SwimVortex Awards: Plaudits For Phelps, Ledecky, Peaty, Babashoff, King & Horton

The SwimVortex Awards 2016

Olympic Year and all lanes led to Rio and the 2016 Olympic Games. Gold count counted. The top 3 standouts, Michael Phelps (USA), Katie Ledecky (USA) and Adam Peaty (GBR) top the bill in the pool, with Dutch aces Sharon van Rouwendaal and Ferry Weertman queen and king of open waters.

The Carlile Cup for Lifetime Achievement goes to Shirley Babashoff, one of the greats of swimming, a swimmer whose place in the pantheon sits on a plinth diminished by the doping of others and the failure of swimming’s custodians, both at home in the United States and abroad in international governance, to deal with a crisis that has dogged the sport for half a century.

Babashoff’s story, told in “Making Waves” speaks to the deep meaning of “Lifetime” and to the wider world swimming community of women whose place in swimming history and all the things that can flow from that were denied them.

In the same vein, matters came to a head in Rio at the Olympic Games this year – and  to reflect that, we grant our Betterment of Swimming award to Lilly King and Mack Horton.

The SwimVortex Panel consists of Karin Helmstaedt, Liz Byrnes, Sabrina Knoll, John Lohn and Craig Lord

Our top honours list in full:

Katie Ledecky – by Patrick B. Kraemer

Best Solo Performers of the Year Long-Course Top swimmer: Michael Phelps – 5 gold (2 solo), 1 silver – no contest for this prize Top woman: Katie Ledecky – 4 gold, unbeaten when it counted, 2012 to 2016 Top man: Michael Phelps and Adam Peaty, the joint award reflecting not only the votes of our panel but the mood of 2016, Phelps citing Peaty and the 100m breatsstroke as a moment that stood out in the sea of excellence – and as an example of the ‘no limits’ mantra …

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