Leon Marchand & Sarah Sjöström Take Top Honours At European Aquatics Athlete Of The Year Awards
Leon Marchand and Sarah Sjöström have been named best male and female swimmer of 2024 in the European Aquatics Awards.
The Frenchman finished ahead of David Popovici, Thomas Ceccon, Kristof Milak and Daniel Wiffen with 63.5% of the total vote from the public and federations.
Marchand won four titles at Paris 2024, securing the 200/400IM double, the 200 fly and 200 breaststroke and all in Olympic record time.
The Frenchman shattered Michael Phelps’ Olympic mark in the 400IM clocking 4:02.95 as he opened his account at a feverish La Defense Arena.
Leon Marchand: Photo Courtesy: Deepbluemedia
Next up was the 200 fly in which he trailed defending champion Milak by 0.72 at the final turn. However, superb underwaters saw Marchand saw him eat into the Hungarian’s lead. With around 25m to go, Marchand moved on to Milak’s shoulder before going ahead to accelerate into the wall 0.04 inside the Olympic standard in 1:51.21.
Marchand wrapped up the gold medal in the men’s 200 fly right around 8:40 local time in Paris. He had the medal ceremony at 9:35, then was back in the water at 10:31 to chase the 200 breast which he won in 2:05.85.
He finished his individual programme in the 200IM, taking gold in 1:54.06, only 0.06 shy of Ryan Lochte’s WR.
Marchand also took a bronze in the men’s 4x100m medley relay in which he swam the breaststroke leg as France finished behind China and the USA.
With that he became only the third man – after Phelps and Mark Spitz – to claim four titles at a single Olympics.
Marchand, coached by Bob Bowman at Texas, followed that up by making his debut on the World Cup tour. There he took the overall men’s title where he clinched gold in the 100m, 200m, and 400IM events across all three of the stops in the series.
At the Singapore stop, he set a new short-course world record in the 200IM with a time of 1:48.88 as well as a European 100IM mark of 49.92.
Sjöström Recognised After Golden 2024
Sjöström claimed the women’s honour for the sixth time following another glittering year, finishing ahead of Isabel Gose, Anastasia Gorbenko, Anastasiya Kirpichnikova and Tes Schouten.
The Swede started her 2024 with two golds at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha with her season culminating in Paris where she won gold in the 50m and 100m freestyle, eight years after winning the 100m butterfly at Rio 2016 as she brought her overall medal haul to six.
At the Doha worlds, she stormed to her sixth straight 50 fly title with the third fastest time in history of 24.63 before completing the three-peat in the 50 free in 23.69, for her fourth world crown.
Sjöström arrived in Paris intending to only compete on an individual basis in the 50 free as she and coach Antonio Lutula thought the one-length prelims would start the day after the 100.
That was until around eight weeks before Paris when teammate Michelle Coleman pointed out there were two full days between the 100 free final and the 50 prelims on 3 August.
With Coleman the sole Swedish representative in the 100 free and a slot available, Sjöström and Lutula agreed she’d enter before making a final decision in Paris.
Sarah Sjöström: Photo Courtesy: La Presse
Her first race in the French capital saw her split 51.99 on the second leg in the 4×100 free prelims before she led off in 52.53 in the final as Sweden finished fifth in a national record 0f 3:33.79.
She was still uncertain about entering the individual event, telling Swimming World: “We did the relay and we were like is it worth it? Are we going to do the 100 because I did 52.5 again? But also my coach told me your taper’s not 100% there yet because we saved the taper so I could be in shape for the 50 free and the 100 later in the week.
“He said it’s a good idea to do the 100 to have something to do but also remember the favourites never usually win. Also, we saw a lot of the fastest girls had the 200 free final the day before the 100 free starts so they will be a little bit more tired.
“I was like maybe we’re just going to dive in and see what happens because I’m never going to find out if I don’t do it. So that was the mindset, I was curious to find out what I can do but it wasn’t like I was thinking okay, let’s win, let’s win, let’s win. It was just like some curiosity.”
Fourth at the halfway point, Sjöström moved through the field to touch the wall first in 52.16secs ahead of Torri Huske (52.29) and Siobhan Haughey (52.33).
With that, she claimed her first global 100 free title after bronze at Rio 2016 and four silvers and a bronze across five World Championships between 2013 and 2022.
The spotlight was firmly on her for the 50. A 23.85 prelims-topper was followed by 23.66 in the semis, the third-fastest in history and 0.05 off her world record of 23.61 from the 2023 worlds in Fukuoka.
Come the final and Sjöström stopped the clock in 23.71 to claim her second gold of the Games ahead of Meg Harris (23.97) and Zhang Yufei (24.20), three years after silver in Tokyo where a broken elbow threatened her very participation.
Following Paris, Sjöström got married to Johan de Jong Skierus and announced in December that she was planning to bypass competition in 2025 with a sixth Olympics at LA 2028 still a possibility.