Michael Phelps leads all athletes with 5 Golden Goggles nominations in 2016, per the official ballot released by USA Swimming today.
Another foursome holds 3 nominations each: Katie Ledecky, Maya DiRado and Ryan Murphy.
Phelps is up for Male Athlete of the Year, Male Race of the year for two separate races and Relay Performance of the Year for two separate relays.
Here’s the full list of nominees, per USA Swimming’s website:
Breakout Performer of the Year
Lilly King
Cody Miller
Josh Prenot
Leah Smith
Perseverance Award
Kathleen Baker
Anthony Ervin
David Plummer
Dana Vollmer
Coach of the Year
Bob Bowman
Dave Durden
Bruce Gemmell
Ray Looze
David Marsh
Greg Meehan
Relay Performance of the Year
Men’s 4x100m Free Relay, 2016 Olympic Games
Women’s 4x200m Free Relay, 2016 Olympic Games
Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay, 2016 Olympic Games
Female Race of the Year
Simone Manuel, 100m Free, 2016 Olympic Games
Katie Ledecky, 800m Free, 2016 Olympic Games
Maya DiRado, 200m Back, 2016 Olympic Games
Lilly King, 100m Breast, 2016 Olympic Games
Male Race of the Year
Anthony Ervin, 50m Free, 2016 Olympic Games
Ryan Murphy, 100m Back, 2016 Olympic Games
Michael Phelps, 200m Fly, 2016 Olympic Games
Michael Phelps, 200m IM, 2016 Olympic Games
Female Athlete of the Year
Maya DiRado
Katie Ledecky
Simone Manuel
Male Athlete of the Year
Nathan Adrian
Anthony Ervin
Ryan Murphy
Michael Phelps
Fans can vote online for the next month to help determine the winners. SwimSwam will be releasing its official Golden Goggles ballot shortly, and tracking the fan vote over the next month until the winners are announced on November 21.
You can vote on the Golden Goggle Awards here until Friday, November 11.
The USA Swimming press release to go along with the nominations is below:
After adding to his record-setting career total with six medals, including five gold, at the 2016 Olympic Games, Michael Phelps (Baltimore, Md./North Baltimore Aquatic Club) leads the way with five nominations for the 2016 USA Swimming Golden Goggle Awards, set for Monday, Nov. 21, at the Marriott Marquis in New York City.
The nation’s top swimmers and coaches are nominated in eight categories for the 13th Annual Golden Goggle Awards, the celebration and fundraising gala honoring the sport’s top performances of the year. This year’s event, emceed by NBC Sports’ Bob Costas, will once again mix swimming stars with celebrities, business leaders and entertainment icons in Times Square.Full event details, including table and seat purchasing opportunities, can be found at GoldenGoggles.com.
Phelps’ five nominations include Male Athlete of the Year, Male Race of the Year for the 200-meter butterfly and 200-meter individual medley at the Olympic Games and Relay Performance of the Year for the men’s 4x100m free relay and 4x100m medley relay in Rio. Phelps is a six-time winner of Male Athlete of the Year honors, including each of the last two years.
Earning three Golden Goggle nominations each were Maya DiRado (Santa Rosa, Calif./Stanford Swimming), Anthony Ervin (Valencia, Calif./SwimMAC Carolina), Katie Ledecky (Bethesda, Md./Nation’s Capital Swim Club) and Ryan Murphy (Jacksonville, Fla./California Aquatics).
Ledecky is nominated for Female Athlete of the Year, Female Race of the Year for the 800m free in Rio and Relay Performance of the Year for the 4x200m free relay at the Olympic Games. She will look to become the first athlete – male or female – to win Golden Goggles’ Athlete of the Year honors in four consecutive years.
Golden Goggle Award nominations are based on the year’s top accomplishments by U.S. swimmers, focusing primarily on the 2016 Olympic Games. The Americans topped the medal table in Rio de Janeiro with 33 total medals, including 16 gold. The complete list of 2016 Golden Goggle Award nominees by category is below.
Online fan voting is now open and will continue through Friday, Nov. 11. A percentage of the fan vote will count towards the final ballot. Beginning later this week USA Swimming will highlight Golden Goggle Awards categories weekly on usaswimming.org and across its social media channels in the lead-up to the Nov. 21 event.
Proceeds from the Golden Goggle Awards benefit the USA Swimming Foundation, which has the mission to save lives and build champions – in the pool and in life. In addition to its Make a Splash initiative, a national, child-focused water safety campaign that stresses the importance of learning to swim, the USA Swimming Foundation supports the U.S. National Team and its development efforts aim to establish an endowment to strengthen the future of USA Swimming’s programs and services. The Foundation also serves as the home for our National and Olympic Team Alumni reunions and regional events.
Some thoughts
-Lilly King has skyrocketed to the top of the world this year. No doubt she wins breakout swimmer. Honorable mention to Townley Haas
-Baker really deserves perserverance award.
-USA Swimming really has a boner with Ledecky’s 800. Everyone seems to be in agreement that her 400 was better
-Murphy was stellar. He definitely deserves an award, but most likely Phelps will win all of the awards that Murphy was nominated for.
I thought Baker was a slam-dunk for perseverance and voted for her, but Plummer’s got a good case, too.
(Much moreso than Volmer and Ervin, who are just like, old I guess?)
Vollmer came back to comeptive swimming shortly after having a child plus she had that heart problem when she was younger (not sure if they’re factoring in the latter.) And didn’t Ervin struggle with self-destructive thoughts/ behaviors? Though I’ve gotten the impression he’s been doing a lot better over the last 5 years.
While Volmer and Ervin are impressive I do agree with you that either Baker or Plummer are a more appropriate choice for this award.
I seriously do not get why Simone Manuel is trailing Maya DiRado. I liked Maya’s swim, but I found Simone better. Also, the 100m free captured America’s attention more than the Maya’s 200 back.
Manuel’s swim was only a tie. Dirado’s wasn’t!
I recall last year Katie’s 1500 was the top vote, and seems like everyone were more impressed about her 800, it turn out her 200 been rewarded.
So I guess the voting wouldn’t really affect the final result.
Is this the first time she only got 1 race nominated at Female Race of the Year in 4 years?
I like her 400 more, too. And her 200 was very impressed.
Her 400 was more impressive to me. She dropped 2 seconds from a time that was 2 years old and she had trouble bettering. After her 400, I was expecting a bigger drop in the 800, which admittedly may have been a bit too much considering she had set that just the January before
Here are the right and correct choices:
Breakout Performer of the Year
Lilly King
Perseverance Award
Kathleen Baker / David Plummer
Coach of the Year
Greg Meehan
Relay Performance of the Year
Men’s 4x100m Free Relay, 2016 Olympic Games
Female Race of the Year
Simone Manuel, 100m Free, 2016 Olympic Games
Male Race of the Year
Anthony Ervin, 50m Free, 2016 Olympic Games
Female Athlete of the Year
Katie Ledecky
Male Athlete of the Year
Michael Phelps
I totally agree. I was just about to comment this, but you already did. Great picks haha!
I agree with everything except female breakout. Should be Dirado
Valid! But I feel like we knew Dirado was gonna be on the team in the IMs at least and have a good shot at medals. She definitely swam way better than those expectations, but to me Lilly King was just straight outta nowhere within the last couple months.
Dirado’s still a solid choice for that, tho.
She did dominate NCAAs earlier in the year, but I see your point. I guess to me 2 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medal are more impressive than 2 gold and a missed final. Plus King’s relay split was undeniably weak
Agree with all your picks except male race of the year which I give to Ryan Murphy. All in all, great picks.
Murphy was the favorite to win the 100 back and is a young superstar entering his prime. Ervin is 35 and manadou was the overwhelming favorite in the 50
NUH UH. I feel very strongly about two of them, both of the races of the year. Simone & Tony >>> everything.
(And I mean, Murphy even went faster later on in the meet. Make it hard to give it race of the year, IMO.)
If the rest of the world was included, our lady would definitely be on the list:
Perseverance Award
Yuliya Efimova
I nominate GoYulia for a Golden Goggle for best trolling of 2016.