Each year Swimming World Magazine selects the top male and female swimmers for the following regions: Africa, the Pacific Rim, Europe, America, and World. Starting today, Swimming World will announce the top athletes in each region leading up to the announcement of the Male and Female World Swimmers of the Year on December 1st.
Male African Swimmer of the Year Sponsored by Competitor
A gold medal in the 100 meter fly at the 2015 FINA World Championships earned South African Chad le Clos his fourth straight Swimming World Male African Male Swimmer of the Year award. He is now tied with Roland Schoeman for the most career and most consecutive wins since the magazine first began recognizing the regional award in 2004. Schoeman won the first four honors from 2004-07.
Le Clos, 23, and three-time winner Cameron van der Burgh, 27, of South Africa turned in similar performances this year, but le Clos’ gold-silver showing in Kazan compared to van der Burgh’s silversilver performance seemed to give le Clos the advantage. Still, van der Burgh collected five first-place votes, compared to le Clos’ nine. Le Clos first captured the silver medal behind Hungary’s Laszlo Cseh in the 200 meter butterfly. Cseh won in 1:53.48, with le Clos coming up a bit short on his final 50 sprint to the wall, just 2-tenths behind in 1:53.68.
The two swimmers also finished 1-2 in the 100 fly, with le Clos finding a measure of redemption with a 50.56 African record, ahead of Cseh’s 50.87. Le Clos also placed sixth in the 200 free (1:46.53). Van der Burgh, meanwhile, earned two silver medals in the 50 and 100 breastsroke events, finishing twice Adam Peaty of Great Britain.
Female African Swimmer of the Year Sponsored by Competitor
Zimbabwe’s Kirsty Coventry survived an epic year by Egypt’s Farida Osman to claim a record eighth Swimming World Female African Swimmer of the Year award.
In a particularly difficult selection that featured neither of the two front-runners winning medals at this summer’s World Championships, Coventry edged Osman with more consistent top-two votes from the magazine’s panel of 14 voters. While Osman owned the advantage in first-place votes (eight to six), some voters ranked her farther down their top-five lists than Coventry.
Coventry, 32, led the African region in four events. As usual, she dominated the 50, 100 and 200 meter backstroke with times of 28.08, 1:00.09 and 2:10.01. She was nearly a second faster than her competition in the 50, two seconds in the 100 and three seconds in the 200. She also showed her versatility by turning in the region’s top time in the 200 IM (2:14.32)—nearly a second-and-a-half ahead of runner-up Marlies Ross from South Africa (2:15.71).
Meanwhile, Osman, 20, also topped the region in a quartet of events: 50 and 100 free (24.92, 55.41) as well as the 50 and 100 fly (25.78, 58.22). The American-born competitive swimmer who represents Egypt internationally just wasn’t as dominant in all of her events.
Away from the pool, Coventry has been pretty busy as well. In 2012, she was elected to the IOC Athletes’ Commission for an eight year term that will take her through the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
