It’s time to have a good time the previous yr of American swimming: USA Swimming has introduced its 2024 Golden Goggles Awards nominees. The winners can be introduced on the Golden Goggles Award present on November 23 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh, the Olympic gold and silver medallists within the ladies’s 100 butterfly, lead the nominations with 4 apiece. Huske is nominated for Feminine Athlete of the 12 months, Feminine Race of the 12 months, and was a part of each the blended and ladies’s 4x100m medley relays that are up for Relay Efficiency of the 12 months. Walsh was a part of each relays too and earned particular person nods in Breakout Performer and Feminine Athlete of the 12 months.
Nic Fink is the male swimmer with essentially the most nominations. He was nominated for Male Athlete of the 12 months, Male Race of the 12 months, and Relay Efficiency of the 12 months as a part of the blended 4x100m medley relay.
The nominations for this yr give attention to performances from the 2024 Olympic Video games, the place the U.S. prolonged their medal desk win streak, beating Australia by one.
Take a look at the total checklist of nominees under.
Breakout Performer
This award is given to the athlete whose efficiency(s) stand out in relation to different years, with particular emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Video games.
Nominees:
Every of the nominees is a first-time Olympic qualifier. Walsh received 4 medals in her debut Video games after breaking the ladies’s 100-fly world report to open the U.S. Olympic Trials. Luke Hobson is the opposite swimmer on this checklist to earn a person Olympic medal, edging out Tokyo silver medalist Duncan Scott for bronze within the 200 freestyle. He added a silver medal within the males’s 4×200 free relay.
Alex Shackell earned two relay medals: gold within the ladies’s 4x100m medley relay and silver within the ladies’s 4×200 freestyle relay. Her brother, Aaron Shackell, was the primary American added to the Olympic group with a breakout efficiency within the males’s 400 free on the U.S. Olympic Trials. In Paris, he completed eighth.
Coach of the 12 months
This award is given to the coach whose athlete(s) carried out on the highest degree all year long, with particular emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Video games.
Nominees:
Todd DeSorbo and Anthony Nesty, the pinnacle coaches of the U.S. Olympic Workforce, each earned nominations for Coach of the 12 months. Notably, Nesty simply received Coach of the 12 months on the 2024 ASCA World Clinic. Huske’s coach, Greg Meehan, is nominated as effectively. Bob Bowman, whose athletes—American and worldwide—confirmed out in Paris, powered by Leon Marchand’s efficiency.
Feminine Athlete of the 12 months
This award is given to the highest feminine swimmer of the yr with particular emphasis on achievements on the 2024 Olympic Video games.
Nominees:
Feminine Athlete of the 12 months is the class with essentially the most nominations. Huske, Katie Ledecky, and Kate Douglass every earned a number of Olympic medals, together with not less than one particular person gold. Huske leads the best way with 5 total medals.
Regan Smith earned three particular person silver medals on the Video games. She contributed to 2 gold medal relay performances, together with breaking the Olympic report within the 100 again to guide off the world record-setting ladies’s 4×100 medley relay. Walsh earned 4 medals, two gold and two silver.
Feminine Race of the 12 months
This award is given to the feminine swimmer with the best single particular person race of the yr, with particular emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Video games.
Nominees:
Feminine Race of the 12 months comes right down to Douglass, Huske, and Ledecky in a battle of gold medal-winning swims. Douglass and Huske’s swims have been the primary particular person Olympic golds of their profession, whereas Ledecky defended her 1500 freestyle crown en path to changing into essentially the most adorned American feminine Olympic athlete.
Fran Crippen Open Water Swimmer of the 12 months
This award is given to the athlete who had essentially the most excellent yr as an open-water swimmer, with an emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Video games.
Nominees:
Three Olympic open water swimmers braved the Seine River to compete and now are Golden Goggles nominees. After successful 400 IM silver within the pool, Katie Grimes completed fifteenth within the ladies’s 10K, simply forward of sixteenth place Mariah Denigan. Within the males’s race, Ivan Puskovitch completed nineteenth.
Male Athlete of the 12 months
This award is given to the highest male swimmer of the yr with particular emphasis on achievements on the 2024 Olympic Video games.
Nominees:
That is one in every of Nic Fink’s three 2024 Golden Goggle Nominations, doubtless courtesy of his first particular person Olympic medal from successful silver within the males’s 100 breaststroke and his assist on the lads’s and blended medley relays. Ryan Murphy additionally factored into the medley relays and picked up bronze within the males’s 100 backstroke.
Bobby Finke earned the American males’s solely particular person Olympic gold of the Video games, successful the lads’s 1500 freestyle in a world report time.
Male Race of the 12 months
This award is given to the male swimmer with the best single particular person race of the yr, with particular emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Video games.
Nominees:
Finke erasing Solar Yang’s world report from 2012 in a fascinating swim earned him a Male Race of the 12 months nod along with his nomination for Male Athlete of the 12 months. Fink’s 100m breaststroke efficiency can be acknowledged as is Hobson’s efficiency in a nail-biting males’s 200 freestyle ultimate, the place 1st by means of 4th have been separated by .15 seconds.
Perseverance Award
This award is given to the athlete who got here again from adversity, retirement, illness, harm, and so forth., to have an impressive efficiency(s) in 2024, with particular emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Video games.
Nominees:
Caeleb Dressel and Simone Manuel, two of the faces of the previous eight years of American swimming, returned to the game after prolonged breaks and made the 2024 Olympic group. Each received again on the rostrum too, courtesy of relay performances, with Dressel serving to the U.S. males to gold on the opening evening of the Video games.
Paige Madden additionally took time away from the game up to now Olympic quad whereas coping with well being points. She missed the 2022 and 2023 Worlds groups however had a resurgent 2024, qualifying for her second Olympics and successful her first particular person Olympic medal with bronze in an electrical ladies’s 800 freestyle. She additionally received silver as a part of the ladies’s 4×200 freestyle relay. Emma Weyant bounced again after getting disqualified at 2023 U.S. Nationals and lacking the Worlds group to qualify for her second Video games and earn bronze within the 400 IM.
Relay Efficiency of the 12 months
This award is given to the very best group relay efficiency, male or feminine. The efficiency thought-about have to be a finals efficiency, with particular emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Video games.
Nominees:
- Males’s 4x100m freestyle relay
- Blended 4x100m medley relay
- Girls’s 4x100m medley relay
The boys’s 4×100 freestyle relay swam away from a aggressive subject to win gold on the primary evening of the 2024 Olympics by greater than a second. Later, the blended and ladies’s 4×100 medley relays received gold in world-record performances. After Finke’s 1500 free win tied the U.S. with Australia on high of the medal desk, the ladies’s 4×100 medley relay clinched the medal desk win with an eighth gold for Workforce USA.
