Swimmer Alia Atkinson on Friday evening won the RJR Sports Foundation People’s Choice Performance of the Year Award for 2012, following her outstanding performances in a sport that Jamaica has not been dominant in on the international scene.
The path breaking swimmer was also named runner-up to Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce as Sportswoman of the Year.
At the Summer Olympics in London Atkinson won an exciting swim-off to secure a place in the finals of the women's 100-metre breast stroke where she just missed a bronze medal, matching the fourth place that her namesake, Janelle Atkinson, secured in the 400-metre freestyle at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
In December 2012 Alia won two silver medals in the World Swimming Short Course Championships in Istanbul, Turkey; Jamaica’s first medals at this level of competition.