Recent University of Georgia swimmer Callie Dickinson has been selected as a recipient of the NCAA Today’s Top 10 Award and will be honored at the NCAA Convention in January, as announced by the organization Friday afternoon.
The award recognizes former student-athletes for their exceptional athletic and academic achievements, as well as their contributions to their campuses and communities. The Today’s Top 10 awardees were selected by the NCAA Honors Committee, composed of representatives from NCAA member schools and conferences, as well as nationally distinguished citizens, including past awardees.
Dickinson is the seventh Georgia women’s swimmer to receive the Top 10/Top VIII Award and the first since Shannon Vreeland in 2015. Previous Bulldog honorees included Lisa Coole (1998), Kristy Kowal (2001), Kim Black (2002), Samantha Arsenault (2006), and Wendy Trott (2013). She is the only swimmer selected for this year’s award and one of four honorees from the Southeastern Conference.
Along with the Top 10 award, Dickinson is one of nine finalists for the NCAA Woman of the Year, having previously been nominated by the University of Georgia and the Southeastern Conference as she advanced to the Top 30. She was eventually chosen as one of three finalists from Division I. Dickinson is the 17th Georgia swimmer to be nominated by the university and the 10th Bulldog to advance to the last round of finalists.
The awardees will be honored on Wednesday, Jan. 10, at the NCAA Convention Welcome and Awards Presentation in Phoenix, Arizona. The presentation of the Woman of the Year Top 30 finalists and awarding of the NCAA Woman of the Year will also take place at the convention.
Dickinson, a native of Virginia Beach, Virginia, previously received the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and the SEC H. Boyd McWhorter Women’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award. She graduated in August with a master’s degree in Comparative Biomedical Sciences. In May 2022, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Human Development & Family Science, earning Summa Cum Laude honors with a 3.92 GPA. After graduating with a master’s degree in Comparative Biomedical Sciences, she is intending to pursue a career as an orthopedic surgeon, while continuing to train in preparation for upcoming international events.
During her five seasons in Athens, Dickinson qualified for the NCAA Championships in all five seasons and earned six CSCAA All-America honors, including a 2022 First Team honor in the 800-yard freestyle relay and an individual citation this season in the 200-yard butterfly. At the SEC Championships, she won four medals, including a silver medal this season in the 200-yard butterfly. She closed her career with top-10 times in program history in four events: 200-yard medley relay, 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard butterfly, and 100-yard butterfly. In international competition, she has competed at two U.S. Olympic Trials and reached two finals at this year’s Phillips 66 National Championships. This past August, she reached the semifinals of the 100-meter and 200-meter butterfly at the World University Games in Chengdu, China.
Dickinson was named to the College Sports Communicators/CoSIDA Academic All-District Team in 2022 and 2023. She was also named to the CSCAA Scholar All-America Team and the SEC Academic Honor Roll in all five seasons, along with being named to the 2021 SEC Community Service Team. A member of the J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Honor Roll in each semester, she has received Presidential Scholar honors (4.0 GPA with 14+ credit hours) three times. She is the president of the UGA chapter of the Blue Key Honor Society, a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, a team representative on the UGA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and a member of the UGA Leadership Education and Development (L.E.A.D.) Academy.
