Earlier today, USA Swimming announced the list of nominees for the 2014 Golden Goggles Awards, and as we do every year, we here at SwimSwam have gone through the list of nominees and made our selections.
Mind you, in most cases, these are not our predictions of who will win – it’s often obvious to see who is going to be chosen, but we sometimes disagree with that selection. In some cases, that’s because of varying definitions of “perseverance,” and in others it’s simply a difference of opinion. We’re focusing on who we think should win based on our definition of the award.
Of course, anybody who is even nominated for a Golden Goggles award had a fantastic season, but only one person can win an award in each category, and that’s what makes them such an honor.
Below, we’ve posted all nominees, our pick in bold, and a brief explanation. We’ve also included the (very early) results from the online ballots, with about 200 people voting already. These numbers are probably skewed, because the more intense fans, or fans who have specific connections to certain nominees are likely to be the first voters before the masses get on.How did you hear about the online voting?
Nominees:
- USA Swimming Foundation Website (21%)
- USA Swimming Website (10%)
- Facebook (26%)
- Twitter (21%)
- Other (21%)
Other: through SwimSwam, of course.
Breakout Performer of the Year
Nominees:
- Kendyl Stewart (9%)
- Ryan Murphy (27%)
- Cierra Runge (22%)
- Katie McLaughlin (23%)
- Maya DiRado (19%)
To us, this one comes down to three swimmers really: Katie McLaughlin, Cierra Runge, and Kendyl Stewart. In our opinion, Ryan Murphy didn’t so much “break out” as he just continued on his course to stardom. Maya DiRado’s breakout year was last year when she made the Worlds team, so that put her out of the running for our vote.
Digression: if Maya DiRado’s breakout is considered to be this year, why isn’t Nic Fink’s? One more reason to not vote that way.
For us, the vote goes to Stewart, who won the U.S. National Championship, and most importantly broke out in an event where the U.S. really needs her, winning bronze in the 100 fly at Pan Pacs. The American 100 fly is left with a void since Dana Vollmer’s hiatus began a year ago, and is in need of some fresh blood there, and Stewart gave them just that.
Perseverance Award
- Missy Franklin (21%)
- Kevin Cordes (6%)
- Michael Phelps (37%)
- Tom Shields (19%)
- Open Water Gold Medalists Haley Anderson & Andrew Gemmell (18%)
First of all, we’d never vote for Michael Phelps in any sort of lesser category that ignores that he’s the greatest of all time. Because of name recognition, he’s going to get a lot of fan votes, and will probably win the award, but his absence from swimming was self-inflicted rather than some kind of external hardship, so he’s out on our ballot.
The inclusion of Pan Pacs open water gold medalists Haley Anderson & Andrew Gemmell is an interesting one. Yes, they had some hardship when their race got delayed by a week and they had to fly to Hawaii to race, and they persevered to win gold. At the same time, all of their competition had to go through the same thing, and further, is an extra few days in Hawaii really such a hardship? The race conditions were probably better (read: warmer) for that race. Overall, too many questions to get our vote, especially when there’s an obvious answer.
That obvious answer to us is Missy Franklin. She suffered from severe back spasms in the days leading up to the meet that were apparently so bad, that Franklin didn’t compete in the full schedule at Cal’s season-opener a month later.
While the meet wasn’t the typical Franklin performance we see, she still fought her way to a bronze medal in the 100 back, and was part of three American medal-winning relays.
It’s not about excuse-making, it’s about fighting through challenges, and Franklin did so very well in really the first major adversity she’s seen in her already-decorated career.
Coach of the Year
- Bob Bowman (36%)
- Dave Durden (15%)
- Bruce Gemmell (31%)
- David Marsh (18%)
This is a really, really tough one this year, because there’s so many coaches whose swimmers had great years. All four are truly deserving, and we wouldn’t fight anybody on their votes for any.
Bob Bowman brought Michael Phelps back to his peak in a hurry, though he loses some points for his European-based swimmers not performing very well (something we consider, whereas USA Swimming may not).
Dave Durden, in his first nomination, is finally getting the respect he deserves nationally. He led his Cal men to the NCAA Championship and he put an astonishing 9 swimmers (8 men, 1 woman) onto the USA Swimming National Team, despite sticking strong to his policy of allowing only Cal swimmers into his postgrad group.
Bruce Gemmell coached Katie Ledecky (spoiler alert – she’s going to win every swimming award she’s nominated for anywhere in the world in 2014) to a laundry-list of World Records plus 5 golds at the 2014 Pan Pac Championships. Ledecky was good when Gemmell started with her, but she’s taken distance swimming to a new level and developed one of the best 200 freestyles in the world too.
That’s not to mention at least partial credit for coaching of his son, Andrew Gemmell, winner of gold in the 10k at the 2014 Pan Pacs.
As for David Marsh, he’s been everywhere. His pros are swimming well, his juniors are swimming well, and his internationals are swimming well. He’s developed the full package.
This was the toughest one to pick, but we’ll give our vote to Durden. His swimmers performed very well in such a breadth of arenas that it put him over the edge on our card.
Relay Performance of the Year
- Men’s 800 free relay – Pan Pacs (21%)
- Men’s 400 medley relay – Pan Pacs (33%)
- Women’s 800 free relay – Pan Pacs (46%)
This one has to go to the men’s 400 medley relay, who swam a Meet Record of 3:29.94 to beat the Japanese by over two seconds at Pan Pacs. With Phelps back, no DQ’s, and all four members of the team swimming very well, that was an outstanding performance from Matt Grevers, Kevin Cordes, Michael Phelps, and Nathan Adrian. This relay is finally showing the potential it has, and if the vets can stay on top form until Worlds next year, they have a shot at the World Record.
In truth, none of the relays were all that thrilling, but of the three golds, that was our personal favorite.
Female Race of the Year
- Katie Ledecky – 1500 free – Pan Pacs (46%)
- Jessica Hardy – 100 breast – Pan Pacs (10%)
- Katie Ledecky – 400 free – Pan Pacs (35%)
- Cammile Adams – 200 fly – Pan Pacs (7%)
- Maya DiRado – 200 IM – Pan Pacs (2%)
We’re interpreting this award as being “best swim” rather than “best racing.” The difference is that Maya DiRado’s win in the 200 IM and Jessica Hardy’s win in the 100 breast were much more thrilling than Ledecky’s World Records, but the way Ledecky smoked the field in her events is simply deserving of more awards.
How did we decide between the 400 and 1500? It was pretty simple – she was already the best 1500 freestyler in history before this year. She was simply piling on with that record. In the 400 free, she hadn’t yet broken Federica Pellegrini’s record yet, and when she did it once at Nationals, she was able to do it again at Pan Pacs (an underrated achievement mentally). So no, the margins weren’t as big in the 400 as in the 1500, the margins are obscuring what was, in our opinion, the more important swim for the 17-year old. The 1500 has been getting most of the attention lately, though, and that would be our predicted winner.
Male Race of the Year
- Tyler Clary – 200 back – Pan Pacs (21%)
- Connor Jaeger – 1500 free – Pan Pacs (22%)
- Nic Fink – 200 breast – Pan Pacs (7%)
- Michael Phelps – 100 fly – Pan Pacs (50%)
While we think Fink could have been nominated for Breakout Performer of the Year, given that his 200 breaststroke medal was a silver, it would be tough to justify that pick.
It’s tough to choose between the other three. Clary in the 200 backstroke (Ryosuke Irie) and Jaeger in the 1500 free (Ryan Cochrane) both beat big-name swimmers with gutsy swims, but Phelps beat a big-name swimmer as well (Ryan Lochte), even though it’s not a traditional rival of his in this event.
None of the swims really blew us away, though the conditions made them all solid victories. The most objective way we could come up to look at this is that Phelps 51.29 in the 100 fly, while not his best time of the season, still was as fast as anybody else in the world went in 2014, so he got our nod.
Female Athlete of the Year
- Katie Ledecky (70%)
- Missy Franklin (19%)
- Maya DiRado (2%)
- Elizabeth Beisel (10%)
Katie Ledecky. If you have a friend willing to wager that this award goes any other way, take them up on it. This might be the biggest slam-dunk since Phelps won 8 gold medals in Beijing.
Male Athlete of the Year
- Connor Jaeger (22%)
- Michael Phelps (54%)
- Tyler Clary (24%)
Another tough one. Which gets valued more, Clary and Jaeger’s minor medals, or Phelps’ two relay golds? None of the American men just rolled through Pan Pacs this year, so it’s another case of splitting hairs. We’ll go with Phelps, because of the specific impact he had on those gold medals. The Americans probably win the 400 medley with Lochte or Shields on the fly leg, but they probably don’t win the 800 free relay over a red-hot Japanese team without Phelps splitting 1:46.08 on the second leg.
Is Michael Phelps still eligible for the awards?
Nobody but Ledecky really deserves a nomination for best female race or athlete. No other American woman had a Pan Pac swim that would have ranked her top 3 in FINA rankings. A couple of swimmers managed 4th, including Simone Manuel in the most competitive and most important race of all–100 free. Manuel’s narrow miss of a bronze in the 50 free was a disappointment, while her rather impressive 200 free was under the radar.
I could see nominating Manuel for either Race or Athlete. I think I could make a reasonable case for Manuel as the second best in either category.
I wonder why there’s no Simone Manuel, after a great season from Duel In The Pool and Pan Pacs you would think she would have earned her name somewhere. And not even including the fact she has helped team usa in multiple relays. Disappointing she could have at least been somewhere. And Cullen Jones not to even make the list either, their the only African-American swimmers out there they inspire thousands of kids all over.
D’antae – they are not, in fact, the “only African-American swimmers out there,” and further I’m fairly certain that being “the only African-American swimmers out there” is not a criteria for nominations.
But let’s pretend for a second like race isn’t a factor. Given that this is put on by the USA Swimming Foundation, which is the organization that runs Make a Splash, of which Cullen Jones is the primary spokesperson, let’s just say that the nominations didn’t intentionally exclude people because of their skin color.
While I don’t necessarily agree with the way USA Swimming nominates athletes, they are unabashed that the awards are focused almost exclusively on performances at the “Operation Gold” meet, which this year is Pan… Read more »
Breakout: RUNGE. Huge, real break out personal bests in 200, 400, 800, 1500 THIS year… finish with silver at first international meet (behind Katie…)
Perserverance: true grit over the long haul even when tough? FRANKLIN Change in altitude, coaching, training, college workload/schedule…remaining amateur.. injury…
Coach: BOWMAN? put 7 on the National Team, Gemmell? Can you coach what she’s doing??
Relay: women’s 800 Ledecky’s leg was ridiculous.
the rest: LEDECKY and PHELPS…of course.
(Lochte: most know he probably was carousing which had more to do with his injury…puts a less than heroic shine on the need to persevere)
Runge’s US and World rankings in 3 events, made Pan Pacs for 2 events, World Championship team…seems like a no-brainer.
Bobo has it right. Now if votes would be that thoughtful….
Tom Shields over Missy Franklin in the Perseverance Award all day.
It’s not an adversity award or a tough conditions award. It’s a long-term keeping at it award. Missy won 6 gold medals last year, she’s fine. Missy has never really had to endure a period of long-term troubles. Maybe her injuries are severe, but it would be persevering NEXT year when she comes back through the injuries. But as of this year she hasn’t had any long-term struggles to speak of and overcome.
On the other hand Shields finally made his LC breakthrough and made a pair of national teams while also winning his first national titles. For someone who’s been a yards and meters star since… Read more »
It was hard to pick a relay. While the men’s medley relay showed the most dominance, the men’s 800 free relay had the closest finish, the 800 free had that epic anchor by Ledecky, and that’s what it made it my choice.
*women’s 800 free had that epic anchor…
I don’t understand all the nominations.
No Ryan Lochte in the perseverance award.
No 400 free from the US Nationals when Miss Ledecky broke the world record for the first time. I would have chosen that race rather than the 400 free at Pan Pacs. First time is always better! 😆
But we must deal with these choices so here are my picks.
BREAKOUT PERFORMER OF THE YEAR.
CIERRA RUNGE
It starts with a tough one.
I have hesitated between Cierra Runge and Kendyl Stewart.
But Miss Runge has my vote.
PERSEVERANCE AWARD
MISSY FRANKLIN
The hardest one!
On a physical point, it’s Missy. On a mental point, it’s Kevin… Read more »
Pretty much exactly what I voted for too, and for the same reasons, except trade Dave Durden for Coach of the Year and Katie’s 400 free instead of the 1500 freestyle for Female Race of the Year.
Ledecky’s first 400 WR at the nationals was amazing and the splits were ridiculous. In any other year it would have been the race of the year. But Ledecky’s second 400 WR will be legendary and lasting until the next 20 years or so if Ledecky herself does not break it next year or in 2016.