Nichols claimed the Female Athlete of the Month, sledge hockey player Steve Cash as Male Athlete of the Month and the sledge hockey team as Team of the Month.

Nichols finished ahead of alpine skiing sensation Lindsey Vonn, who came top of the World Cup circuit with earnings of $466,000 (£303,000) , and Lolo Jones, who won the 60 metres hurdles at the World Indoor Championships in Doha, in the voting poll for her prestigious award after enjoying a hugely Paralympic Games in Vancouver by winning four medals, two of which were gold.

With her first gold medal coming in the sitting division of giant slalom, Nichols became the first US female Paralympian to claim titles in both the Paralympic Summer and Winter Games after she won gold at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics in wheelchair basketball.

Meanwhile, Cash (pictured) grabbed the Male Athlete of the Month award ahead of multi-eventer Ashton Eaton, who broke the 17-year-old world indoor heptathlon record, and Andy Soule, the bronze medallist in the sit-ski biathlon in the Paralympics, after recording four straight shut-outs and 33 saves on route to gold in Vancouver. 



His performance helped the US become the first team in Paralympic sledge hockey tournament history not to concede a single goal throughout the tournament.

The incredible performance secured Cash’s Paralympic sledge hockey team the USOC Team of the Month award ahead of the US women’s 4x400m relay team, who won the gold medal in Doha, and ice dancing pair Meryl Davis and Charlie White, the silver medallists at the World Championships in Turin.

It was the slege team's second gold medal following their success at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.

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