To see all of the 2014 Swammy Award winners, presented by TYR, click here.
2014 HONOREE: Chad Le Clos, South Africa
Chad Le Clos is wrapping up an utterly dominant year, as he earned win after win on the Fina World Cup circuit. Le Clos was undefeated, taking 27 events total across the entire World Cup season, earning the 2014 FINA/MasterBank Swimming World Cup male overall winner grand prize.
Le Clos also was a two-time winner at the Commonwealth Games, earning gold in the 100m and 200m butterfly events, while picking up bronze in the 50m butterfly and 200 individual medley races.
While in Doha for the 2014 Short Course World Championships, Le Clos earned an incredible four individual golds, with victories in the 200m freestyle, and 50m/100m/200m butterfly events. His sweep of the butterfly events resulted in three new championship records and one new world record, as he rewrote the record books with his performance in the 100m butterfly.
Le Clos’ win in the 200m freestyle was certainly an indicator that he is taking that event more than seriously, as he held off both Russia’s Izotov and USA’s Lochte to earn the hard-fought win. This was followed up with Le Clos posting the fastest 200m freestyle split in the men’s 4 x 200m freestyle relay later on in the meet. Perhaps this is foreshadowing a showdown with USA’s Michael Phelps in not only the 100m butterfly event, but in the 200m freestyle race as well, should both pursue it as an event going Rio.
With his four wins in Doha, Le Clos established himself as the most successful South African at a significant international event since Ryk Neethling, his countryman, who took home three gold medals at the 2006 Short Course Worlds.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
In no particular order
- Myles Brown – A legitimate challenger to Le Clos in the 200m freestyle distance, Brown earned wins in this event at the Beijing and Singapore stops of the FINA World Cup Series. He also touched the wall ahead of Le Clos in a surprise win at South Africa’s Short Course Nationals recently. Brown is becoming more of a factor on the world stage in the 400m freestyle event as well, winning in the Tokyo stop of the World Cup, beating the likes of James Guy, Thomas Fraser-Holmes, and Ryan Cochrane.
- Roland Schoeman – Schoeman is further proving the phrase, “age is just a number”, as the 34-year-old veteran tore up the FINA World Cup stage in the 50m breaststroke event. Over the course of the 7 stops, Schoeman stood on top of the podium in 5….again, at 34 years old. He currently ranks 3rd in the world in the 50m breaststroke (sc), 11th in the 100m breaststroke (sc), and 6th in the 50m fly (sc). Schoeman continues to be a threat on the world stage and does not seem to have plans to go away anytime soon.
