COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The U.S. Olympic Committee today announced equestrian athlete Megan Benjamin and swimmer Brendan Hansen as its August Athletes of the Month. The USOC Team of the Month was awarded to the USA National Baseball Team.

Benjamin (Saratoga, Calif.) won the gold medal in women's vaulting at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany on August 27. She was the first American woman to win the title. The Germans have won 20 of the last 32 World Championships. Benjamin was also a member of the American team that won silver, which was another first. She was the only American vaulting as both an individual and part of a team. Also, Benjamin was the only American to win two medals at the same World Championship.

Hansen (Havertown, Pa.) set three world records in the month of August, lowering his own world record in the 100m breaststroke once and the 200m breast twice. Hansen smashed the world mark at both breaststroke distances at the 2006 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships (Aug. 1-5, Irvine, Calif.), breaking the 100m breast world record by almost two-tenths (59.13) and the 200m breast record by three-tenths (2:08.74). Fifteen days later at the Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships (Aug. 17-21, Victoria, B.C.), Hansen again lowered his own 200m breast world record by more than two-tenths of a second, finishing in 2:08.50. He also won gold and set Championships records in the 100m breast and as a member of the 4x100m medley relay.

The 2006 USA Baseball National Team wrapped-up the summer by successfully defending its gold medal at the 2006 International University Sports Federation World Championships in Havana, Cuba. It was the first World Championships ever won by a USA Baseball National Team on Cuban soil and it capped a perfect 8-0 run through the tournament. In five of the eight games, the team scored 12 or more runs, including an 18-9 victory over Chinese Taipei in the gold medal game on Aug. 15. Led by three returning players, J.P. Arencibia (Tennessee), Sean Doolittle (Virginia) and David Price (Vanderbilt), the team compiled the highest winning percentage ever by a USA Baseball National Team with a 28-2-1 record (.903). During its 31-game schedule, the team batted .300, hit 33 home runs and scored 223 runs. The pitching staff notched a 1.24 ERA for the season - a new record. Along the way, the team recaptured the annual USA vs. Japan Collegiate Series Title with a 3-1-1 record against the Japanese Collegiate All-Stars.

Second place for the women went to rowing athlete Caryn Davies (Ithaca, N.Y.) Davies stroked the U.S. women's eight to a gold medal at the 2006 FISA World Rowing Championships on August 27, setting a world-record time in the process. In the heat on August 21, Davies and her crew dominated its competition in winning by nearly five seconds. The crew held a length of open water by the midway point of the race and continued to extend its lead throughout the second half of the race. In the final on August 27, Davies' boat jumped out to the early lead and built a lengthy advantage over Germany at the midway point of the race. The crew then kept Germany at a comfortable distance the rest of the way down the course. The U.S. clocked a time of 5:55.50, which bettered the world's best time set by the American crew in the heat at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece, by 1.05 seconds.

Paralympic swimmer Jessica Long (Baltimore, Md.) took third place. At the 2006 U.S. Paralympics Swimming National Championships held in San Antonio, Texas from August 10-12, Long continued her record-setting streak. Swimming in the women's s8/sb7/sm8 classifications, Long set new American and Pan American records in the 400-meter freestyle and 100-meter backstroke. In the 200 individual medley, 100 freestyle and 100 butterfly she set new American, Pan American and World Records. Of the seven Paralympic events offered for