Every year since 1964, Swimming World has acknowledged the top athletes in our sport by voting for the World Swimmers of the Year. The awards expanded to include the Americas and European Regions in 1980, Pacific Rim in 1995, and Africa in 2004. A panel of 15 members, both national and international, participated in the 2017 voting process. In anticipation of the release of the December issue we at Swimming World would like to take a look back at previous winners.
(Editor’s note: In 2013 Swimming World stripped the East German athletes, who were systematically doped in the 1970s and ’80s, from their World and European Swimmer of the Year titles).
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2017 Winners: Sarah Sjostrom & Caeleb Dressel
Photo courtesy: SIPA USA
For the first time since 2012, Swimming World’s Female World Swimmer of the Year was not Katie Ledecky. Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom dethroned Lady Ledecky. The 23-year-old collected the same individual medal haul as Ledecky at the 2017 World Championships—three golds and one silver—but Sjostrom upped Ledecky by uncorking two world records in the 50 and 100 free. And she set four short course meters world records days later.
Sjostrom unleashed something remarkable to lead off Sweden’s 4×100 meter freestyle relay at Worlds: her blistering 51.71 split broke Australian Cate Campbell’s world record by 35-hundredths.
On Day 2 in Budapest, Sjostrom came close to another world record—her own—in the 100 fly, touching in 55.53 seconds, a mere 5-hundredths off of her record time from Rio. Sjostrom became the first woman to win four world titles in a single individual eventwith the victory. She now owns the 11 fastest times in history in the 100 fly!
This was Sjostrom’s first World Swimmer of the Year title and third European Swimmer of the Year title. Six world records in one year—that’s one successful 2017 campaign!
Photo Courtesy: SIPA USA
He was on the verge of making history, but Caeleb Dressel insisted that he had no desire to be compared with Michael Phelps, a man whose athletic accomplishments had long since transcended the sport.
Dressel twice declared his admiration for Phelps, with whom hehad crossed paths at the Rio Olympics—the fifth Games for Phelps and the first for Dressel. But the 20-year-old Floridian also utteredthese words: “I just want to keep doing my own thing.”
His “own thing” had, to that point, produced six World Championship gold medals at FINA’s global showcase meet in Budapest. One day later, he would win a record-tying seventh. The only other man to win that many was, of course, Phelps.
And, for those efforts, Dressel was named the winner of an award that Phelps won eight times: Male World Swimmer of the Year.
| Year | Women | Men |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Kaylee McKeown, AUS | Leon Marchand, FRA |
| 2022 | Ariarne Titmus, AUS | David Popovici, ROU |
| 2021 | Emma McKeon, AUS | Caeleb Dressel, USA |
| 2020 | Not awarded due to COVID-19 pandemic | Not awarded due to COVID-19 pandemic |
| 2019 | Regan Smith, USA | Caeleb Dressel, USA |
| 2018 | Katie Ledecky, USA | Adam Peaty, GBR |
| 2017 | Sarah Sjostrom, SWE | Caeleb Dressel, USA |
| 2016 | Katie Ledecky, USA | Michael Phelps, USA |
| 2015 | Katie Ledecky, USA | Adam Peaty, GBR |
| 2014 | Katie Ledecky, USA | Kosuke Hagino, JPN |
| 2013 | Katie Ledecky, USA | Sun Yang, CHN |
| 2012 | Missy Franklin, USA | Michael Phelps, USA |
| 2011 | Rebecca Soni, USA | Ryan Lochte, USA |
| 2010 | Rebecca Soni, USA | Ryan Lochte, USA |
| 2009 | Federica Pellegrini, ITA | Michael Phelps, USA |
| 2008 | Stephanie Rice, AUS | Michael Phelps, USA |
| 2007 | Laure Manaudou, FRA | Michael Phelps, USA |
| 2006 | Leisel Jones, AUS | Michael Phelps, USA |
| 2005 | Leisel Jones, AUS | Grant Hackett, AUS |
| 2004 | Yana Klochkova, UKR | Michael Phelps, USA |
| 2003 | Hannah Stockbauer, GER | Michael Phelps, USA |
| 2002 | Natalie Coughlin, USA | Ian Thorpe, AUS |
| 2001 | Inge De Bruijn, NED | Ian Thorpe, AUS |
| 2000 | Inge De Bruijn, NED | Pieter van den Hoogenband, NED |
| 1999 | Penny Heyns, RSA | Ian Thorpe, AUS |
| 1998 | Jenny Thompson, USA | Ian Thorpe, AUS |
| 1997 | Claudia Poll, CRC | Michael Klim, Aus |
| 1996 | Penny Heyns, RSA | Denis Pankratov, RUS |
| 1995 | Kristina Egerszegi, HUN | Denis Pankratov, RUS |
| 1994 | Samantha Riley, AUS | Kieren Perkins, AUS |
| 1993 | Franziska Van Almsick, GER | Karoly Guttler, HUN |
| 1992 | Kristina Egerszegi, HUN | Egveni Sadovyi, URS |
| 1991 | Kristina Egerszegi, HUN | Tamas Darnyi, HUN |
| 1990 | Janet Evans, USA | Mike Barrowman, USA |
| 1989 | Janet Evans, USA | Mike Barrowman, USA |
| 1988 | Janet Evans, USA, | Matt Biondi, USA |
| 1987 | Janet Evans, USA | Tamas Darnyi, HUN |
| 1986 | Mary T. Meagher, USA, | Matt Biondi, USA |
| 1985 | Mary T. Meagher, USA | Michael Gross, FRG |
| 1984 | Tiffany Cohen, USA, | Alex Baumann, CAN |
| 1983 | Tiffany Cohen, USA, | Rick Carey, USA |
| 1982 | Tracy Caulkins, USA, Petra Schneider, GDR * | Vladimir Salnikov, URS |
| 1981 | Mary T. Meagher, USA | Alex Baumann, CAN |
| 1980 | Tracy Caulkins, USA, | Rowdy Gaines, USA |
| 1979 | Cynthia Woodhead, USA | Vladimir Salnikov, URS |
| 1978 | Tracy Caulkins, USA | Jesse Vassallo, USA |
| 1977 | Wendy Boglioli, USA, | Brian Goodell, USA |
| 1976 | Shirley Babashoff, USA, | John Naber, USA |
| 1975 | Shirley Babashoff, USA, | Tim Shaw, USA |
| 1974 | Shirley Babashoff, USA, | Tim Shaw, USA |
| 1973 | Novella Calligaris, ITA, | Rick DeMont, USA |
| 1972 | Shane Gould, AUS | Mark Spitz, USA |
| 1971 | Shane Gould, AUS | Mark Spitz, USA |
| 1970 | Alice Jones, USA | Gary Hall, USA |
| 1969 | Debbie Meyer, USA | Gary Hall, USA |
| 1968 | Debbie Meyer, USA | Charles Hickcox, USA |
| 1967 | Debbie Meyer, USA | Mark Spitz, USA |
| 1966 | Claudia Kolb, USA | Mike Burton, USA |
| 1965 | Martha Randall, USA | Dick Roth, USA |
| 1964 | N/A | Don Schollander, USA |
Morozov, Vladimir, RUS
Sjostrom, Sarah, SWE