On Tuesday, USA Swimming announced the nominations for the 2022 Golden Goggle awards, which will be held on November 21, 2022 at the Marriott Marquis hotel in New York City. The awards show will be held to celebrate the accomplishments of the U.S. national swim team, with an emphasis on their performances at the 2022 World Championships in June 2022. This year marks the 19th year that Golden Goggles has been held.
Athletes and coaches have been nominated for eight different awards: Breakout Performer Of The Year, Perseverance Award, Coach Of The Year, Relay Performance Of The Year, Female Race Of The Year, Male Race Of The Year, Female Athlete Of The Year, and Male Athlete Of The Year. Award winners are decided based on online fan votes and the votes of a committee, although it is unknown how much weight will be placed on each voting party.
- SwimSwam’s unofficial Golden Goggles ballot, where we pick who we think should win each award, will be released later this week.
Bobby Finke, Carson Foster, Lilly King and Torri Huske lead all athletes with three individual nominations each.
Online fan voting is open until September 30.
2022 Golden Goggles Nominations
Breakout Performer Of The Year
This award is given to the athlete whose performance(s) stand out in relation to other years, with special emphasis on the 2022 World Championships.
- Carson Foster
- Claire Curzan
- Leah Hayes
- Hunter Armstrong
- Torri Huske
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 2022, with special emphasis on the 2022 FINA Swimming World Championships.
- Leah Smith
- Lilly King
- Luca Urlando
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 2022 FINA Swimming World Championships.
- Anthony Nesty
- Eddie Reese
- Ron Atiken
- Todd DeSorbo
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 2022 FINA Swimming World Championships.
- Women’s 4×200 free relay
- Men’s 4×200 free relay
- Women’s 4×100 medley relay
- Men’s 4×100 free relay
- Mixed 4×100 medley relay
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 2022 FINA Swimming World Championships.
- Alex Walsh, 200 IM
- Katie Ledecky, 800 free
- Lilly King, 200 breast
- Regan Smith, 100 back
- Torri Huske, 100 fly
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 2022 FINA Swimming World Championships.
- Bobby Finke, 800 free
- Bobby Finke, 1500 free
- Carson Foster, 400 IM
- Ryan Murphy 200 back
Female Athlete Of The Year
This award is given to the top female swimmer of the year with special emphasis on achievements at the 2022 FINA Swimming World Championships.
- Alex Walsh
- Katie Grimes
- Katie Ledecky
- Lilly King
- Regan Smith
- Torri Huske
Male Athlete Of The Year
This award is given to the top male swimmer of the year with special emphasis on achievements at the 2022 FINA Swimming World Championships.
- Bobby Finke
- Carson Foster
- Nic Fink
- Ryan Murphy
In addition, the Golden Goggles auction will open on November 14 this year. Some notable things that were auctioned at last year’s awards show include a Toyota with a Caeleb Dressel-themed paint job, a SwimSwam Practice and Pancakes with Mel Stewart, and swimming memorabilia signed by Katie Ledecky.
Tickets for attending Golden Goggles are also on sale now, and can be bought from the USA Swimming website.
This shouldn’t be so difficult 😩 Finke should get swimmer of the year. Foster race of the year for his 400IM even though he finished 2nd to Marchand. It was the fastest 4IM any American has swam in a very long time.
Breakout Performance: Foster, Armstrong or Hayes
Perseverance: Smith or Urlando
Coach of the Year: Nesty
Relay: W Medley fs, but I could see M 4×2
W Race: Tough- Walsh, Smith or King IMO Walsh
M Race: FInke 800 fs
F swimmer: Hard to argue against Huske IMO
M Swimmer: Also tough, Could see any one of them
I could see perseverance going to either King or Smith, covid vs missed Olympics as a veteran comebacks and both are impressive, but that relay performance imo has to go womens 4×200. In any other year I’d give it to the mens 4×200 for their ability to fire on all cylinders when needed most but there’s nothing like a race from behind, with two massive splits from Sims and Ledecky to boot. It makes the difference between performing up to potential and outperforming expectations.
And I know Titmus wasn’t there so the Aussie relay wasn’t at its best against team USA, but GB was missing their ringer too which levels it in my mind.
And one last note, Katie… Read more »
I think Finke’s last 50 in the 1500 Tokyo should give him at least 2 years extra credit at the Golden Goggles.
Breakout Performer Of The Year – Torri Huske
Perseverance Award – Lilly King
Coach Of The Year – Anthony Nesty
Relay Performance Of The Year – Men’s 4×200 free relay
Female Race Of The Year – Torri Huske, 100 fly
Male Race Of The Year – Bobby Finke, 800 free
Female Athlete Of The Year – Katie Ledecky
Male Athlete Of The Year – Bobby Finke
Probably they won’t want to give Finke and Huske two awards tho.
Hunter Armstrong 50 back race of the year?
Carson Foster for perseverance?
Armstrong/Ress kinda snubbed with neither getting a nod for race of the year for the LCM 50m back.
my guess is that they didn’t put an emphasis on non-Olympic events, as another notable omission was Nic Fink’s 50 breast, where he broke the American record. I think the fact that they included two silver-medal winning races on the men’s side over three gold-medal winning performances (dressel 50 fly, fink 50 breast, ress 50 back) that all happened to be in 50 stroke events goes to show that.
Foster and Finke’s silver races were obviously incredible, but usually USA Swimming does go with all of the gold-medal winning races before they start nominating silvers.
(Although, in 2019 they nominated both Smoliga’s 50 back and Dressel’s 50 fly as races of the year.)
Especially since they included 2 of Finke’s races. How many people are actually going to vote for Finke’s 1500 (where he took silver) over his 800 (where he took gold)?
I think the 1500 was included because he broke the American record by almost three seconds.
Well he did beat the American record in the 1500 by a significant margin