See all of our 2023 Swammy Awards here.\
ASIAN COACH OF THE YEAR: CUI DENGRONG (CHINA)
To say that China’s Qin Haiyang had an incredible year is an understatement, with the 24-year-old sweeping the breaststroke events at this year’s World Championships and accomplishing the same feat at the Asian Games in his home nation.
The coach behind the phenom is Cui Dengrong, with the Nanjing, Jiangsu Province-based leader recognized as SwimSwam’s Asian Coach of the Year for 2023.
Amid a stable of athletes, including World Junior Record holder Dong Zhihao, Qin is Cui’s most successful athlete of the year.
Along with the aforementioned accomplishments, Qin established a new World Record in the 200m breast, hitting a massive 2:05.48 en route to his victory in Fukuoka. His trifecta of wins in the 50m, 100m and 200m distances rendered him the first swimmer in history to take all three breaststroke events at a single edition of a World Championships.
Additionally, Qin became the first Asian swimmer to be named World Aquatics’ Male Swimmer of the Year, and was named co-MVP of the Asian Games.
Cui also coaches the woman who shared MVP honors with Qin, Olympic champion Zhang Yufei.
In Hangzhou, 25-year-old Zhang topped the podium across the women’s 50m free, 50m fly, 100m fly, 200m fly in addition to two relay golds. Prior to that, in Fukuoka, Zhang earned 50m free bronze, 50m fly silver and 100m fly gold.
Zhang has trained under Cui for the past 6 years while Qin moved to his group just last year.
Cui was one of our honorable mentions for the 2021 Swammy Awards for Asian Coach of the Year.
HONORABLE MENTION:
- Jeon Dong-Hyun (KOR) – The nation of Korea made it known well ahead of the Asian Games that it was pursuing a first-ever gold medal in the men’s 4x200m free relay and they made it happen in Hangzhou. A big part of the foursome who topped the podium was World Championships medalist Hwang Sunwoo, the 20-year-old coached by Seoul Physical Education High School’s Jeon Dong-Heyon. Hwang took 200m free bronze in Fukuoka and followed that up with 200m free gold and 100m free bronze at the Asian Games. Hwang was later named MVP of the Korean National Sports Festival, just the 2nd man ever to earn consecutive honors, joining Olympian Park Tae Hwan.
Past Winners:
- 2022 Swammy – Jeon Dong-Hyun (KOR)
- 2021 Swammy – Norimasa Hirai (JPN)
- 2020 Swammy – Norimasa Hirai (JPN)
- 2019 Swammy – Norimasa Hirai (JPN)
- 2018 Swammy — Norimasa Hirai & Takayuki Umehara (JPN)
- 2017 Swammy — Norimasa Hirai (JPN)
- 2016 Swammy — Norimasa Hirai (JPN)
- 2015 Swammy — Sergio Lopez (SGP)
