See all of our 2024 Swammy Awards right here.
Males’s distance swimming entered a brand new period within the final Olympic quad. Distance swimmers from world wide helped reshape the all-time high 10 within the 800 and 1500 freestyle, placing on thrilling races that made it unimaginable to abdomen a minimize to industrial on the 650-meter mark. One of the vital thrilling elements of this revolution is that it doesn’t appear like it’s going anyplace any time quickly. Not solely are the largest stars nonetheless racing, however the subsequent wave of nice distance swimmers is arising the junior ranks, headlined by Kuzey Tunçelli.
Tunçelli introduced himself in 2023, turning into the youngest swimmer to crack the 15-minute barrier within the 1500 freestyle and incomes double gold within the distance occasions on the 2023 World Junior Championships. He continued enhancing in 2024, taking the following step in his profession on the senior worldwide stage which earned him the 2024 Swammy for World Junior Male Swimmer of the 12 months.
This yr, Tunçelli gained his first senior European Championship title, ending first within the 1500 freestyle on the championships in June with a 14:55.64. He went to the European Junior Championships a couple of weeks later and claimed double gold within the 800 and 1500 freestyle. Within the latter, he broke the world junior document, European junior, and championship document with a 14:41.89. The swim knocked greater than 12 seconds off his Turkey document and lifelong better of 14:54.16 as he moved to 18th all-time within the occasion and eighth amongst Europeans forward of his seventeenth birthday.
The Paris Video games have been Tunçelli’s Olympic debut. In his first swim, he broke the Turkish document, clocking 7:47.29 for an Eleventh-place end. He made the 1500 freestyle last, the place he chopped much more time without work his world junior and nationwide information, clocking a 14:41.22 to take fifth. The time improved his standing because the 18th quickest all-time within the occasion.
Tunçelli wasn’t achieved breaking information after the Olympic Video games. He took over the official 1500 freestyle world junior document on the 2024 Brief Course World Championships, swimming 14:20.64 and successful bronze for his first medal on the senior World Championship degree. He now owns the 1500 freestyle world junior document in long-course and short-course meters. Tunçelli broke two Turkish information through the swim as his 800 freestyle cut up of seven:38.76 broke his Turkish document within the 800 freestyle.
Tunçelli made main strides throughout 2024, breaking information, staying atop the world junior distance scene, and transferring up the senior worldwide distance ranks and onto a senior World Championship podium for the primary time. However, it nonetheless appears he has extra room to enhance—an thrilling prospect on the point of a brand new Olympic quad after the jumps he made this season.
Honorable Point out:
- Miron Lifintsev: If 18-year-old Miron Lifintsev had been authorized for impartial athlete standing earlier than December, he would have a robust case to make for the male World Junior athlete of the yr. He’s near having one anyway. Lifintsev broke onto the backstroke scene this yr, crushing a world junior document within the 100 backstroke with a 52.08 main off a relay at July’s Russian Cup. That swim would’ve earned him a silver medal had he achieved it within the Olympic last. Lifinitsev made loads of finals on the 2024 Brief Course World Championships as soon as authorized as a impartial athlete. He swept the dash backstrokes, utilizing his lengthy attain to get his hand on the wall first forward of loaded fields in two world junior information. He swam 22.47 within the 50 backstroke, successful by two-hundredths, and gained by three-hundredths within the 100 backstroke with a 48.76. He gained gold as a part of the Impartial Athletes ‘B’ blended 4×50 and 4×100 medley relays, setting a European document within the former. Then, he capped his meet by main off the NAB workforce’s 400 medley relay, which gained gold in a world document of three:18.68.
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