Watch: 2016 Golden Goggles Awards Presentations & Acceptance Speeches

2016 GOLDEN GOGGLES AWARDS

  • November 21st, 2016
  • Awards presentation begins at 6:30 Eastern Time
  • New York City, New York
  • Live Stream here

Reported by Braden Keith. Videos courtesy USA Swimming. 

OLYMPIC TEAM INTRODUCTION

USA SWIMMING FOUNDATION SPOTLIGHT

FEMALE RACE OF THE YEAR – SIMONE MANUEL, 100 FREESTYLE, 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES

The first award of the night goes to Simone Manuel for winning gold in the 100 freestyle in Rio this summer.  Manuel’s victory there was notable for a number of different reasons.  The Campbell sisters of Australia were heavily favored to win, Manuel tied with Penny Oleksiak of Canada, and Manuel became the first African-American swimmer in history to win an individual gold medal at the Olympics.

MALE RACE OF THE YEAR – MICHAEL PHELPS, 200 BUTTERFLY, 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES

In his acceptance speech, Phelps said this was one of the races he wanted the most, as well one of the ones he had to dig the deepest to win.  At 31 years of age, Phelps defied the collective wisdom that said this was a young man’s race.  But, it seems he was motivated by being touched out by South African Chad Le Clos in 2012 in London, and Phelps recaptured the title sixteen years after he first qualified the Olympic in this event.

TEAM LEADERSHIP AWARD – ELIZABETH BEISEL

This wasn’t an award that the fans voted on.  Instead, this was chosen by fellow swimmers and was kept a bit under the hat, as Beisel said in her acceptance speech that she didn’t even know she’d been nominated.  Rio was Beisel’s third Olympic Games, and she served as a team captain, providing rookie swimmers with the wealth of her experiences, having been on the USA National Team since middle school.

IMPACT AWARD – MICHAEL PHELPS

This is Michael’s second award of the night, and almost certainly won’t be the last.  Dick Ebersol, who presented the award, recognized Debbie Phelps, Bob Bowman, Peter Carlisle, and Nicole Phelps before calling Phelps up on stage.  The presenters introduced this award as a kind of lifetime achievement award, and it’s hard to imagine anyone else at the Golden Goggles having as much of an impact on the sport as Phelps has had in the past sixteen years.

BREAKOUT SWIMMER OF THE YEAR – LILLY KING

Lilly King was our pick on our official ballot (see the link above) and seems like the obvious candidate, although the other candidates were certainly deserving as well.  But, King who had a great freshman NCAA season, took her game to another level in Rio.  She was the center of controversy regarding her criticism of doping, and backed up her finger wagging with an individual gold in the 100 breast in an Olympic Record time, before helping Team USA win the medley relay to close out the meet.

PERSEVERANCE AWARD – ANTHONY ERVIN

“Who would’ve thought — the Perseverance Award going to a sprinter?” quipped Ervin as he opened his acceptance speech.  Yet, Ervin has been on the international swimming stage, off and on, for sixteen years, ever since he was 19 years old and won a gold medal in the 50 free in Sydney.  Ervin’s struggles have been well-documented, and this summer, he became the oldest male swimmer ever to win an individual gold with another victory in the 50 free.

COACH OF THE YEAR – DAVE DURDEN

Durden won this award for the first time this evening.  Durden has been head coach at Cal since 2007, and this summer, he coached six men to berths on the USA Olympic Team, including individual gold medalists Ryan Murphy and Anthony Ervin, Nathan Adrian(relay gold, individual bronze), Josh Prenot (silver), Tom Shields (relay gold), and Jacob Pebley.

RELAY PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR – MEN’S 4×100 FREESTYLE RELAY

Although the men’s medley relay took gold in Olympic Record fashion, they were considered safer bets to win.  However, after an entire quad of handwringing about the state of USA men’s swimming, Team USA put together a squad of two veterans (Nathan Adrian and Michael Phelps) and two youngsters (Caeleb Dressel and Ryan Held) that overcame the French and other teams to take back Olympic gold after settling for silver in 2012.

FEMALE SWIMMER OF THE YEAR – KATIE LEDECKY

MALE SWIMMER OF THE YEAR – MICHAEL PHELPS

Again, no surprise here.  Phelps made his last campaign a memorable one.  Despite some doubts among fans that being on the “wrong” side of 30 would hinder his efforts, Phelps won his three individual events at Olympic Trials.  Once in Rio, he helped Team USA win gold in the 4×100 free, then he won individual gold in the 200 fly and 200 IM, and two more relay golds in the 4×200 free and 4×100 medley relay.  Even the one event he didn’t win was quite memorable, as he was part of a historic three-way tie for silver in the 100 fly.  At the age of 31, Phelps won five gold and one silver in his last Olympic Games, padding a medal count that already seemed like it could never surpassed.

In This Story

13
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

13 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
bobo gigi
7 years ago

Thanks for compiling the videos.
Abbey tripped over a step. She almost had the fall of the year at the end of the team introduction. She has destroyed the decoration. 🙂
Congrats to these amazing athletes and coaches for another amazing summer of swimming.
Some races will be unforgettable.

ERVINFORTHEWIN
7 years ago

Does anyone know where i can find a FULL VERSION both 400 free relays ??? As far as i have researched , i didn’t find any decent ones . Thanks in advance

completelyconquered
Reply to  ERVINFORTHEWIN
7 years ago

Yeah, I’d like to know as well. It seems NBC only wants us to watch a part of the relay on youtube.

Robert Gibbs
Reply to  ERVINFORTHEWIN
7 years ago

I know for those of us in the USA with a cable subscription can sign into nbcolympics.com and find all the race videos. Unfortunately, they don’t all seem to be up on YouTube, unlike 2012.

bobo gigi
Reply to  ERVINFORTHEWIN
7 years ago

Yes. Hopefully the official olympic channel will post all finals one day.
I’d also like to watch some races in NBC version to see the American excitement.
And to see if Katie Ledecky’s 800 free has been cut…. 🙂

Jean-Michel, I have the French versions of both 4X100 free relays but I doubt it works outside of France.
Women’s race
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65EIRIXeCm0

bobo gigi
Reply to  bobo gigi
7 years ago
bobo gigi
Reply to  bobo gigi
7 years ago

Not fantastic but at least it’s not banned on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDX-_I447JE

bobo gigi
Reply to  bobo gigi
7 years ago
ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  bobo gigi
7 years ago

Thanks BOBO – i just once saw on a South African yutube channel weeks ago the races again – those guys were uploading most of the races in complete versions – but they got down immediately !!! How ridiculous is that to not show entire races for the fans . U are right , u can’t watch them in Belgium .
U had recorded nearly everything on BBC than most of it got lost unfortunately .
Greetings to you

Cate
Reply to  ERVINFORTHEWIN
7 years ago

The Olympic channel has all the finals and prelims in their entirety. Go to http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/swimming then scroll down to the bottom and hit the big plus sign. That will open up more of the videos all the way to day 1. However, if you don’t have cable it will eventually time out and ask for you to authenticate and you will need to log in with your cable id. I don’t have cable. I wanted several of the videos so I went to the Olympics site on Explorer and did a screen record of the races I wanted to keep. After it timed me out I did more of them on Chrome and then… Read more »

ERVINFORTHEWIN
Reply to  Cate
7 years ago

thanks Cate but i do not live in the Usa – thanks God

ERVINFORTHEWIN
7 years ago

The Impact Award with M. Phelps was astonishingly beautiful to watch , Thank you – What a moment !!!!

About Hannah Hecht

Hannah Hecht

Hannah Hecht grew up in Kansas and spent most of her childhood trying to convince coaches to let her swim backstroke in freestyle sets. She took her passion to Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa and swam at NAIA Nationals all four years. After graduating in 2015, she moved to …

Read More »