Well, here we are, two Mireia Belmonte World Records later, and the conversation about who really should have been FINA’s World Swimmer of the Year has grown into a bit of an uproar.
Just prior to the beginning of the 2014 World Championships, the only “open” championship meet in the world in 2014, FINA gave the honor to Hungarian Katinka Hosszu.
The initial conversation was surrounding whether the award should go to Katie Ledecky, who was the best long course swimmer in the world in 2014, or Hosszu, who was the best World Cup swimmer in the world in 2014 (and who had an impressive long course season as well).
After just one day of the World Short Course Championships, though, a third party has entered the mix: Spain’s Mireia Belmonte. She raced head-to-head with Hosszu in two individual event finals, and not only beat Hosszu in both races (200 fly and 400 IM), she broke World Records in both by a second-or-more.
Yes, Hosszu broke World Records in 5 different events this year, and has a stronger World Cup resume, but Belmonte was also very good at the European Championships – she won two golds, two silvers, and two bronzes, including one in open water. Hosszu had more wins head-to-head in Berlin, though, so that’s still probably a check mark in her column.
Belmonte is already the World Record holder in both the 400 and 800 freestyles, which she has yet to swim at this meet. If she extends her success in the 200 fly and 400 IM to the 400 free and the 800 free, there’s no way those World Records stand. She would then have a chance in the 200 IM to make it five individual gold medals and at least four World Records.
Does that stand up to Hosszu’s year, where she became the all-time winningest swimmer in FINA World Cup history? Or to Ledecky’s, where she broke World Records in three events and won 5 golds at Pan Pacs?
With three swimmers who had such wildly different years and no long course World Championship or Olympics, there’s not a clear-cut answer to the question as there was, say, that Phelps was the World Swimmer of the Year in 2008.
But it is a conversation worth having, and that will be had, as the rest of the World Championships evolve. If Hosszu wins a couple of golds and breaks a couple of records, then she’ll solidify her status. If Belmonte does that, though, the water will be even muddier.
At the very least, that conversation should have had a chance to happen – perhaps in future years, the awards season will wait until all of the considerations are in place.
In 2010 the inagural award in this category was given to Therese Alshammar. I think the FINA got it right in recognizing Hosszu and not Ledecky as the Therese Alshammar of 2014.
Too early, and wrong person. In football you don’t give out the season MVP before the last 3 games of the regular season. (not playoffs)
As far as wrong person, Ledecky just dominated and blew away records. she should have gotten it.
Why wouldn’t Shewin’s record count? It was an awesome swim in my book.
Word Cup is for all, Pan Pacs is, well it’s not….
FINA did the right thing.
I hope they will continue to look away from those who do not compete more on the world stage.
And the point that Mcgillrocks makes about Katinka breaking WR with a small margine as to say that’s “nothing special” is just rubbish, it does prove how awesome she is. Would you dare to say that S. Bubka (polevaulter) was not amazing? I think not.
World SCM Champs is a part of the FINA program, as is the World Cup, if you want to see an american female swimmer of the year, join the party with the rest of the world.… Read more »
No, I think they awarded it at the right time. They just picked the wrong swimmers.
Ledecky, simply put, has had the best year of any woman this decade. Save for Ryan Lochte’s 2011, it’s the best year of anyone since the suit era expired, for and that matter no one did anything of Ledecky’s magnitude in 2009 either. Arguably, what Ledecky did, in long course meters, would the most dominant year we’ve seen by a woman since Inge de Brujin’s triple Olympic gold in 2000, or at the very least Laure Manaudou’s 2007 season.
Katinka had a very good World Cup season, but let’s be honest. World Cup is in SCM aka minor league swimming. The depth… Read more »
I believe Hosszu would have had LCM WRs in the 200 and 400 IMs from last year’s Championships if not for shiny suits and Ye Shiwen’s London times. Those who have doubts about Ye Shiwen could argue Hosszu is the best all time at both LCM IM distances, albeit not by a great margin.
So Hosszu cannot even best Ye Shiwen’s legitimate times, nor Rice’s and Kukor’s shiny suit times..NOT IN ONE SINGLE EVENT.
In the meantime, Ledecky CRUSHED ALL shiny suit times in 3 events.
end of discussion.
Ledecky’s 2014 is the greatest year by a female swimmer since De Bruin 2000.
Enough said.
Can you imagine the times Ledecky would be dropping if she were at SC worlds right now? That would have really made this a muddy conversation… Oh well, FINA will get it right some day.
I don’t understand why she choose to skip this meet. I get that it’s SCM but at the same time, she is swimming at US winter National which is in SCY!!!!!!! what is she gaining by swimming SCY?
she mentioned this in her talks of postponing standford also. She wants to go to this meet with her team, and its close to home town. cant blame her.
Keep in mind that she is a high school senior who is approaching exams. Greensboro is close to home, which minimizes missed school and probably missed training time.
But she is not, and she was not breaking records after records during the world cup.
Face it, there is swimming outside of pan pacs and other LCM meets.
Face it, Hosszu cannot even break one single LCM record.
Welp, this erases any doubts I might have had about FINA being run by a bunch if idiots.
LOL @ FINA. This is a proof why I will never take them seriously.