2023 Swammy Awards: Male Breakout Swimmer of the Year – Sam Short

See all of our 2023 Swammy Awards here.

MALE BREAKOUT SWIMMER OF THE YEAR:  SAM SHORT, AUSTRALIA

There was no shortage of candidates for this particular Swammy, as several men had breakthrough performances in 2023, but the swimmer standing above the rest is Sam Short.

Short’s steady rise up the Australian distance freestyle ranks went into overdrive this year, going from narrowly missing the Olympic team in 2021, to ninth and 14th-place finishes at the 2022 World Championships, to becoming world champion and one of the fastest swimmers in history in 2023.

Short, who turned 20 in September, won gold in the men’s 400 freestyle in Fukuoka in what can only be described as an epic showdown with Tunisian Ahmed Hafnaoui, as the reigning Olympic champion was clipped at the wall by Short by two one-hundredths, 3:40.68 to 3:40.70, in what were the two fastest swims in more than a decade.

The performance for Short moved him to #4 all-time in the event, and made him the world champion in a race he didn’t even contest at the 2022 edition in Budapest.

All-Time Performers, Men’s 400 Freestyle (LCM)

1. Paul Biedermann (GER), 3:40.07 – 2009 World Championships
2. Ian Thorpe (AUS), 3:40.08 – 2002 Commonwealth Games
3. Sun Yang (CHN), 3:40.14 – 2012 Olympic Games
4. Sam Short (AUS), 3:40.68 – 2023 World Championships
5. Ahmed Hafnaoui (TUN), 3:40.70 – 2023 World Championships

Short and Hafnaoui renewed hostilities a few days later in the final of the men’s 800 free, with Hafnaoui (7:37.00) claiming gold and Short picking up the silver in a time of 7:37.76, ranking him #4 all-time in a second event.

At the 2022 World Championships, Short was ninth in the 800 free in a time of 7:48.28.

Just like the 400 free, Hafnaoui and Short both delivered the fastest swims we’d seen in the event in more than a decade.

All-Time Performers, Men’s 800 Freestyle (LCM)

1. Zhang Lin (CHN), 7:32.12 – 2009 World Championships
2. Oussama Mellouli (TUN), 7:35.27 — 2009 World Championships
3. Ahmed Hafnaoui (TUN), 7:37.00 – 2023 World Championships
4. Sam Short (AUS), 7:37.76 – 2023 World Championships
5. Sun Yang (CHN), 7:38.57 – 2011 World Championships

Short finished off his spectacular World Championship campaign on the final day of competition in the 1500 free. Grabbing the race by the horns, Short led the field through the first 500 and was still up front with Hafnoaui and Bobby Finke with 500 to go. Despite fading down the stretch, Short still won the bronze medal going away, clocking 14:37.28 to rank tied for #9 all-time.

At the 2022 World Championships, Short was 14th in the 1500 free in a time of 15:10.14.

All-Time Performers, Men’s 1500 Freestyle (LCM)

1. Sun Yang (CHN), 14:31.02 – 2012 Olympic Games
2. Ahmed Hafnaoui (TUN), 14:31.54 – 2023 World Championships
3. Bobby Finke (USA), 14:31.59 – 2023 World Championships
4. Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA), 14:32.80 – 2022 World Championships
5. Grant Hackett (AUS), 14:34.56 – 2001 World Championships
6. Florian Wellbrock (GER), 14:34.89 – 2023 Berlin Swim Open
7. Daniel Wiffen (IRL), 14:34.91 – 2023 Swim Open Stockholm
8. Mykhailo Romanchuk (UKR), 14:36.10 – 2022 European Championships
9. Oussama Mellouli (TUN) / Sam Short (AUS), 14:37.28 – 2009/2023 World Championships
10. –

Short now ranks higher in the all-time rankings in the 400 free and 800 free than he did in the annual rankings in 2022.

Relative to his fastest swims last year, he was more than 10 seconds faster in the 800 free, more than 11 seconds faster in the 1500 free, and more than three and a half faster in the 400 free.

Short’s 2022 vs 2023 Annual Rankings

Short was far from an unknown heading into 2023—he won the Commonwealth title in the 1500 free in August 2022, beating Daniel Wiffen head-to-head, and he was also the silver medalist in the 400 free, topping the likes of Mack Horton.

But his emergence in 2023 was truly something special and unforeseen.

Prior to his World Championship showcase, Short moved up the all-time rankings with swims of 3:42.46 in the 400 free and 7:42.96 in the 800 free at the Australian Championships in April, and at the World Trials in June, he went three-for-three in the distance events with respective swims of 3:43.38, 7:40.39 and 14:46.67 in the 400, 800 and 1500.

All of that culminated with what he did in Fukuoka, penciling him in as a surefire gold medal favorite heading into the 2024 Olympics.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

• Qin Haiyang, China: If he hadn’t been a player on the international scene since 2017, Qin would’ve won this award going away. He’s won medals at the Short Course World Championships and Asian Games in the past, but Qin truly emerged as one of the world’s best swimmers in 2023. The Chinese native rocketed to gold in the men’s 50, 100 and 200 breaststroke at the 2023 World Championships, becoming the first swimmer in history to sweep the 50/100/200 of any stroke at the championships. The 24-year-old broke Zac Stubblety-Cook‘s world record in the 200 breast (2:05.48), moved to #2 all-time behind Adam Peaty in the 100 breast (57.69), breaking 58 seconds on numerous occasions, and did the same in the 50 breast (26.20). In addition to his treble in the breast events, Qin also won gold in Fukuoka on China’s mixed medley relay, silver on the men’s medley relay, and won a total of 10 gold medals between the Asian Games in Hangzhou and the World University Games in Chengdu.
• Pan Zhanle, China: Pan had established himself as a swimmer on the rise in 2022, but he took things to a new level this year with some phenomenal performances. At the 2023 World Championships, Pan placed fourth in the 100 free (47.43), 10th in the 200 free (1:46.05), and delivered a blistering 46.62 anchor leg to guide China to a silver medal in the men’s 400 medley relay. In 2022, the only event he raced individually at Worlds was the 100 free, where he was also fourth and had his fastest swim come in the semis at 47.65. Fukuoka was only a precursor to what Pan was able to do a few months later at the Asian Games, where he became just the fifth swimmer in history—and third in a textile suit—to break the 47-second barrier in the 100 free, clocking 46.97. He also went 47.06 at the Games leading off China’s relay, giving him two of the 10-fastest swims in history. Earlier in the year, the then 18-year-old put up a time of 1:44.65 in the 200 free at the Chinese Nationals in May, tying him for 14th all-time (he also went 47.22 in the 100 free there).
• Jack Alexy, USA: Alexy broke Caeleb Dressel‘s 17-18 U.S. National Age Group Record in the 100 free at the 2021 Olympic Trials, but he was nowhere to be seen in the event in 2022, with his fastest swim coming in at 49.48—more than half a second shy of cracking the top 100 for the year. Fast forward 12 months and Alexy is coming off a silver-medal-winning performance in the event at the 2023 World Championships, dropping a time of 47.31 in the final to place a close second to Australian Kyle Chalmers. Alexy also won individual silver in the 50 free, clocking 21.57 to mark a significant drop from his best entering the year (22.13). The 20-year-old won three more medals in Fukuoka on the American relays, including anchoring the men’s medley relay to gold with a 47.00 split. The Cal sprinter also had a breakout year in short course yards, joining the sub-41 club and placing second at the NCAA Championships in the 100 free (40.88) while playing a pivotal role for the Bears as they repeated as national champions.
• Daniel Wiffen, Ireland: Similar to Short, Wiffen’s rise up the distance ranks continued in 2023. Although he didn’t quite make his way onto the podium at the World Championships, placing fourth in both the 800 and 1500 free, Wiffen proved he was among the world’s best and will be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years. The Irishman joined the elite sub-14:35 club in the men’s 1500 free, clocking 14:34.91 at the Swim Open Stockholm in April to rank #7 all-time (it stood at #4 at the time). He followed up by going 14:43.01 at the World Championships to take fourth, and finished in the same position in the 800 free, touching in 7:39.19 to crack the all-time top 10 (#9). He finished the year ranked #4 in the 800 and 1500 free after sitting 11th in the 800 and 12th in the 1500 free last year. After swimming another ultra-elite time in the 1500 free at the U23 European Championships in August (14:35.79), Wiffen broke the first and only SCM world record of the year at the European Short Course Championships in December. Clocking 7:20.46 in the 800 free, the 22-year-old erased the oldest world record on the books, knocking off Grant Hackett‘s mark of 7:23.42 set in 2008. Wiffen also won the 400 free (3:35.47) and 1500 free (14:09.11) at SC Euros, with the latter marking the #3 swim in history.

PREVIOUS WINNERS:

• 2022 – Thomas Ceccon (ITA)
• 2021 – Bobby Finke (USA)
• 2020 – Emre Sakci (TUR)
• 2019 – Andrei Minakov (RUS)
• 2018 – James Wilby (GBR)
• 2017 – Zane Grothe (USA)
• 2016 – Masato Sakai (JPN)
• 2015 – Mitch Larkin (AUS)
• 2014 – Adam Peaty (GBR)