It’s time to celebrate the past year of American swimming: USA Swimming has announced its 2024 Golden Goggles Awards nominees. The winners will be announced at the Golden Goggles Award show on November 23 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh, the Olympic gold and silver medallists in the women’s 100 butterfly, lead the nominations with four apiece. Huske is nominated for Female Athlete of the Year, Female Race of the Year, and was part of both the mixed and women’s 4x100m medley relays which are up for Relay Performance of the Year. Walsh was part of both relays too and earned individual nods in Breakout Performer and Female Athlete of the Year.
Nic Fink is the male swimmer with the most nominations. He was nominated for Male Athlete of the Year, Male Race of the Year, and Relay Performance of the Year as part of the mixed 4x100m medley relay.
The nominations for this year focus on performances from the 2024 Olympic Games, where the U.S. extended their medal table win streak, beating Australia by one.
Check out the full list of nominees below.
Breakout Performer
This award is given to the athlete whose performance(s) stand out in relation to other years, with special emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
Each of the nominees is a first-time Olympic qualifier. Walsh won four medals in her debut Games after breaking the women’s 100-fly world record to open the U.S. Olympic Trials. Luke Hobson is the other swimmer on this list to earn an individual Olympic medal, edging out Tokyo silver medalist Duncan Scott for bronze in the 200 freestyle. He added a silver medal in the men’s 4×200 free relay.
Alex Shackell earned two relay medals: gold in the women’s 4x100m medley relay and silver in the women’s 4×200 freestyle relay. Her brother, Aaron Shackell, was the first American added to the Olympic team with a breakout performance in the men’s 400 free at the U.S. Olympic Trials. In Paris, he finished 8th.
Coach of the Year
This award is given to the coach whose athlete(s) performed at the highest level throughout the year, with special emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
Todd DeSorbo and Anthony Nesty, the head coaches of the U.S. Olympic Team, both earned nominations for Coach of the Year. Notably, Nesty just won Coach of the Year at the 2024 ASCA World Clinic. Huske’s coach, Greg Meehan, is nominated as well. Bob Bowman, whose athletes—American and international—showed out in Paris, powered by Leon Marchand’s performance.
Female Athlete of the Year
This award is given to the top female swimmer of the year with special emphasis on achievements at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
Female Athlete of the Year is the category with the most nominations. Huske, Katie Ledecky, and Kate Douglass each earned multiple Olympic medals, including at least one individual gold. Huske leads the way with five overall medals.
Regan Smith earned three individual silver medals at the Games. She contributed to two gold medal relay performances, including breaking the Olympic record in the 100 back to lead off the world record-setting women’s 4×100 medley relay. Walsh earned four medals, two gold and two silver.
Female Race of the Year
This award is given to the female swimmer with the greatest single individual race of the year, with special emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
- Kate Douglass, 200m breaststroke
- Torri Huske, 100m butterfly
- Katie Ledecky, 1500m freestyle
Female Race of the Year comes down to Douglass, Huske, and Ledecky in a battle of gold medal-winning swims. Douglass and Huske’s swims were the first individual Olympic golds of their career, while Ledecky defended her 1500 freestyle crown en route to becoming the most decorated American female Olympic athlete.
Fran Crippen Open Water Swimmer of the Year
This award is given to the athlete who had the most outstanding year as an open-water swimmer, with an emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
Three Olympic open water swimmers braved the Seine River to compete and now are Golden Goggles nominees. After winning 400 IM silver in the pool, Katie Grimes finished 15th in the women’s 10K, just ahead of 16th place Mariah Denigan. In the men’s race, Ivan Puskovitch finished 19th.
Male Athlete of the Year
This award is given to the top male swimmer of the year with special emphasis on achievements at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
This is one of Nic Fink’s three 2024 Golden Goggle Nominations, likely courtesy of his first individual Olympic medal from winning silver in the men’s 100 breaststroke and his aid on the men’s and mixed medley relays. Ryan Murphy also factored into the medley relays and picked up bronze in the men’s 100 backstroke.
Bobby Finke earned the American men’s only individual Olympic gold of the Games, winning the men’s 1500 freestyle in a world record time.
Male Race of the Year
This award is given to the male swimmer with the greatest single individual race of the year, with special emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
- Nic Fink, 100m breaststroke
- Bobby Finke, 1500m freestyle
- Luke Hobson, 200m freestyle
Finke erasing Sun Yang’s world record from 2012 in a captivating swim earned him a Male Race of the Year nod in addition to his nomination for Male Athlete of the Year. Fink’s 100m breaststroke performance is also recognized as is Hobson’s performance in a nail-biting men’s 200 freestyle final, where 1st through 4th were separated by .15 seconds.
Perseverance Award
This award is given to the athlete who came back from adversity, retirement, sickness, injury, etc., to have an outstanding performance(s) in 2024, with special emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
Caeleb Dressel and Simone Manuel, two of the faces of the past eight years of American swimming, returned to the sport after extended breaks and made the 2024 Olympic team. Both got back on the podium too, courtesy of relay performances, with Dressel helping the U.S. men to gold on the opening night of the Games.
Paige Madden also took time away from the sport in the past Olympic quad while dealing with health issues. She missed the 2022 and 2023 Worlds teams but had a resurgent 2024, qualifying for her second Olympics and winning her first individual Olympic medal with bronze in an electric women’s 800 freestyle. She also won silver as part of the women’s 4×200 freestyle relay. Emma Weyant bounced back after getting disqualified at 2023 U.S. Nationals and missing the Worlds team to qualify for her second Games and earn bronze in the 400 IM.
Relay Performance of the Year
This award is given to the best team relay performance, male or female. The performance considered must be a finals performance, with special emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
- Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay
- Mixed 4x100m medley relay
- Women’s 4x100m medley relay
The men’s 4×100 freestyle relay swam away from a competitive field to win gold on the first night of the 2024 Olympics by more than a second. Later, the mixed and women’s 4×100 medley relays won gold in world-record performances. After Finke’s 1500 free win tied the U.S. with Australia on top of the medal table, the women’s 4×100 medley relay clinched the medal table win with an 8th gold for Team USA.
literally how is Ledecky’s 800 not nominated for race of the year
Breakout definitely Walsh. I know prelims medals “count” but calling Alex Shackell a gold and silver medalist when she went a 57 high fly split and a 1:59 200 free split feels kinda weird? Prelims swimmers from dominant countries have to do so little to qualify and get their free medal, it’s nowhere near on the level of a finals swim.
Torri 100 free lowk solos all of them
It would be nice to see a full list of medals won, time taking, etc for the athlete of the year competitions.
Ledecky’s 800 should have been nominated for race of the year–she got the 4-peat, plus it was a great race against a strong field. Anyway:
Breakout: G. Walsh
Coach: DeSorbo
Female Athlete: Ledecky
Female Race: Huske
Open Water: Grimes? She had the highest finish in Paris but not by much. Denigan finished higher in Doha but I doubt they will take that into consideration.
Male Athlete: Finke
Male Race: Finke
Perseverance: Madden
Relay: W medley
There’s only one right answer for breakout, male race, and male athlete. I would be fine with swapping Huske and Ledecky in the female athlete/female race categories. Coach…any of them except Bowman. Kinda rooting for Meehan, but only having one athlete hurts his chances.
I would give Huske female race of meet? Maybe athlete of meet too
Why did they not include Ledecky’s 800m freestyle? Great race and she won four straight, joining only Phelps (in swimming)?
Snub of the year, Chris Guiliano
Maybe best Trials, lol.
Breakout Performer: Walsh
Coach of the Year: Bowman
Female Athlete: Ledecky/Huske
Female Race: Huske
Open Water: Denigan
Male Athlete: Finke
Male Race: Finke
Perseverance: Madden
Relay: Women’s 4×100 Medley
relay will most definitely be Mixed Medley Relay
I agree with you. However, it’s not listed as a nominee for this category!? I’m curious as to why it isn’t because that’s one relay where everybody went super fast and had to go super fast in all of their splits in order to beat China.
Its definitely listed