Earlier today LEN (the European Swimming League) announced their swimmer of the year award winners.
The awards are decided upon by a vote which includes LEN member countries and members of various LEN committees.
The men’s award voting was dominated by Frenchman Florent Manaudou who earned 69.8%. Manaudou was well deserving winning four gold at the European Championships in Berlin (50 and 100 freestyle, 50 butterfly and 4 x 100 freestyle). He then went on to collect three gold (50 freestyle, 50 backstroke and 4 x 100 freestyle relay), two silver (100 freestyle and 4 x 50 medley relay) and one bronze (4 x 100 medley relay) in Doha at the Short Course World Championships.
In Doha Manaudou also set new world records in the 50 freestyle (20.26) and the 50 backstroke (22.22).
The top five in voting were as follows:
- Manaudou – 69.8%
- Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy) – 9.5%
- Marco Koch (Germany) – 6.3%
- Radoslaw Kawecki (Poland) – 4.8% Adam Peaty (Great Britain) – 4.8%
The interesting thing about this year’s top five vote getters is that none of them earned a top five placing in the 2013 voting.
The top five in 2013 were:
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Yannick Agnel – France 54,3%
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Daniel Gyurta – Hungary 21,4%
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Jeremy Stravius – France 15,7%
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Camille Lacourt – France 7,1%
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Vladimir Morozov – Russia 1,4%
Hungarian Katinka Hosszu won the women’s award for the second year in a row receiving 57.7% of the votes. Hosszu had another incredible year first winning three gold (200 and 400 IM and 100 backstroke (tie with Mie Nielsen), one silver (200 freestyle) and one bronze (200 butterfly).
She then went on to dominate the women’s World Cup once again collecting $389,000 in prize money. She capped off the year in Doha winning the four World Championship titles (100 and 200 backstroke and the 100 and 200 IM). Hosszu also collected three silver (200 freestyle, 200 butterfly and 400 IM) and one bronze (50 backstroke)
At the same competition she broke the world record in 100 and 200 backstroke as well as the 100 and 200 IM.
The top five in voting were as follows:
- Hosszu – 57.7%
- Mireia Belmonte (Spain) – 25%
- Sarah Sjostrom (Sweden)- 12.5%
- Jazz Carlin (Great Britain) – 1.6% Femke Heemskerk (Netherlands) – 1.6% Jeanette Ottesen (Denmark) – 1.6%
Sharon van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands took the women’s Open Water Award with 57.6% of the votes. Rouwendaal took the 10 km event at the European Championships and finished second in the 5 km event.
Thomas Lurz of Germany took the men’s Open Water Award with a vote of 40% only 1.2% more than Ferry Weertmann of the Netherlands who collected 38.8% of the vote.
This is an interesting decision as Lurz was the only man to win three open water medals at the European Championships; silver in the 10 km and bronze in both the 5 km and team event, but did not win gold.
Whereas Weertmann took gold in both the 10 km and team event in Berlin.
