It’s time to celebrate the past year of American swimming: USA Swimming has announced its 2024 Golden Goggles Awards nominees. The winners will be announced at the Golden Goggles Award show on November 23 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh, the Olympic gold and silver medallists in the women’s 100 butterfly, lead the nominations with four apiece. Huske is nominated for Female Athlete of the Year, Female Race of the Year, and was part of both the mixed and women’s 4x100m medley relays which are up for Relay Performance of the Year. Walsh was part of both relays too and earned individual nods in Breakout Performer and Female Athlete of the Year.
Nic Fink is the male swimmer with the most nominations. He was nominated for Male Athlete of the Year, Male Race of the Year, and Relay Performance of the Year as part of the mixed 4x100m medley relay.
The nominations for this year focus on performances from the 2024 Olympic Games, where the U.S. extended their medal table win streak, beating Australia by one.
Check out the full list of nominees below.
Breakout Performer
This award is given to the athlete whose performance(s) stand out in relation to other years, with special emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
Each of the nominees is a first-time Olympic qualifier. Walsh won four medals in her debut Games after breaking the women’s 100-fly world record to open the U.S. Olympic Trials. Luke Hobson is the other swimmer on this list to earn an individual Olympic medal, edging out Tokyo silver medalist Duncan Scott for bronze in the 200 freestyle. He added a silver medal in the men’s 4×200 free relay.
Alex Shackell earned two relay medals: gold in the women’s 4x100m medley relay and silver in the women’s 4×200 freestyle relay. Her brother, Aaron Shackell, was the first American added to the Olympic team with a breakout performance in the men’s 400 free at the U.S. Olympic Trials. In Paris, he finished 8th.
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 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
Todd DeSorbo and Anthony Nesty, the head coaches of the U.S. Olympic Team, both earned nominations for Coach of the Year. Notably, Nesty just won Coach of the Year at the 2024 ASCA World Clinic. Huske’s coach, Greg Meehan, is nominated as well. Bob Bowman, whose athletes—American and international—showed out in Paris, powered by Leon Marchand’s performance.
Female Athlete of the Year
This award is given to the top female swimmer of the year with special emphasis on achievements at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
Female Athlete of the Year is the category with the most nominations. Huske, Katie Ledecky, and Kate Douglass each earned multiple Olympic medals, including at least one individual gold. Huske leads the way with five overall medals.
Regan Smith earned three individual silver medals at the Games. She contributed to two gold medal relay performances, including breaking the Olympic record in the 100 back to lead off the world record-setting women’s 4×100 medley relay. Walsh earned four medals, two gold and two silver.
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 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
- Kate Douglass, 200m breaststroke
- Torri Huske, 100m butterfly
- Katie Ledecky, 1500m freestyle
Female Race of the Year comes down to Douglass, Huske, and Ledecky in a battle of gold medal-winning swims. Douglass and Huske’s swims were the first individual Olympic golds of their career, while Ledecky defended her 1500 freestyle crown en route to becoming the most decorated American female Olympic athlete.
Fran Crippen Open Water Swimmer of the Year
This award is given to the athlete who had the most outstanding year as an open-water swimmer, with an emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
Three Olympic open water swimmers braved the Seine River to compete and now are Golden Goggles nominees. After winning 400 IM silver in the pool, Katie Grimes finished 15th in the women’s 10K, just ahead of 16th place Mariah Denigan. In the men’s race, Ivan Puskovitch finished 19th.
Male Athlete of the Year
This award is given to the top male swimmer of the year with special emphasis on achievements at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
This is one of Nic Fink’s three 2024 Golden Goggle Nominations, likely courtesy of his first individual Olympic medal from winning silver in the men’s 100 breaststroke and his aid on the men’s and mixed medley relays. Ryan Murphy also factored into the medley relays and picked up bronze in the men’s 100 backstroke.
Bobby Finke earned the American men’s only individual Olympic gold of the Games, winning the men’s 1500 freestyle in a world record time.
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 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
- Nic Fink, 100m breaststroke
- Bobby Finke, 1500m freestyle
- Luke Hobson, 200m freestyle
Finke erasing Sun Yang’s world record from 2012 in a captivating swim earned him a Male Race of the Year nod in addition to his nomination for Male Athlete of the Year. Fink’s 100m breaststroke performance is also recognized as is Hobson’s performance in a nail-biting men’s 200 freestyle final, where 1st through 4th were separated by .15 seconds.
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 2024, with special emphasis on the 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
Caeleb Dressel and Simone Manuel, two of the faces of the past eight years of American swimming, returned to the sport after extended breaks and made the 2024 Olympic team. Both got back on the podium too, courtesy of relay performances, with Dressel helping the U.S. men to gold on the opening night of the Games.
Paige Madden also took time away from the sport in the past Olympic quad while dealing with health issues. She missed the 2022 and 2023 Worlds teams but had a resurgent 2024, qualifying for her second Olympics and winning her first individual Olympic medal with bronze in an electric women’s 800 freestyle. She also won silver as part of the women’s 4×200 freestyle relay. Emma Weyant bounced back after getting disqualified at 2023 U.S. Nationals and missing the Worlds team to qualify for her second Games and earn bronze in the 400 IM.
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 2024 Olympic Games.
Nominees:
- Men’s 4x100m freestyle relay
- Mixed 4x100m medley relay
- Women’s 4x100m medley relay
The men’s 4×100 freestyle relay swam away from a competitive field to win gold on the first night of the 2024 Olympics by more than a second. Later, the mixed and women’s 4×100 medley relays won gold in world-record performances. After Finke’s 1500 free win tied the U.S. with Australia on top of the medal table, the women’s 4×100 medley relay clinched the medal table win with an 8th gold for Team USA.
I wish they made a category for “Best performance by a 31 with a 9-5 job who prior to this year had won the same number of Olympic medals as frug has” just so I could vote for Nic Fink for something (I think the women’s medley was better than the mixed medley).
If finke doesn’t get male athlete of the year 💀
Breakout: G. Walsh
Coach: Desorbo
Female Athlete: Huske
Female Race: Ledecky
Open Water: Grimes
Male Athlete: Finke
Male Race: Finke
Perseverance: Dressel
Relay: Mixed Medley
I would nominate Carson Foster over Weyant in the perseverance award. Yes, her DQ was disappointing but not nearly on the level of getting out touched and missing the Olympics by a few hundredths and then swimming the fastest time of the year at a random meet.
Biggest let down of the year Guiliano
I’m so confident in this that I’m betting on it.😀
Purple Goggle???
lol
literally how is Ledecky’s 800 not nominated for race of the year
Breakout definitely Walsh. I know prelims medals “count” but calling Alex Shackell a gold and silver medalist when she went a 57 high fly split and a 1:59 200 free split feels kinda weird? Prelims swimmers from dominant countries have to do so little to qualify and get their free medal, it’s nowhere near on the level of a finals swim.
That is why I think the four swimmers in a relay event should be the same in prelims and final.
Yeah I don’t hate that idea. Or timed finals like in the NCAA? idk, it puts the superpowers at such an advantage to get to rest everyone while you have other stars like Sarah Sjostrum having to expend energy on the prelims. Maybe you have to take 2-3 from the prelims relay and can only rest 1-2.
DeSorbo seems so focused on getting as many people as possible their free medal so he can pad his stats. UVA’s instagram account has a photo shoot with Emma Weber and her gold medal. I mean, she went a 1:07 high and that prelims relay laid such an egg that Douglass, the one swimmer with events left, had to swim hard to… Read more »
Smaller swim nations stars would still have to push harder in prelims because the rest of the team is weaker.
Timed finals relays suck. No wait to get the top teams all together in one heat
DeSorbo kept all swimmers in the final rested and they won the gold easily in World Record time. Had any of those swimmers also participated in preliminaries, they very likely would have been slower. That leaves the criticism of his decision making in the prelims.
He had two strokes to think about, breast and fly. Related to that decision, he might have brought in Manuel or Weitzel in for free. For fly, his three best flyers were slated for the final. Shackell had the next best time on the team over the preceding year, although he could have justified the use of Alex Walsh if he was trying to pad his stats. As for Weber, she had one prior swim… Read more »
You’re right, the first three legs made the most sense given the circumstances and selection process. The leg that made the least sense was Douglass, who had every right to the spot as the trials champion and fastest option. She probably thought she could coast a 53 mid and conserve energy for the evening final while still getting a gold medal, but as she said in the swimswam podcast, she had to send it given how close it was. And it should have never been close! Weber was a question mark but given individual performances Berkoff and Shackell were on form yet added a ton of time. But you’re right, that’s not desorbo’s fault, I guess it’s more indicative of… Read more »