From the uniquely-timed World Championships in Doha, to the first Olympics with a crowd in eight years, to the world record onslaught we saw at the Short Course World Championships, 2024 was a year to remember in the world of swimming.
For the first time in history, the Olympics, Long Course Worlds, and Short Course Worlds all fell in the same calendar year, and though the February edition of Worlds in Doha was scrutinized for its relatively weak fields, what we saw at the Olympics and Short Course Worlds more than made up for it.
Leon Marchand was the story of the Olympic Games, Summer McIntosh put on incredible performances both in Paris and to close out the year at Short Course Worlds in Budapest, while Sarah Sjostrom, Katie Ledecky and Kaylee McKeown also won multiple individual Olympic titles.
The year closed with a bang as we saw 30 world records fall at Short Course Worlds, highlighted by Gretchen Walsh taking down 11 and Regan Smith, Kate Douglass and Noe Ponti also dominating in Budapest.
Now that the end of the year is on the horizon, it’s time for our annual Swammy Awards to be handed out. We’ll keep track of all of our winners below.
See the full 2023 Swammy Awards winners list here.
2024 SWAMMY AWARD INDEX
| CATEGORY | AWARD | Winner |
| International Swimmers of the Year | Leon Marchand (FRA) | |
| Summer McIntosh (CAN) | ||
| Gretchen Walsh (USA) | ||
| Ilya Kharun (CAN) | ||
| Paige Madden (USA) | ||
| Ahmed Jaouadi (TUN) | ||
| Tatjana Smith (RSA) | ||
| Pan Zhanle (CHN) | ||
| Tang Qianting (CHN) | ||
| Ilya Kharun | ||
| Summer McIntosh | ||
| Jordan Crooks (CAY) | ||
| Kristen Romano (PUR) | ||
| Leon Marchand (FRA) | ||
| Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) | ||
| Cameron McEvoy (AUS) | ||
| Kaylee McKeown (AUS) | ||
| Guilherme Costa (BRA) | ||
| Maria Fernanda Costa (BRA) | ||
| Bobby Finke | ||
| Gretchen Walsh | ||
| Kuzey Tunçelli (TUR) | ||
| Summer McIntosh (CAN) | ||
| Kristof Rasovszky (HUN) | ||
| Sharon van Rouwendaal (NED) | ||
| International Coaches of Year | Africa | Rocco Meiring (RSA) |
| Asia | Zheng Kunliang (CHN) | |
| Britain | Steven Tigg (GBR) | |
| Canada | Greg Arkhust (CAMO) | |
| Europe | Antonio Lutula (SWE) | |
| Oceania | Dean Boxall (AUS) | |
| US | Todd DeSorbo | |
| U.S. Awards | Carmel Girls, Bolles Boys | |
| Vanessa Delev & Luca Ferrera | ||
| Jude Burkhart & Lauren Lonsdale | ||
| Audrey Derivaux & Shareef Elaydi | ||
| Rylee Erisman & Luka Mijatovic | ||
| Katie Grimes & Thomas Heilman | ||
| Chris Plumb | ||
| Other Awards | ||
| Ali Truwit |
Last two awards outstanding:
European Coach of the Year: Bob Bowman
Comeback Swimmer: Paige Madden
Easiest one is world junior female
Easiest one is world female of the year
Fixed it for you
I want to call Guiliano the breakout male swimmer of the year.
For his performance at trials? When other athletes had breakout performances at the Olympics and Worlds including world records and individual medals?
Guiliano did have his breakout this year, but there were better breakouts than his. He really didn’t shine at SC Worlds either, that was the Alexy show.
I forget if Alexy got the award last year, but that was definitely his breakout year. I’d go with Kim Woo-min since he hadn’t medaled on the world stage before this year and came away with individual WC gold and Olympic bronze
Summer takes female swimmer of the year, but almost all the rest of the top 10 need an honourable mention as they’ve all had some kind of almost unprecedented success. They really put on a show this year.
Male Swimmer of the Year – Leon Marchand
Female Swimmer of the Year – Summer McIntosh
Breakout Female Swimmer of the Year – Gretchen Walsh
Breakout Male Swimmer of the Year – Pan Zhanle
Comeback Swimmer of the Year – Kristof Milak
African Male Swimmer of the Year – Ahmed Jahoudi
African Female Swimmer of the Year – Tatjana Smith
Asian Male Swimmer of the Year – Pan Zhanle
Asian Female Swimmer of the Year – Zhang Yufei (Tang Qianting?)
Canadian Male Swimmer of the Year – Ilya Kharun (Josh Liendo?)
Canadian Female Swimmer of the Year – Summer McIntosh
Central American/Caribbean Male Swimmer of the Year – Jordan… Read more »
Don’t think I would pick differently 👍️
It’s fairly straightforward this year. Even the less well-defined categories (breakout/comeback) are quite easy to pick.
I would give Cam comeback swimmer award
He already won it last year.
You can’t win a comeback award a year after winning World Championship gold with a new Oceanian record.
Good choices I would change only Breakout Male Swimmer of the Year to Tomoyuki Matsushita cause 4 place at 2023WC with continental record and 46.97 at 2023 Asian Games vs “only gold” at 2023 WJC imo makes more sense for breakout.
Good point! I’ve chosen Pan because he went from “no medal at the World stage” to “double gold (Worlds/Olympics) and breaking the WR twice”. Matsushita is a fine choice too, I wouldn’t be upset about it.
South American male: Gui Caribe
Junior male is a hard choice between Tuncelli and Lifintsev. I think if the latter had been allowed to compete internationally earlier, he would win this one for sure. But there is no if.
Oh I just forgot Guilherme Costa who finished 5th with a 3:42 in men’s 400 free at Olympics. A hard choice for this one too.
Either one of them is a fine choice, Caribe has the hardware from SC Worlds but Guilherme Costa made it farther in Paris.
Lifintsev was really good but only got to compete at the World stage at one meet. Though maybe his performance their still warrants the award. Tuncelli didn’t really medal at the big competitions but he did set several WJRs.
Lifintsev set several WJRs too. Actually both of them set 1 WJR in long course and 2 WJRs in short course.
The difference is Lifintsev didn’t have the chance to show himself internationally in long course. Tuncelli had European championships gold and European junior gold, and made it into the final at Olympics. But Lifintsev definitely had a better short course World champs than Tuncelli.
I can’t believe I misspelled ‘there’. But anyway, didn’t Tuncelli break the WJR twice in the 1500? Though, come to think of it, Lifintsev did as well, didn’t he, in the 100 back. In any case, Tuncelli made a final at the Olympics and placed 5th, so it’s kind of the Caribe vs Costa debate again.
Not a bad list. Pan probably won’t be breakout because he was an HM last year and philosophically we try not to give someone two breakouts.
I didn’t remember that, but obviously, you can’t break out twice. And he is definitely Asian Male Swimmer of the year anyway. Curious to see who the male breakout swimmer of the year will be then!