2024 Swammy Awards: Breakout Male Swimmer Of The Year, Ilya Kharun

See all of our 2024 Swammy Awards here.

2024 Breakout Male Swimmer Of The Year: Ilya Kharun, Canada

In Olympic years, there’s usually a swimmer who comes out of nowhere to upset established favorites. This year however, it felt like the individual winners on both the men’s and women’s side were relatively predictable, with all of them being at least a top two or three. Because of this, it was difficult to find a man who really exploded onto the international scene in the way that, say, Ahmed Hafnaoui did in 2021 or Joseph Schooling did in 2016. Instead, we chose to give the “Breakout Swimmer of the Year” honor to a name that most swim fans have heard of before, but really took the jump from one level to the next this season.

And that swimmer is Canada’s Ilya Kharun.

Around two years ago, Kharun was set to represent the United States at the 2022 Junior Pan Pacific Championships, but was forced to withdraw before the meet when it was revealed that he was actually born in Canada and not the U.S.. However, that revelation can be be seen as a blessing in disguise for his international career. Because men’s swimming is less competitive in Canada than it is in America, Kharun got more opportunities to swim at senior international meets at a younger age. He made his debut for Canada at the 2022 Short Course World Championships. Then, at the 2023 World Championships, he finished fourth in the 200 fly and ninth in the 100 fly.

After starting his college career at Arizona State in the fall of 2023, Kharun’s career took another leap. Training under head coach Bob Bowman, he won an NCAA title in the 200 fly as a freshman and scored 39 points to help the Sun Devils win their first-ever team championship in program history. When Bowman departed ASU for Texas in the spring of 2024, Kharun was arguably the biggest name to continue training at Tempe under Herbie Behm. That decision paid off, setting him up for the meet that turned him into an international contender.

Kharun’s decisions to represent Canada and stay at Arizona State may end up being the two choices that determine his fate in the long run. So in a way, his swimming career is defined by continuity and change.

At the 2024 Olympic Games, Kharun won his first senior international long course medals, taking bronze in the 100 and 200 fly. In the 200 fly, while everyone was focused on the showdown between France’s Leon Marchand and Hungary’s Kristof Milak for the top two spots, Kharun quietly dropped over a second from his personal best to take bronze. That bronze was Canada’s first Olympic medal in men’s swimming since 2012. Then, in the 100 fly, he once again rose to the occasion, beating out several swimmers seeded ahead of him to win a second medal.

Now, Kharun is the seventh-fastest performer of all-time in the 200 fly and the 13th fastest in the 100 fly.

Ilya Kharun, Butterfly Progression

A one-second drop and an improvement from fourth to third in the 200 fly may not seem like much. But that jump elevated Kharun’s status in the event significantly. Heading into the Olympics, he was in the mix to medal, but so were several other swimmers — reigning Olympic silver medalist Tomoru Honda, reigning Worlds silver medalist Krzysztof Chmielewski and rising American teenager Thomas Heilman (who tied with Kharun at worlds last year). However, after the Olympics, he is now the clear-cut third-best 200 flyer in the world and considerably ahead of world No. 4.

It’s also a bigger deal to go from 1:53 to 1:52 than from 1:54 to 1:53 — since the start of 2022, only four swimmers have been sub-1:53 but seven have been sub-1:54.

In addition, Kharun proved that he wasn’t just a one-trick pony by medaling. Now on the international stage, he’s capable of medaling in both butterfly events and can swim the fly leg of Canada’s men’s medley relay while Josh Liendo swims free.

To close off the year, Kharun won his first world title, taking gold in the 200 fly at the 2024 Short Course World Championships. He also won a silver medal in the 50 fly. At just age 19, he’s already on a massive upward trajectory with his career. In the next Olympic cycle, don’t be surprised to see him rise to become the best in the world.

Honorable Mentions

• Kim Woomin, South Korea: Kim flew just under the radar in 2023, finishing fifth at the 2023 World Championships in a time of 3:43.92. However, that would be the last time he finished off the podium at a major meet. He swept the 400 and 800 free at the 2023 Asian Games, and then later had a huge swim to win the 2024 World Championship in the 400 free, clocking a time of 3:42.71 and beating names like 2022 World champ Elijah Winnington and eventual Olympic champion Lukas Martens. Then at the Olympics, he improved upon his best time even more and went a 3:42.50 to take bronze in a very competitive men’s mid-distance field.
• Tomoyuki Matsushita, Japan: The Olympics were the first-ever senior international meet of the 19-year-old Matsushita’s career, but he made the most out of it. Over the course of a year, he improved over two seconds from a 4:10.97 to 4:08.62 in the 400 IM, with the latter time being what he went to shock the field and take silver in the event at the Olympics. That was the only event he raced in Paris, but it is one that he is sure to be a medal contender for in the future.

Past Winners

• 2023 — Sam Short (AUS)
• 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)