The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) has honored its 2002 Wrestling Male and Female Athletes of the Year, as well as its Wrestling Team of the Year.    Receiving the Male Athlete of the Year is 2002 World Greco-Roman champion Dremiel Byers (Fort Carson, Colo./U.S. Army). The Female Athlete of the Year is 2002 World silver medalist Tina George (Fort Carson, Colo./U.S. Army). The 2002 Wrestling Team of the Year is the Sunkist Kids club. All three are winning the award for the first time.    Each year the USOC recognizes the top male, top female and top team as selected by their respective member organizations. The names of the athletes and teams are placed on voting ballots used to select the USOC SportsMan, SportsWoman and overall Team of the Year. Members of the USOC Board of Directors and Athletes Advisory Council, along with representatives of the national media, comprise the voting panel that selects the SportsMan, SportsWoman and Team of the Year.  Thirty-eight females and 39 males, as well as 27 teams, are being honored by the USOC for their athletic accomplishments in 2002.     Byers claimed the World gold medal at 120 kg/264.5 pounds at the 2002 World Greco-Roman Championships, held in Moscow, Russia. His performance helped lead the United States to a strong fifth-place finish in the World team standings.    He became the fourth U.S. wrestler to ever win a World gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling, joining Mike Houck, Dennis Hall and Rulon Gardner in the history books. The U.S. has won a gold medal at super heavyweight for three straight years, as Gardner was the 2000 Olympic champion and 2001 World champion. Byers had a tremendous tournament, winning five matches and throwing each of his opponents at least once. In the gold-medal finals, he defeated veteran Mihaly Deak-Bardos of Hungary, the same athlete Gardner beat in the 2001 World finals.    Byers had a tremendous year leading up to the World Championships. He captured gold medals at the 2002 U.S. Nationals and the 2002 World Team Trials to claim the No. 1 position in the nation. He was also the 2002 Dave Schultz Memorial International champion. Other major medals won were the silver medal at the 2002 Pan American Championships and the bronze medal at the Pytlasinski Tournament in Poland.    George captured the silver medal at the 2002 Women's World Championships, held in Halkida, Greece. It was the top performance on the U.S. team. George has competed in five World Championships, and her previous best performance was sixth at the 1999 World Championships.    She earned the position on the U.S. World team by capturing the 2002 World Team Trials, defeating 2001 World silver medalist Stephanie Murata in the championship series. George also won a gold medal at the 2002 University Nationals.    Both Byers and George are members of the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program, as active service soldiers who train full-time for the Olympic Games.    The Sunkist Kids, based in Phoenix, Ariz., is one of the greatest wrestling clubs in the world, and has developed numerous Olympic champions, World champions and international medalists in all three wrestling styles. Founded by wrestling leader Arthur J. Martori, the Sunkist Kids has been a major force in developing the United States into one of the leading wrestling nations in the world.    A milestone for the club came at the 2002 U.S. National Championships in Las Vegas, Nev., when the Sunkist Kids won the U.S. Nationals team title in men's freestyle wrestling for the 20th straight year. In addition to capturing the men's freestyle title, the Sunkist Kids were also the team champion at the U.S. Nationals in women's freestyle wrestling.    Among the Sunkist Kids athletes who won individual gold medals at the 2002 U.S. Nationals were freestyle wrestlers Cael Sanderson and Joe Williams and women wrestlers Sara McMann, Toccara Montgomery, Stephanie Murata and Jenny Wong.    Later in the year, the Sunkist Kids placed nine athletes on the U.S. World Teams. They were freestylers Williams, Sanderson, Chris Bono and Stephen Abas; Greco-Roman wrestlers Jim Gruenwald and Brad Vering; and women wrestles Murata, McMann and Montgomery.    The Sunkist Kids feature numerous nationally respected coaches including Joe Seay, Bobby Douglas, Dennis DeLiddo, Andy Seras, Joe Corso, Tricia Saunders and others. The organization's Executive Director is 1996 Olympic silver medalist Townsend Saunders. The Director of Operations and Development is Tim Gressley and the administrators include Jan Kernan and Kim Martori Wickey.    Click here for complete list of USOC Athletes and Teams of the Year in all sports