The 2023 European Aquatics Awards honored Sarah Sjostrom and Noe Ponti earlier this month as the top swimmers of last year based on voting from both national federations and the public.
Sjostrom earned European Swimmer of the Year for the fifth time, reclaiming the crown after Ruta Meilutyte snapped her four-year winning streak in 2022. Sjostrom won gold medals in the 50 butterfly and 50 freestyle at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, surpassing Michael Phelps‘ record for most individual medals at the meet with 21 in total. The 30-year-old Swedish star lowered her own six-year-old world record in the 50 free (23.67 from 2017) with her winning time of 23.61, which came in the semifinals just 17 minutes after her 50 fly victory.
Meilutyte won the public vote after winning the 50 breast (world record of 29.16) and 100 breast (1:04.62) at the 2023 World Championships, but Sjostrom took the honor thanks to heavy support from the national federations.
Ponti bounced back from a subpar World Championships last summer to sweep all three butterfly events at December’s European Short Course Championships, but picking him over new world record holders Leon Marchand and Daniel Wiffen raised some eyebrows.
Ponti placed 7th in the 100 fly (51.23) at Worlds before dominating the SCM 50 fly (21.79), 100 fly (48.47), and 200 fly (1:49.71) at the European Short Course Championships five months later. In the 100 fly, he snuck under Evgeny Korotyshkin‘s European record of 48.48 from 2009. Ponti’s 50 fly victory made him the third-fastest performer in history, just .04 seconds shy of the world record (21.75) shared by Nicholas Santos and Szebasztian Szabo. He showed off his versatility by adding a silver medal in the 100 IM (51.62) at the European Short Course Championships. Ponti is the first Swiss athlete ever to win the top European accolade in any aquatics discipline.
Marchand won gold medals in the 200 IM (European record of 1:54.82), 200 fly (1:52.43), and 400 IM (world record of 4:02.50), the latter erasing Phelps’ last individual world record from the books. Phelps owned the global standard for almost 21 years before passing the torch to the 21-year-old Frenchman.
Wiffen swept the SCM 400 free (3:35.47), 800 free (7:20.46), and 1500 free (14:09.11) at December’s European Short Course Championships, breaking the oldest world record on the books belonging to Grant Hackett in the 800 free (7:23.42) along the way. It was a stellar end to a busy year for the 22-year-old Irishman, who also placed 4th in the 800 free (European record of 7:39.19) and 1500 free (14:43.01) at Worlds last July and won the 1500 free (14:35.79) at the European U23 Swimming Championships the following month.
Wiffen won the public vote, but it wasn’t enough with Ponti securing 50% of the federation votes for the men’s award.
Marchand lost the public vote and the “federation vote” lol. What are they thinking?
Noe Pontin wins for being the most handsome
Very strange choice for the male award.
marchand was probably weighed down by skipping euros, and ponti beating wiffen suggests that they valued a silver over a wr. I’d give the overall award to marchand and nominate grousset over ponti
but sjostrom also skipped euros.
who else was it gonna go to tho