FINA Presents Its “Best Athlete Of The Year” Awards

Today, FINA announced the winners of its “Best Athlete of the Year” awards at the FINA World Aquatics Gala “Soiree des Etoiles” or “Evening of the Stars” in Budapest, Hungary. The event was live-streamed on FINA’s website earlier tonight.

Winners included Mitch Larkin, Katie Ledecky, Katinka Hosszu, Jordan Wilimovskyand Ana Marcela Cunha. The Federacion International de Natacion also awarded athletes in diving, synchronized swimming, and water polo.

FINA also announced the host cities for the 2021 and 2023 FINA World Championships, Fukuoka and Doha.

Best Female Swimmer 2015- Katinka Hosszu

Best Male Swimmer 2015- Mitch Larkin

Best Female Swimming Performance of 2015- Katie Ledecky

Best Male Swimming Performance of 2015- Adam Peaty

Best Female Open Water Swimmer 2015- Ana Marcela Cunha

Best Male Open Water Swimmer 2015- Jordan Wilimovsky

Best Female Water Polo Team 2015- USA

Best Male Water Polo Team 2015- Serbia

Best Female Diver 2015- Shi Tingmao

Best Male Diver 2015- He Chao

Best Female High Diver 2015- Rachelle Simpson

Best Male High Diver 2015- Gary Hunt

Best Female Synchronized Swimmer 2015- Svetlana Romashina

Best Male Synchronized Swimmer 2015- Bill May and Alexandr Maltsev

BONUS: Athletes’ Acceptance Messages

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hfri
8 years ago

Is FINA struggling so much that it can’t even produce a video beyond 240p?

swimmer
8 years ago

FINA has a certain point system, and based on that system it will award the swimmer who collects most of the points throughout the year. Everyone has equal chance to participate in any FINA event. Katinka collected the most points in 2015, therefore it is only fair for her to win FINA’s best female swimmer of the year award. These are the facts. The rest is emotion…

Mind you, I can accept that Ledecky gets another Female of the year prize from some other organization, because from a non-biased perspective her achievments in 2015 were outstanding.

mcgillrocks
Reply to  swimmer
8 years ago

If that is the case, then it’s a biased and unequal point system that should be totally reevaluated. Just because the system is the same for everyone doesn’t mean that it is a GOOD system.

luigi
8 years ago

Not to take anything away from Hosszu, but these guys are now a certified bunch of clown. It’s really one of those “I rest my case” times.

bobo gigi
8 years ago

Who cares about these jokes?
I remind you that KL was even not nominated among the best athletes of the year by the supposed expert magazine sports illustrated.
FINA rewards swimmers who swim in world cups. They want to promote that.
Hilarious.

Uberfan
8 years ago

Only way katinka won’t win swimmer of the year is if Steve Harvey announces it. She’s great no doubt but come on Ledecky won 5 medals broke 2 long course world records for the fiftieth time ever and got 4 invdiduaI golds in Kazan in all 4 distance events. She deserves it but just wait till Rio if FINA doesn’t give it to her after that it’s obvious they’re still corrupt

Gina
8 years ago

The Academy Awards apparently have every single person in every event wrong. Faint cries of “I too came out of Africa ” will not suffice .

GI
8 years ago

The last video, they dared to ask Katie to leave a message.
She looks like don’t want to be disturbing at all.

swimmer
8 years ago

^ Completely agree.

About Hannah Hecht

Hannah Hecht

Hannah Hecht grew up in Kansas and spent most of her childhood trying to convince coaches to let her swim backstroke in freestyle sets. She took her passion to Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa and swam at NAIA Nationals all four years. After graduating in 2015, she moved to …

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