Golden Goggles Ballot: Record-Setting Swims to Garner Race of the Year Honors (Part 1)
The annual celebration of the United States’ accomplishments in international swimming will take place November 23 in Indianapolis, and even though the U.S. team at the Paris Olympics did not match its usual lofty medal totals, the group still finished with 28 medals, nine up on the closest competition, and a gold in the women’s 400 medley relay to conclude the meet gave the Americans eight top finishes, one more than second-place Australia.
USA Swimming has unveiled a list of highly deserving nominees that are up for honors. Who deserves the top spots in each category? Let’s take a look, beginning with one category teeming with impressive choices, race of the year.
Female Race of the Year
Nominees: Kate Douglass 200 Breaststroke, Torri Huske 100 Butterfly, Katie Ledecky 1500 Freestyle (all at Olympic Games)
A pair of American women set individual world records this year, with Gretchen Walsh shattering the 100 fly mark at the U.S. Olympic Trials before Regan Smith did the same two days later in the 100 back. But neither one captured individual gold, leaving three nominees who did come through in impressive fashion in Paris.
Douglass out-dueled defending Olympic champion Tatjana (Schoenmaker) Smith to win the 200 breast, setting an American record of 2:19.24 to become history’s fourth-fastest performer. Meanwhile, Huske rebounded from a disappointing fourth-place finish in the 100 fly three years earlier in Tokyo with gold this time. In an ironic twist after a Tokyo final in which she led throughout before fading late, she overtook Walsh down the stretch to claim gold.
And Ledecky, there’s not much more to say to describe her utter dominance in the distance events. She won the 1500 gold medal by 10 seconds, which is actually a relatively small margin by her ridiculous standards.
You cannot go wrong with any of these options. Our pick, however, is Douglass. The 22-year-old was under pressure as the top qualifier and favorite but in a tough spot with the defending gold medalist and 100-meter winner breathing down her neck the entire race. Douglass never yielded while proving the U.S. with a desperately-needed gold on day six.
Male Race of the Year
Nominees: Nic Fink 100 Breaststroke, Bobby Finke 1500 Freestyle, Luke Hobson 200 Freestyle (all at Olympic Games)
Bobby Finke with his Olympic gold medal in the men’s 1500 freestyle — Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto
All the credit in the world to Fink and Hobson, who produced their top swims of the summer (or in Hobson’s case, his career) to secure individual medals and come much closer than expected to winning gold.
But this award is a total runaway. Finke won gold in the final individual event of the meet with his American men’s team desperate to avoid being shut out from the top step of the podium. Ireland’s Dan Wiffen entered the final as the slight favorite, having learned how to match Finke’s patented closing speed in distance races, but Finke rendered that ability useless by grabbing the race by the horns and leading after every single length.
In the process, he took down a 12-year-old world record with his time of 14:30.67. In the process, he became the first U.S. man to set a world record in an individual Olympic event (LCM) in eight years, a drought going back to Ryan Murphy’s world mark in the 100 back at the Rio Games.
Breakout Performer of the Year
Nominees: Luke Hobson, Aaron Shackell, Alex Shackell, Gretchen Walsh
These four swimmers each put together fine years in their first Olympic experiences: Hobson securing his perch as America’s best 200 freestyler while winning an Olympic medal, the Shackell siblings qualifying for Paris in their hometown two days apart before each making an individual final in Paris and Walsh ascending from college standout to global star.
The honor seems ticketed for Walsh. Remember that in her senior-level global debut at the 2023 World Championships, she largely struggled, taking bronze in the 50 fly but coming up well short of her best times in her remaining individual events and relays. No such drop-off this time.
Walsh became an individual world-record holder in the 100 fly at the U.S. Olympic Trials, and she ended up racing three individual events and three relays in Paris. She had her share of tough-to-swallow finishes, ending up second in the 100 fly by four hundredths and missing a medal in the 50 free by one measly hundredth, Walsh’s initial Olympic experience was an unqualified success, exactly the breakout USA Swimming will want to honor this November.
Coach of the Year
Nominees: Bob Bowman, Todd DeSorbo, Greg Meehan, Anthony Nesty
Each of these swimmers coached at least one athlete to individual Olympic gold this year, but the award gets tricky in that the coach with the best overall year will almost surely not win. Bowman led the Arizona State men to their first-ever NCAA team title in March (before departing for the University of Texas two days later), and on the international level, he led Leon Marchand in a stunning four-gold-medal performance while guiding Hubert Kos to 200 backstroke gold and Regan Smith to five medals, three of them individual.
But this is a U.S.-centric award ceremony, so Bowman will only get credit for the U.S. athletes he helped place on the team: Smith, Paige Madden, Simone Manuel and Drew Kibler.
Nesty did a great job with Ledecky and Finke, but the overall struggles of the U.S. men under Nesty’s leadership in Paris could hurt his candidacy. Regardless, if we’re just counting Americans, DeSorbo gets our vote: a fourth-consecutive NCAA team title, four Virginia-trained swimmers getting onto the team and then winning three individual medals — which would have been four if not for Alex Walsh’s unfortunate DQ in the 200 IM — while playing key U.S. relay roles.
Fran Crippen Open Water Swimmer of the Year
Nominees: Mariah Denigan, Katie Grimes, Ivan Puskovitch
The Americans did not have a banner year in open water competition, with Grimes and Denigan ending up 15th and 16th in the women’s 10-kilometer race in Paris while Puskovitch placed 19th among the men. The conditions in the Seine River favored veterans, leaving Grimes in particular unable to match the bronze-medal finish she achieved at the 2023 Worlds to become the first U.S. swimmer to secure her spot at the Games.
Grimes did win one medal in the pool in Paris, taking silver in the 400 IM, but we cannot consider that because this award measures open water success. With that in mind, Denigan is the choice, winning by virtue of her sixth-place finish at the February World Championships that automatically secured her spot at her first Olympics.
Regarding the WR drought for American men: Did Caeleb Dressel not set the 100 fly record in the past 8 years?