http://www.triathlon.org/?call=TVRBeQ==&keep=sh#Snowsill Declared Best of the Best (November 13, 2006 ) 
Gold Coast champion Triathlete Emma Snowsill achieved a win not only for herself but for the sport of triathlon when her extraordinary year was capped with The Courier-Mail - Mazda ‘Sportswoman of the Year’ Award on Saturday night.
Three-time world champion Snowsill became the first successful triathlete to win in the award's 14-year history.
She finished ahead of a hot field that included world record-breaking swimmers Leisel Jones and Libby Lenton, world champion basketballer Jenny Whittle and world champion boxer Sharon Anyos, who won the People's Choice Award.
The glittering awards night at the Sofitel in Brisbane was a wonderful celebration for the success of our female athletes with the Womensport Queensland president revealing the state's 25 women who won a combined 27 gold medals, would have been third on the Commonwealth Games medal tally behind Australia and England.
It was hard not to notice Snowsill's breathtaking season of nine wins including becoming the first Australian woman to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal in Melbourne in March, and becoming the sport's first three-time female Triathlon World Champion in Switzerland in September.
"This award blows me away. Triathlon is coming ahead in leaps and bounds and to win this award is amazing not only for me but for triathlon," Snowsill said.
"There are so many great female athletes in Queensland, we should all be proud, thank you very much for this honour because it was very unexpected.
"It's been a fantastic year for me. This is the icing on the cake." Snowsill is two weeks into her end-of-season break and has been kept busy on the beach by her two-year-old Stafford terrier Jet.
But the popular winner revealed yesterday that she and her triathlete partner Craig Walton will set up a second home in Boulder, Colorado, for several months from May.
Snowsill and Walton stayed for a month at Boulder this past season but next year it will become a more permanent base as Snowsill attempts to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics and tackle the lucrative American circuit.
"We are really happy to make Boulder our hub but I appreciate it so much when I am back at home on the Gold Coast," Snowsill said.
