Sugar Bowl

Individuals Honored as Top Athletes in Louisiana Among the Best in the World

[This story originally appeared in the Official Game Program for the 2025 Allstate Sugar Bowl.]

When New Orleans native Kristen Nuss was presented with the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Corbett Award as the top amateur athlete in Louisiana in 2021, she commented that her next biggest goal was to compete in the Paris Olympics in 2024.
 
That dream, which even she admits might have been unlikely, came true this past summer. Nuss and her beach volleyball teammate Taryn Kloth competed at the foot of the Eiffel Tower at the recent Olympic games. While they didn’t earn a medal, they did realize lifelong dreams.
 
“It definitely is all a dream come true,” Kristen Nuss said in a Baton Rouge Advocate interview. “I didn’t even know when I started on this journey if it was actually a reality. I think over the past 2-3 years it was something in my head that I could see us being able to accomplish.”
 
Nuss was one of four Corbett Award winners who competed at the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, officially branded as Paris 2024 and more commonly known as the Olympic Games. She was joined by high jumper JuVaughn Harrison (Corbett Award 2021), sprinter Aleia Hobbs (Corbett Award 2018), and pole vaulter Armand Duplantis (Corbett Award 2018). Nuss and Hobbs were also honored twice each by the Sugar Bowl as the top female amateur athlete from New Orleans.
 
The Corbett Award was created in 1967 and named in honor of the late James J. Corbett to commemorate his many contributions to intercollegiate athletics and specifically to the Sugar Bowl. At the time of his death, Mr. Corbett was the Athletic Director at Louisiana State University. It has a rich history in the Olympics as its list of honorees includes 11 Olympians, including eight gold medal winners.
 
The first Corbett Award winner to advance to the Olympics was Southern University’s Rodney Milburn. The 1971 honoree earned the gold medal in the 110-meter hurdles at the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Other Corbett Award winners to win Olympic gold include Kim Mulkey (Corbett Award 1984), Teresa Weatherspoon (Corbett Award 1988), Shaquille O’Neal (Corbett Award 1991, 1992), and Seimone Augustus (Corbett Award 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006).
 
Duplantis was considered the most likely gold medal winner from the list of Corbett honorees and for good reason. Known as “Mondo,” Duplantis is just 24-years old and already a legend in track and field. Entering Paris, he was the reigning world and Olympic champion and had broken the world record eight times already in his career. Though he didn’t own the Olympic record in his chosen event.
 
When he sailed over the cross bar at 20 feet, he captured that Olympic record. And he kept flying, eventually clearing 20 feet, six inches, for the ninth world-record mark of his career.
 
“It's hard to understand, honestly,” he said. “If I don't beat this moment in my career, then I'm pretty OK with that. I don't think you can get much better than what just happened.”
 
Duplantis was just the second high school athlete in history to win the Corbett Award (after football star Leonard Fournette). He earned the statewide honor after breaking the world junior record with a leap of 19 feet, 5 1/2 inches to win the LHSAA state title.
 
“I hope to continue to improve,” Duplantis said at the time. “I want to break the world record and I hope to win Olympic Gold Medals as well as world championships.”
 
Mission accomplished.

Harrison, who has been ranked as high as No. 1 in the world in the high jump, battled injuries over the last year, but still qualified for his second United States Olympic squad. Nicknamed “Mr. Jumps,” he qualified for both the high jump and the long jump at the Tokyo Olympics, finishing seventh and fifth, respectively. He earned a silver medal in the high jump at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.
 
Hobbs, a New Orleans product and a graduate of McMain High School, earned a spot on Team USA for her second straight Olympic Games. The 28-year old earned a silver medal in the 4x100-meter relay at the Tokyo Olympics. One of the fastest women in the world, she narrowly missed qualifying for Team USA in the individual 100-meter dash this year due to the tremendous depth amongst American sprinters. But she was again part of the 4x100 relay squad in Paris.
 
Nuss, meanwhile, continued the amazing journey that began at Mount Carmel High School. As a high school senior in 2016, she was named the MVP of the state title match in volleyball and the state championship game in basketball as she wrapped up her career with five state titles (three volleyball, two basketball). She was named the Gatorade State Player of the Year in volleyball after leading the Cubs to a 40-5 record and the Division I state championship. While she went to LSU on a beach volleyball scholarship, many in the area said that even at just 5-6, her hard-nosed work-ethic and leadership qualities would have made her an impact player on the powerhouse LSU women’s basketball team.
 
Instead, she stuck with beach volleyball. And ensured LSU would become a national powerhouse in that sport as well. And that she would compete on the world-wide stage at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.
 
“We play in places all over the world, so when we’re put into tough situations it does put things in perspective and you go, ‘Hey, Taryn, look up,’ and you just stare at the Eiffel Tower,” Nuss said. “And you’re like, ‘OK, we get to play beach volleyball in front of the Eiffel Tower.’ That’s just awesome. It kind of puts you at peace, and then you can reset and start a new point.”

All-Time Corbett Award Winners in the Olympics:

Name	Sport	College	Olympic Year(s)
Seimone Augustus	Basketball	LSU	2008, 2012, 2016
Armand Duplantis	Track & Field	LSU	2020, 2024
Sylvia Fowles	Basketball	LSU	2008, 2012, 2016, 2020
JuVaughn Harrison	Track & Field	LSU	2020, 2024
Aleia Hobbs	Track & Field	LSU	2020, 2024
Esther Jones	Track & Field	LSU	1992
Rodney Milburn	Track & Field	Southern	1972
Kim Mulkey	Basketball	Louisiana Tech	1984
Kristen Nuss	Volleyball	LSU	2024
Shaquille O’Neal	Basketball	LSU	1996
Theresa Weatherspoon	Basketball	Louisiana Tech	1988, 1992