FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LAUGHLIN, Nev. — Amateur Athletic Union Strength Sports will close out its 2026 competitive season by honoring ten of its own: a 2026 Hall of Fame inductee, 2026 Brother Bennett Award recipient, Meet Director of the Year, and seven National Athletes of the Year, two of whom will also be named Overall Athlete of the Year.

"Sports for All, Forever" is not a slogan on a banner in Laughlin,” said Hal Pittman, AAU Strength Sports National Chairman. “It is 83-year-old Oneida national elder Ray Fougnier still breaking American and world records in every meet.  It is Ruthann Miller turning one 13-lifter high school meet into a 36-lifter national championship less than five months later. It is Mike Meadows stepping forward to direct four international championships after the sport lost two of its founding leaders in a two-year period.

“Every one of this year's honorees is a reminder of what AAU Strength Sports has always stood for, from training America's weightlifters a century ago, to placing the first bar on the platform for the sport of powerlifting in the 1960s.  That heritage doesn't just belong in a record book — it lives in our amazing athletes and in volunteers who show up and do the work long after the crowd goes home. They carry our legacy forward, one meet, one lift and one record at a time."

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2026 AAU STRENGTH SPORTS NATIONAL ATHLETES OF THE YEAR

Junior Female Athletes of the Year

• Feats of Strength: Brianna Bowens
• Weightlifting: Mikaella Bowens
• Powerlifting: Liliana Layman

Senior Female Athlete of the Year

• Powerlifting: Marie Johnson

Junior Male Athletes of the Year

• Weightlifting: Michael Geronimo
• Powerlifting: Oscar Ortega

Senior Male Athlete of the Year

• Powerlifting: Ray Fougnier

Overall Male Athlete of the Year:  Ray Fougnier

Overall Female Athlete of the Year: Marie Johnson

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2026 AAU STRENGTH SPORTS HALL OF FAME

Dave Scott

Dave Scott's name appears across the AAU record book in categories most lifters never even attempt — strict curl, deadlift for reps, power clean reps, standing long jump, Atlas stones, tire flip, yoke carry, sled push, farmers walk, Conan deadlift, and more. Over more than a decade of competition, Scott set American and world powerlifting records and strongman-style Feats of Strength at international meets. He has also served the sport in an officiating and administrative capacity, beginning as a Feats of Strength National Referee in 2016, adding International Referee credentials in Feats of Strength (2022) and Powerlifting (2023). Scott has also been a steady presence in AAU Strength Sports event operations, coordinating equipment logistics and transport ahead of competitions, staging and setting up platforms at venue sites, and supporting fellow meet directors as an official at their events, all while remaining active on the competitive platform himself.  AAU Strength Sports is proud to induct Dave Scott into its Hall of Fame for a career that combined championship-level lifting with the volunteerism that makes national and world championships possible in the first place.

AAU STRENGTH SPORTS OVERALL MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

Ray Fougnier

Ray Fougnier, of the Oneida Indian Nation's Wolf Clan, who recently turned 83, continued his record-breaking run throughout 2025 and 2026. Competing in the master’s 80–84 division at the September 2025 AAU World Powerlifting Championships in Laughlin, Fougnier set 16 world records across full power and single-lift categories, taking home gold medals in Full Power, Single-Lift Deadlift and Single-Lift Bench Press along with the Best Overall Male Lifter award. He followed up that performance seven months later by setting four more world records at the 2026 AAU North American Powerlifting Championships, earning Male Best Overall Lifter honors.  Fougnier has competed at the AAU North American, World and International Powerlifting Championships for more than a decade, setting new records every time he steps on the platform.  Beyond the platform, he continues to serve as an inspiration in his home community, recently headlining a "Powerlifting and Healthy Aging" event at the Mary C. Winder Community Center. Ray Fougnier was also AAU Strength Sports' Overall Male Athlete of the Year in 2025.

AAU STRENGTH SPORTS OVERALL FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

Marie Johnson

Few athletes in any AAU discipline had a season like Marie Johnson's. Competing in the master’s 50–54, 75-kg class out of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, Johnson also swept Best Female Lifter honors at back-to-back AAU Powerlifting meets in Laughlin in September 2025 and April 2026, while stacking American and world records in the deadlift, bench press, squat and total. She also set additional Feats of Strength marks in the strict curl, curls for reps, deadlift for reps and axle bar deadlift.  Additionally, in 2026, Johnson delivered the signature performance of her season at the 2026 AAU Super Total Competition in Delano, California: Grand Champion Female Masters honors while setting American and world records in Olympic weightlifting's snatch, clean & jerk and total, powerlifting's bench press, deadlift and total, and the combined Super Total itself, a rare double-discipline sweep that few masters athletes in any federation can match. Marie Johnson is AAU Strength Sports' Overall Female Athlete of the Year for a season that redefined what versatility at the top of the sport looks like.

2026 AAU STRENGTH SPORTS BROTHER BENNETT AWARD

Mikel Meadows

The Brother Bennett Award recognizes the individual who goes far beyond the norm in service to AAU Strength Sports, and in 2026 that individual is Mikel Meadows, of Bullhead City, Arizona. Meadows has promoted and judged AAU Feats of Strength, Powerlifting and Strongman events as a meet director and internationally qualified judge since 2015. When longtime National Chairman Martin Drake was sidelined by a cancer diagnosis in 2021, Meadows stepped into a larger organizational role to help keep AAU Strength Sports' national events running without interruption. In 2024, Meadows took on an even greater share of responsibility, agreeing to direct all four AAU international championships in both 2025 and 2026 after the untimely passing of two national chairmen. Mikel Meadows kept AAU Strength Sports moving through a period of real institutional loss, and the Brother Bennett Award is AAU's way of saying so.

2026 AAU STRENGTH SPORTS MEET DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

Ruthann Miller

Ruthann Miller, Athletic Director at Vista Grande High School in Arizona's Casa Grande Union High School District, built a pipeline of high school powerlifting in the 2025-2026 season. Her first AAU powerlifting event, the December 2025 Rise of the Spartans Strength Classic, drew 13 lifters, including competitors who traveled in from California. Less than five months later, Miller directed the AAU High School National Powerlifting Championships, growing the field to 36 lifters, a 177% increase. Along the way, she helped secure school board approval for what her nomination describes as Arizona's first-ever high school varsity powerlifting team, and she is now working to bring surrounding schools into the AAU fold. A physical education teacher, coach and ISSA-certified strength and conditioning specialist by background, Miller also made the trip to support AAU North Americans in Laughlin and the AAU Super Total Nationals in Delano, investing personally in the national community even as she built her own program at home. Ruthann Miller is AAU Strength Sports' 2026 Meet Director of the Year.

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AAU Strength Sports will present all ten awards on stage in Laughlin on August 15, 2026, capping a World Championships weekend that will have already determined a new class of champions on the platform. For fans and families unable to attend, updates will be shared through AAU's official Strength Sports channels following the ceremony.

About AAU Strength Sports

Founded in 1888, the Amateur Athletic Union has grown from its roots preparing U.S. athletes for international competition into one of the nation's largest multi-sport organizations, serving nearly 800,000 members through the philosophy of "Sports for All, Forever." AAU Strength Sports carries a pioneering legacy: it was the first American body to sanction weightlifting competition, dating to 1918, and it hosted the first-ever powerlifting meet in 1964, effectively founding the sport in the United States. AAU Strength Sports include Powerlifting, Weightlifting, Feats of Strength/Strongman, MAS Wrestling and Bodybuilding/Physique, with AAU hosting national and international championships and honoring its athletes, officials and volunteers annually through its Hall of Fame and National Awards program.