2025 Golden Goggle Awards
- September 27, 2025
- Denver, Colorado
- SwimSwam Official Ballot
- Online Auction (Closes at 10 PM MST, Sept 27)
The 2025 Golden Goggle Awards are here and begin tonight at 7:00 PM Mountain Time (9:00 Eastern)! Follow along as the event takes place in Denver, Colorado at the Denver Art Museum.
It is a much shorter event this year compared to last year. There were nine awards last year and only five this year.
Female Athlete of the Year
Nominees:
Winner: Katie Ledecky
Katie Ledecky has won Women’s Athlete of the Year at the 2025 Golden Goggle awards. Other nominees included Katharine Berkoff, Kate Douglass, and Gretchen Walsh. The 2024 award winner was Torri Huske.
Ledecky swam to two individual gold medals at the 2025 World Championships, winning the 800 free and 1500 free (15:26.44). Her time of a 8:05.62 in the 800 free marked a Championship Record and marked her 7th World title in the event. The 800 free was one of the biggest showdowns of the meet as Australia’s Lani Pallister won silver in a 8:05.98 and Canada’s Summer McIntosh won bronze in a 8:07.29.
Ledecky also won individual bronze in the 400 free with a 3:58.49 and helped the US women’s 4×200 free relay to silver as she anchored in a 1:53.71. The US women’s relay final time of a 7:40.01 marked a new American record.
Earlier in the year, Ledecky broke her own 800 free World Record posting a 8:04.12 at the Pro Series stop in Fort Lauderdale. At the same meet, she posted the #2 1500 free performance of all-time.
Ledecky did not swim at the 2024 SCM World Championships, which took place last December. Those Worlds were after the last Golden Goggles that took place in November 2024.
Fran Crippen Open Water Athlete of the Year
Nominees:
Winner: Ivan Puskovitch
Puskovitch wins the award after Katie Grimes has won the award the last two years. This is the third year of the award. Puskovitch finished 7th in the 3 km knockout sprints at the 2025 World Championships finishing in a 6:07.2. He also was 20th in the men’s 5 km open water event in a time of a 1:00:26.3. He did not swim the 10 km event.
USA Swimming Foundation Impact Award: David & Maya Shackley
Coach of the Year
Nominees:
Winner: Todd DeSorbo
Todd DeSorbo won the 2025 Golden Goggle Award for Coach of the Year, winning the award for the second year in a row. DeSorbo is the head coach at the University of Virginia. Other nominees included Bob Bowman and Anthony Nesty.
DeSorbo coaches numerous swimmers who won medals at the 2025 World Championships including Kate Douglass and Gretchen Walsh who led the charge in Singapore.
2025 US Worlds Roster Under DeSorbo:
Gretchen Walsh won two individual gold medals in Singapore swimming to wins in the 50 fly and 100 fly. Her 100 fly time of a 54.73 marked a Championship Record. Douglass swam to gold in the 200 breaststroke, posting a Championship Record as well as American Record of a 2:18.50.
In addition to coaching swimmers to three individual golds, Douglass swam to silver in the 100 breast, Alex Walsh won silver in the 200 IM, and Curzan won bronze in the 200 back. Curzan, Douglass, and Gretchen Walsh all swam on the US women’s 4×100 medley relay that won gold while Moesch and Douglass swam on the women’s 4×100 free relay that won silver.
Outside of the 2025 World Championships, Gretchen Walsh swam to a World Record in the 100 fly posting a 54.60 at the Pro Series stop in Fort Lauderdale at the start of May.
Last December, Gretchen Walsh and Kate Douglass also led the US at the 2024 SCM World Championships. Walsh swam to five individual golds, winning the 50 free, 100 free, 50 fly, 100 fly, and 100 IM. Douglass won the 200 breast and 200 IM, and the two teamed up for two more golds in the women’s 4×100 free relay and women’s 4×100 medley relay.
Male Athlete of the Year
Nominees:
Winner: Luca Urlando
Luca Urlando was the lone American male to win an individual title at the 2025 World Championships. Urlando won the men’s 200 butterfly in a 1:51.87. That swim also marked a lifetime best for Urlando, who has battled back from shoulder surgery. The 200 fly was his only event in Singapore.
With his win, Urlando was even up as an option to lead off the US men’s 4×100 medley relay as he broke the American Record in the SCY 100 backstroke at the 2022 NCAA Championships while competing for Georgia.
Alumni Of The Year- Elizabeth Beisel
Relay Performance of the Year
Nominees:
- Mixed 4×100 m Freestyle Relay – World Record
- Women’s 4×100 m Medley Relay – World Record
Winner: Women’s 4×100 m Medley Relay – World Record
The US women’s 4×100 medley relay consisted of Katharine Berkoff, Lilly King, Claire Curzan, and Simone Manuel in prelims as they posted the top time to set the finals relay up for a swim out of lane 4. The finals relay of Regan Smith, Kate Douglass, Gretchen Walsh, and Torri Huske made a statement on the final day of competition in Singapore, posting a new World Record with a 3:49.34 in their win.
The relay won by over three seconds as Australia was 2nd in a 3:52.67. The previous World Record was a 3:49.63 that Smith, King, Walsh, and Huske swam at the 2024 Paris Olympics for gold. The group also broke the previous Championship Record set back in 2019 by the US in a 3:50.40. Smith was the only member of that relay from 2019 to also swim on the finals relay this year in Singapore while King and Manuel were on the relay in 2019 and swam in prelims this year.
This was like the temu golden goggles
Assuming USA swimming flew out all the swimmers and staff? For 5 awards? There was no hype for this event at all. No rookie award? Breakthrough award? I don’t get it at all…. I saw more elephant petting in Thailand posts than I saw for the golden goggles night. Weird.
100%. This event is incredibly important to promote the sport. No live broadcast – anywhere. Not even the cra@ppy USA Swimming Network. Mr. Ring really has his work cut out for him.
Not that it really matters, but the national team was at the OTC in Colorado already for their staging camp. Not a major trek for most of them. But agree with your points!
Lol a roaring success of an event, good job USA swimming
I think Alexy should’ve won Male Athlete of the Year. Urlando won the 200 fly without having to face Marchand or Milak, while Alexy raced a full field of the best sprint freestylers in the world (he also went under the previous 100 free American record 3 times in a single week). He also performed extremely well on relays.
You’re not wrong but remember Gold is apparently all that matters and everything else is disappointing
Genuinely such a wasted opportunity. There’s obviously so much disorganization that’s been discussed regarding USA Swimming in general, but this is a very easy promotion of athletes that was completely squandered. These awards are, in a way, a means of selling a narrative. In only giving out a few awards and doing very little to promote the event itself, the organizers seem to have resigned themselves to writing this year off entirely when there was so many noteworthy things to highlight. The Worlds illness debacle must’ve made them assume that nothing was worthy of celebrating, but the opposite should have occurred. Why not highlight the athletes after they faced adversity and laud them for their performances in spite of the… Read more »
Instead of complaining, get involved. I was at GGs and it was a great event. I met with loads of staff and our new CEO too. The message I heard was we are listening and we want to grow and improve.
While I commend you for attending, the onus of engagement should never be placed purely on the audience, particularly in scenarios like this where there is was legitimately no means to interact with the awards in the first place if you weren’t there yourself. Sure, people can get involved, but how are we to do that if the sole option is to physically attend the event or wait for SwimSwam to just post the winners that aren’t being announced in any other forum? How does having the prerequisite of needing to travel to even engage with the event do anything but limit the engagement into something objectively exclusive and narrow reaching? You can say I’m complaining, but I’d contend that… Read more »
Pretty much.
I saw your tweets.
We should never be surprised swimming doesn’t go mainstream when the organization in charge, USA Swimming, can’t even do the most basic (ie. Media)
Unacceptable to not have a livestream. In this day in age, that should be the bare minimum. Especially if you’re trying to get more attention on your sport and your top athletes, something that doesn’t seem to be on USA Swimming’s priority list.
especially since this event has been streamed in the years prior
just found out a taped recording of golden goggles will be posted to the usa swimming netowkr at a later date and that’s all we get via usa swimming foundations instagram
Yeah just saw Braden tweet and its almost like USA swimming wants to do the ceremony behind closed doors unlike the previous year.
If anyone isn’t on Twitter:
https://x.com/braden_keith/status/1972122973210566791?s=46