The Olympics are over in the pool. Here are SwimSwam’s award for the swimmers who swam out of their minds this week and deserve some recognition.
MALE SWIMMER OF THE MEET: Michael Phelps, United States
What a way to cap off the greatest career as we know it. Phelps pulled out a nail-biting win in the 200 fly, defeated Lochte one more time in the 200 IM, and swam to the strangest three-way tie in the 100 fly. He also provided monster splits on the 400 free and 400 medley relays, and anchored the 800 free relay as well, grabbing golds in all three of those races. He finishes his swimming career with twenty-eight medals (28), twenty-three (23) of them gold. He is the greatest athlete of all time, and he showed that in Rio.
HONORABLE MENTIONÂ (in no particular order)
- Adam Peaty, Great Britain (100 breast champion, 100 breast World Record breaker)
- Ryan Murphy, United States (3 gold medals, backstroke sweep, 100 back World Record
FEMALE SWIMMER OF THE MEET: Katie Ledecky, United States
Ledecky is awesome. She broke two world records (by a combined 3.80 seconds), earned a whopping four gold medals, and was incredible on the free relays. Her sprints are becoming world-class, and her longer races are, well, football fields ahead of the rest of the world. Ledecky has six golds at the age of 19, and it seems that her own world records are in jeopardy every single time she dives into the water. Ledecky looked almost mortal in a crazy-close race with Sarah Sjostrom in the 200 free, but the way she pulled it off in the end simply reflects who she is: a true champion.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
- Katinka Hosszu, Hungary (3 golds, 1 silver, World Records in 200 IM/400 IM)
- Sarah Sjostrom (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze, World Record in 100 fly)
MALE ROOKIE OF THE MEET: Adam Peaty, Great Britain
GBR’s Adam Peaty has taken men’s breaststroke to incredible new heights– his 57.13 in the 100 breast final was downright insane. As if the world wasn’t impressed enough, he blasted the fastest-ever split by a huge margin in the 400 medley relay, splitting a 56.59. What! Yes. Peaty is one of several young guns who are kicking it up several notches for the Brits, who should only be getting stronger and stronger in the near future.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
- Kyle Chalmers, Australia (100 free gold)
- Dmitriy Balandin, Kazakhstan (200 breast champion)
- Ryan Murphy, United States (2 individual golds, 100 back World Record)
FEMALE ROOKIE OF THE MEET: Penny Oleksiak, Canada
The Canadian teenager Penny Oleksiak has had a huge year, breaking WJR’s left and right. It had been speculated that Oleksiak, who only just recently turned 16, might still be too young to break out on the world’s biggest stage. Tokyo 2020 was supposed to be her time to rule. That was four years too far away for her, though, as she swam her way to a gold in the 100 free in the biggest upset of the meet, adding a silver in the 100 fly and also providing world-class relay splits in all of Canada’s relays. Like Peaty, but perhaps more so in her case, Oleksiak represents a huge spike in talent in Canadian women’s swimming. They have made their presence known in Rio, and with most of the talent being concentrated in their younger swimmers, the future is looking incredibly bright.
HONORABLE MENTIONSÂ (in no particular order)
- Maya Dirado, United States (200 back champion)
- Simone Manuel, United States (100 free champion)
MALE SWIM OF THE MEET: Adam Peaty (100 breast)
Adam Peaty, like we said before, has taken breaststroke to new heights. His rapid turnover only quickens as he gets into his rhythm, and any myths or speculation that a full, long glide in breaststroke was they key to success has been blown apart by Peaty’s technique. It’s not conventional, but it reminds us of Rebecca Soni. Whether or not it’s “normal,” who on God’s green earth can argue against it?! Peaty is the fastest flat-start 100 breaststroker in history by almost a second-and-a-half. That is absolutely stunning. 57.13 is a ridiculous benchmark– his 57.92 from last year already seemed unattainable enough. It’s hard to imagine anybody coming remotely close to this record any time soon, besides him, of course.
HONORABLE MENTIONSÂ (in no particular order)
- Dmitriy Balandin (200 breast)
- Kyle Chalmers (100 free)
- Michael Phelps (200 IM)
- Joseph Schooling (100 fly)
FEMALE SWIM OF THE MEET: Katie Ledecky (800 free)
It’s hard to pick between Ledecky’s 400 and 800 free, but her 800 was special because she won it by so. Damn. Much. Ledecky his the wall in 8:04.79, and it was MORE THAN 10 SECONDS until anyone else found their touch pad. Ledecky has changed the sport of swimming, and she continues to trek into the realm of the impossible and, suddenly, makes it her reality. There’s a chance that she’ll never be faster than the time she just put down in that– but, if we had to bet, we’d put money on her breaking that record again. If anyone’s going to do it…. It’s Katie Ledecky.
HONORABLE MENTIONSÂ (in no particular order)
- Simone Manuel/Penny Oleksiak (100 free)
- Maya Dirado (200 back)
- Katinka Hosszu (400 IM)
- Sarah Sjostrom (100 fly)
- Pernille Blume (50 free)
Peaty had the most dominant swim of the games, male or female. FiveThirtyEight did an awesome stats-based analysis of that earlier that I recommend checking out. Going forward, I suspect that his technique will take hold over the coming decade and sprint breaststroke times will drastically change. The world will follow, and 57 will become the new 58 at elite meets. It’s blatantly clear, more now than ever, that the 50/100 breast are very niche events, even distinct from the 200 breast, and that a very specialized form offers a clear advantage.
On that note, I’m curious how Peaty would fare in a 200, had he swum at this meet. We know he has been 2:08, and that was before… Read more »
Not sure why Murphy’s 100 back WR isn’t an honorable mention for Swim of the Meet. No disputing that Peaty’s 100 breast wins it, but 51.8 in the 100 back is much more impressive than 1:54.6 in the 200 IM, if you ask me. Is it because it was a part of a relay and thus not “a swim” by itself? If that’s the case, then I’d say his 51.97 from the individual is still way more impressive than Phelps’ 200 IM.
Why does everybody love breaststroke so much? Breaststroke’s done, fork etc.
I’d like to see people gravitating towards elementary backstroke. I’m thinking up, out and together.
Or maybe the side stroke for some variety.
Just wait and see, someone is going to nail one of the breaststrokes and one of the im’s in an Olympics and breaststroke will get its due. Amanda Beard, gold in 200 meter breaststroke and silver 200 Im.
So many great performances, individually and in relays, by swimmers from so many countries. I think the sport of swimming is the biggest winner! Globalization is good for sports. If one or two countries always win all medals in one sport, like China once (still now, some would argue) in table tennis, the sport would lose global interest, attention, and more importantly to pros, endorsement dollars. The outcome of this Rio Olympics in swimming in my view is perfect: US dominance overall, but other countries had outstanding swimmers and performance as well: Australia, GB, Sweden, Denmark, Canada, Spain, Japan, China, Singapore, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Italy, South Africa (3 silvers) and the Host. How many sports enjoy such global success? I can… Read more »
Yes, swimming has changed from the 1976 Olympics where the US men won Gold, Sliver and bronze all the time which limited the number of us swimmers per event.
My point exactly. In table tennis, many changes were implemented due to the Chinese dominance, including shortening each game from 21 to 11 to level the playing field. As I recall, the Chinese embraced these changes as they knew sweeping all medals meant very little if other countries are losing interest in the sport. I must say however basketball is an exception, perhaps due to its long history and global popularity.
Katinka broke the 200 IM world record? Wow, must have missed that.
The GOAT is the most decorated athlete at the Olympic games for the 4th freaking time in a row.
And to think, Don Talbot said that Thorpe was still better in 2007. After Phelps had broken 200 fly world record at 15. Made 6 golds and 2 bronze at Athens in 1 Olympics, which is more than Thorpe has in gold at Olympics 2000 and 2004. etc
To be fair to Don Talbot, there was a legitimate argument to be had before ’07 worlds 200 free WR from Phelps. I mean he was still wrong then, but he wasn’t absolutely crazy.
Nice list, and I pretty much agree.
But you left off COACH OF THE MEET. That’s a close one between Shane Tussup (his one swimmer won 3 golds and a silver), and Greg Meehan (his three swimmers won 4 golds, 4 silvers, and 1 bronze). 🙂
Speaking of coaches, how about Eddie Reese? I read that Schooling received in the neighborhood of $750,000 for his gold. How about Eddie? This is pure speculation on my part, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Eddie got a nice performance bonus as well for his efforts as Singapore coach.
Dave Durden didn’t have to bad of a meet either, if you include Ervin, Cal men had 4 medalists, 6 out of a possible 7 individual chances, Pebley as a 5th place and swimmers on 2 of the 3 men’s relays.
Sorry, forgot about shields..
So did everyone else
Other than me 😀
Tom Shields for lyfe
Think this is a little unfair on Hosszu. She’d no relays to get the extra golds to boost her own count. Her 4im was so rapid and the fact the she smashed Ye’s record is a testament to how good it really was. A (suspect) WR by over 2 seconds and winning the race by nearly 5. It’s rare I disagree with swimswam, because you do the most excellent job of covering the sport, but this feels a bit US biased. I may be wrong but thanks for the excellent coverage.
This… this!
Yeah but Ledecky won her 400 by 5 seconds as well- and broke her own record by 2 seconds- which, previously, was an amazing world record (3:59.1 by Pelligrini)….so your argument isn’t necessarily very strong
Very fair comment.
2 things for me though. It was Ledecky’s own record. I think that makes a difference over, what many of us think, was a tainted swim. And I was arguing against the 800 being the swim of the meet. A very good case, as you pointed out, could be made for her 400 being the better of her swims.
I was going to agree, then Hosszu lost the 200 back. If she had won that I would have given it to her, as it happened, I agree with the Ledecky pick.
I agree. Hosszu also swam relay 800 free relay, both prelim (singlehandedly bring the relay to final) and final. Relay medal is team effort and she put up a good fight and that is as admirable as winning any color of medal in that relay.
Hosszu is strong in back stroke but not overwhelming favorite. It is impressive to win gold and silver in both events besides the two IMs where she was favorite to win.
YES I also think it is unfair to Hosszu. No question about the greatness of Ledecky but Hosszu’s 400IM was really amazing