In a year that saw Great Britain excel in all facets of aquatic sports at all levels, the competition for the public’s vote to earn the British Swimming Athlete of the Year was fierce. In perhaps a bit of a surprise, diver Tom Daley won over the public, beating out two swimming world champions.
Daley won a gold and silver in the diving competition at the FINA world championships in Russia, taking the win in the synchro platform event with Rebecca Gallantree. And in what was perhaps a rehearsal for next year’s Olympics, Daley was third in the individual 10-meter platform event.
“This is a massive honor as the competition for this title has been immense,” Daley said. “This year has been fantastic and to have been back on the podium at a World Championships was a great way to end the season.”
Daley has been a major sports celebrity in Great Britain since winning the bronze medal on the platform at the London Olympics. His face is on billboards and in magazine advertisements, and he makes more public appearances than most sport celebrities.
In 2013, his popularity grew when he went public about his sexuality, saying he had been in a relationship with a man for almost a year. That man was Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, and the two announced their engagement earlier this week.
In addition to his world championship medals, Daley won plenty of medals in the FINA Diving World Series, placing second in the overall standings.
British Swimming – which oversees all aquatic sports in Great Britain – also celebrated two world champions in the pool. James Guy won the 200 free and was part of the winning 800 free relay, while Adam Peaty won the 50 and 100 breaststrokes in Russia as well as the mixed 400 medley relay. He set a world record in the 50 breast and the relay.
For Peaty’s efforts, he won the Swimming Athlete of the Year prize. His coach, Melanie Marshall, was picked as coach of the year to go along with her selection as coach of the year by the British Swimming Coaches Association.
The swimming Emerging Athlete of the Year award went to Duncan Scott, who moved up from junior-level athlete to world championship gold medalist as a member of the prelim squad for Great Britain’s 800 free relay.
Other honors:
Diving:
Athlete of the Year: Tom Daley
Emerging Athlete of the Year: Lois Toulson
Coach of the Year: Adrian Hinchliffe
Para-Swimming:
Athlete of the Year: Jessica-Jane Applegate
Emerging Athlete of the Year: Tully Kearney
Coach of the Year: Glenn Smith
A press release from British Swimming contributed to this article.
Some factors aside from aquatic competition performance in play? A shared gold and an individual silver(bronze?) for Daley v. Peaty with two individual golds, a relay gold and two world records in Kazan, not to mention an absolutely crushing world record from the British Trials that withstood the Kazan performances. It doesn’t seem that a vote of the public likely reflect much knowledge of aquatic performance quality rather than simply celebrity.