2020 Swammy Awards: Siobhan Haughey Is The Asian Female Swimmer Of The Year

To see all of our 2020 Swammy Awards, click here.

2020 ASIAN FEMALE SWIMMER OF THE YEAR: SIOBHAN HAUGHEY

23-year-old Hong Kong Olympian Siobhan Haughey has earned SwimSwam’s 2020 Swammy Award for Asian female swimmer of the year.

Switching from her season 1 team of the DC Trident to Energy Standard for season 2, Haughey wound up finishing her ISL campaign this time around as the 7th highest point earner across the entire league. She raked in a massive 250.0 points to finish 7th in the MVP point standings as well, inserting herself into the Olympic conversation across her signature freestyle events in the process.

One of Haughey’s prize achievements this year was busting out the fastest short course 100m freestyle time of her life in the ISL final. The former Michigan Wolverine nailed a massive 50.94 outing as lead-off on the undefeated Energy Standard women’s 4x100m free relay to check-in as the new Hong Kong national record holder, as well as the Asian record holder in the event.

She had been one-upping herself in this event with virtually every performance leading up to this record, dropping from 51.38 in match 1 to 51.30 in match 6 before earning 51.12 to help her earn the SF #1 Female MVP honor.

Haughey’s 50.94 lights out performance rendered her as the world’s 3rd fastest female in history in the event.

But Haughey also destroyed the record books in the 200m free as well this year. Over the course of the season, she brought the Asian Record down to a mighty 1:51.11 to win the event at the ISL final, shaving .08 off of the 1:51.19 she logged merely days before.

In doing so, Haughey bumped herself up to become the world’s 2nd fastest performer all-time, sitting only behind Swedish speedster Sarah Sjostrom and her 1:50.43 from 2017.

Both her 100m and 200m freestyle efforts rendered Haughey as the fastest performer in each event through the entire ISL season. Additionally, Haughey ended her season ranked as the 4th fastest 400m freestyle across the league as well, earning a PB of 3:57.75 in match #6.

As an additional accolade, Haughey’s name was among only five individual swimmers who have remained undefeated in an event across two ISL seasons. Haughey went 3-for-3 in the 200m free in season 1 for DC Trident and finished 5-for-5 on Energy Standard.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

In no particular order.

• Zhang Yufei (CHN) – 22-year-old Zhang had the meet of her life at the 2020 Chinese Swimming Championships this past September, firing off two national records en route to entering all-time rankings. Zhang hit a personal best of 55.62 in the LCM 100 fly to become China’s first-ever sub-56 flyer and the 2nd fastest performer all-time worldwide. At that same meet, Zhang became China’s first-ever female to dip under the 53-second threshold in the 100m free, producing a new Chinese national record of 52.90.
• Suzuka Hasegawa (JPN) – Tokyo Frog Kings’ Hasegawa was one of the breakout stars of the new team, remaining undefeated in the women’s 200m fly throughout the season. She wound up on top of the all-ISL rankings in the event with a season-best of 2:03.12. That set a new ISL record as well. Pre-ISL, however, Hasegawa rocked the world’s #1 200m fly in long course, producing a menacing 2:05.62 to get under the 2:06 barrier for the first time ever and rank as Asia’s 5th fastest performer all-time.
• Yui Ohashi (JPN) – Another standout on the ISL scene, Tokyo Frog Kings’ Yui Ohashi earned the title of IM queen throughout her time in the Budapest Bubble. The national record holder and World Championships medalist finished the season as the #1 ranked 400m IMer with a time of 4:23.25, while also hoping the 200m IM ranks with her season-best of 2:03.93. The latter outing resulted in the setting of a new Japanese national record.

Previous Winners:

• 2013 – Aya Terakawa, Japan
• 2014 – Ye Shiwen, China
• 2015 – Kanako Watanabe, Japan
• 2016 – Rie Kaneto, Japan
• 2017 – Li Bingjie, China
• 2018 – Rikako Ikee, Japan
• 2019 – Siobhan Haughey, Hong Kong