Courtesy: British Swimming
2019 awards season has arrived, and British Swimming has handed out its 2019 Swimmer of the Year award to Olympic and World Champion Adam Peaty. This is his 3rd British Swimmer of the Year award after previously winning in 2016 and 2017.
- See all of the 2019 nominees here.
- See video interviews on the British Swimming YouTube Channel here.
2019 was another banner year for Peaty, who is as dominant in the men’s sprint breaststrokes as anybody is any any specific swimming discipline globally. He took World Championships in the 50 and 100 meter breaststroke, each of which were his 3rd-consecutive long course title in those events. He also was the key leg as the British men won the 400 medley relay for the 2nd time in 3 World Championship editions.
The big moment came in the semi-finals of the men’s 100 breaststroke in Gwangju. There, he swam a 56.88 to achieve the completion of his “project 56” to become the first swimmer ever under 57 seconds in the event. In the final, with nobody close to him, he went 57.14 to win by 1.32 seconds ahead of countrymate James Wilby. Highlighting just how good Peaty’s swim is: Yan Zibei took a bronze medal in 58.63 in an event where Asian swimmers have been very good historically, and he was a second and a half slower than Peaty.
Peaty won the award ahead of nominees Duncan Scott (last year’s winner) and James Wilby.
His personal coach Mel Marshall won the Swimming Coach of the Year award at the annual awards ceremony.
Peaty, in spite of his impressive year, was pipped for the overall British Swimming Athlete of the Year award. British Swimming overseas all of the primary aquatic sports disciplines in the United Kingdom, including diving, synchronized (artistic) swimming, water polo, and para-swimming.
Para-swimming was the source of this year’s overall Athlete of the Year honor. That honor went to 20-year old Alice Tai, who won 7 gold medals as a swimmer in the S8 Class at the 2019 World Para-Swimming Championships.
Tai came away with golds from the meet in the 100 back, 100 fly, 100 free, 400 free, 50 free, and in both the 400 free and 400 medley relays (34 points). Tai’s haul came after being reclassified from category S9 to category S8, with the latter having generally slower results.
Take a look at the timeline of some of the major moments this year of Overall and Para-Swimming Athlete of the year @alice__tai! #BSAwards19 pic.twitter.com/mwC44DxxZ1
— British Swimming (@britishswimming) November 9, 2019
Jacquie Marshall, who is the coach of Eleanor Robinson and Maisie Summers-Newton, was named the Para-Swimming Coach of the Year.
Full List of Award Winners:
- Athlete of the Year – Alice Tai
- Swimmer of the Year – Adam Peaty
- Swimming Coach of the Year – Mel Marshall
- Swimming Emerging Athlete of the Year – Kayla van der Merwe
- Para-Swimmer of the Year – Alice Tai
- Para-Swimming Coach of the Year – Jacquie Marshall
- Para-Swimming Emerging Athlete of the Year – Louis Lawlor
- Diver of the Year – Jack Laugher
- Diving Coach of the Year – Adam Smallwood
- Diving Emerging Athlete of the Year – Anthony Harding
- Artistic Swimmer of the Year (Synchro) – Kate Shortman
- Artistic Swimming Coach of the Year (Synchro) – Paolo Basso
- Male Water Polo Athlete of the Year – Charlie Brogan
- Female Water Polo Athlete of the Year – Lily Turner
- Water Polo Coach of the Year – Phil Powell
Who would have guessed
Surprising!
Coach Mel is a legend!!
I’m shocked.