletics at BU

The 11th Annual Celebrating Women's Athletics Luncheon was held at Binghamton University's Events Center February 22 before a record crowd of over 600 people.  The event is held to honor women athletes and to help raise funds for scholarships and financial aid for female student athletes.

A highlight of the luncheon was keynote speaker Amy Van Dyken.  Van Dyken is the winner of six Olympic gold medals in swimming competition.  She won four gold medals at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta making her the first American female athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympiad.  She followed that with two more gold medals at the Sydney Olympics and an additional three gold medals at the 1998 World Championships.

In June 2014 Van Dyken was injured in an ATV accident and severed her spinal cord leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.  She continues to work on her rehabilitation and says she has now begun to walk again.  She received a lengthy standing ovation following her inspiring motivational speech about never giving up no matter what others may tell you.

Union-Endicott grad Griffin McIver was the Student-Athlete speaker.  McIver is a two-year captain of the Binghamton Berarcats softball team and arrived back on campus just hours after the team arrived home after five weekend games in California.