2023 Swammy Awards: European Female Swimmer of the Year – Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania

See all of our 2023 Swammy Awards here.

2023 European Female Swimmer of the Year: Ruta Meilutyte, Lithuania

In 2022, we named Ruta Meilutyte as the inaugural winner of the “Comeback Award”. Last year was her first full year of competition since retiring at age 22. It was a highly successful year for her; she broke the SCM 50 breaststroke world record, won multiple medals at both the Budapest World Championships and Rome European Championships, and tore through the FINA World Cup series with Triple Crowns in the 50 and 100 breaststroke.

This year, she picked up where she left off in 2022 with another excellent season. She kicked off her 2023 World Championships with the 100 breaststroke, where she claimed gold ten years after her first World Championships gold medal in 2013. Meilutyte flirted with the world record line in both prelims and finals. In the final, she was out under world record pace at the halfway point (29.80), then held off a stacked field that included the last three Olympic champions: herself (2012), Lilly King (2016), and Lydia Jacoby (2020).

Her winning time of 1:04.62 is the 8th fastest performance in history and her prelims time of 1:04.67 ranks 9th. Her Fukuoka performance in the 100 breast is also a prime example of how she’s upped her game from 2022 to 2023. Meilutyte showed last year that she is one of the best 50 breaststrokers in the world and that stayed the same this year (more on that later). But in the 100 breast, she upgraded from bronze in 2022 to gold in 2023 against a much deeper field than the one in Budapest.

Of course, her biggest fireworks came at the end of the meet in the 50 breaststroke.

In semifinals, she equalled Benedetta Pilato‘s world record (29.30). Then, she took the record for herself in finals, blowing past the previous world record in 29.16–her second world record in two days. It was her second World Championship title of the week and her .78 second margin of victory over King is the largest in a women’s Worlds 50-meter event final.

Courtesy: World Aquatics

Meilutyte had been knocking at the door of reclaiming that world record since her return to the sport. She scared it the 2022 European Championships, swimming 29.44 for gold and a personal best. Less than a year later, she finally hit the mark, adding another chapter to her impressive comeback story.

Illness prevented her from completing the 50 breaststroke Triple Crown at the World Cup. But at the first stop of the series in Berlin, she broke 30 seconds once again, powering to a new World Cup record of 29.56 in Berlin.

One of the best parts about a world record is that it makes us rethink what’s possible for an event. How far can swimmers push the limits of the body? With her 50 breaststroke world record, Meilutyte took the conversation a step further: is a sub-29 second 50 breaststroke possible?

The 50 breaststroke is not on the Olympic slate and like last year, the 26-year-old has been quiet about her plans for next season. But part of what made this season so successful for Meilutyte is that in addition to her dominance in the 50 breaststroke, she also showed improvements in her 100 breast. So if she shows up in Paris, she’ll surely be in the medal conversation–12 years after she surprised for Olympic gold.

Honorable Mentions:

  • Sarah Sjostrom, Sweden — Sarah Sjostrom, a 4x winner of this Swammy Award, also had a superlative season, continuing to show that she remains one of the most dominant forces in women’s sprinting. She was a huge part of the reason why the pool felt like it was on fire during the seventh night at 2023 Worlds. She claimed gold in the 50 butterfly (24.77). Then, 17 minutes later, she lowered her own 50 freestyle world record by six-hundredths with a blazing 23.61. One day later she collected the gold medal (23.62), passing Michael Phelps for most individual World Championship medals. She continued her dominance in the butterfly/freestyle sprints at the World Cup, winning Triple Crowns in both. In Athens, she once again dipped below 25 seconds in the 50 fly for a new World Cup record of 24.97. The
  • Evgeniia Chikunova, Russia — Three female European swimmers broke a world record this year. We’ve touched on the other two–Meilutyte and Sjostrom–and Evgeniia Chikunova is the third. The three actually broke their world records in the opposite order than we’ve discussed them; Chikunova set hers at Russian Nationals in April. She smashed the 200 breaststroke world record, taking 1.40 seconds off the mark with a blistering 2:17.55. Coming into the year, she hadn’t broken the 2:20 barrier. At the same meet, she also dipped under 1:05 for the first time in the 100 breaststroke with a 1:04.92 that moved her to 7th all-time.

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aquajosh
9 months ago

Ruta
2 #1 World Rankings in LC
50 breast WR and World Champion
100 breast World Champion; 8th and 9th fastest times in history
2 World Championship wins

Sarah
2 #1 World Rankings in LC
Wins 50 fly in a time three-tenths faster than anyone else has ever swam
50 free WR, World Champion; 1st and 2nd fastest times in history in two consecutive days
Ranked #2 in the world in the 100 free
Currently ranked #5 in the world in the 100 fly and would have been ranked 9th last season
2 World Championship wins
Broke Phelps’ record for individual medals at Worlds
Largest time gap in… Read more »

rhode
9 months ago

In 2021 SwimSwam gave honorable mentions of European male swimmers to Tom Dean and Kolesnikov, but not to Peaty who had a better performance at Olympics. The reason SwimSwam gave was that this is swimmer ‘of the year’ award and Peaty didn’t swim in the latter half of the year.
Then why is Meilutyte, who barely had any decent swim in the latter half of the year, win this over Sjostrom? All of Sjostrom, Chikunova and Meilutyte broke one world record this year. Meilutyte is the only one who did it in an non-Olympic event. Both Meilutyte and Sjostrom won two golds at Worlds. Sjostrom dropped fast times consistently at World Cup series. I think Sjostrom should win this.

Last edited 9 months ago by rhode
Yoo
Reply to  rhode
9 months ago

Feel like Swimswam don’t like Peaty tbh especially Braden (except Mel -I’ll never forget him saying Peaty could split 54)

Facts
9 months ago

Crazy how womens swimming is so strong right now that none of the best 3 European women who all broke world records this year made it into the honorable mentions of women’s swimmer of the year

whoisthis
9 months ago

id say sjostrom shouldve won

jeff
Reply to  whoisthis
9 months ago

I think I agree, both of them had an event where they posted the top 2 times ever and another event where they posted times that rank high historically, but for me Sjostrom edges out for the win since her WR came in an Olympic event

Aquajosh
Reply to  jeff
9 months ago

Not only that, but Sarah has a third event where she’s ranked #2 in the world and another where she’s top 10. Ruta doesn’t even have a third event with a Top 10 ranking.

About Sophie Kaufman

Sophie Kaufman

Sophie grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, which means yes, she does root for the Bruins, but try not to hold that against her. At 9, she joined her local club team because her best friend convinced her it would be fun. Shoulder surgery ended her competitive swimming days long ago, …

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