To see all of the 2014 Swammy Award winners, presented by TYR, click here.
2014 Honoree: Yevheniy Bohodayko, Ukraine
With a fragmented year that saw the world’s top swimmers on the Paralympic side of the sport scattered across the world, in addition to the usual challenges of comparing accomplishments about categories, this was a very difficult winner to choose.
However, after the Ukrainians went for 94 medals at the European Championships, including 37 out of a possible 162 gold medals, we had to give the honor to a member of that team.
There were two worthy candidates for the honor: Yevheniy Bohodayko, who by himself won 7 golds and 2 silvers; and Dmytro Vynohradets, who took 7 golds and 1 silver.
The difference-maker was the level of competition: Vynohradets won four of his medals in the S7 Classification, swimming against the likes of four-time Paralympian Matthew Walker of Great Britain, and still came up with 9 medals.
While Bohodayko didn’t challenge either of his World Records, racing in and medaling in 9 events across just 7 days of competition is an impressive feat of endurance, among other things.
Bohodayko’s haul:
| Name | Country | Medal | Event |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yevheniy Bohodayko |  Ukraine |
 Gold Gold Gold Gold Gold Gold Gold Silver Silver |
50m freestyle – S7 100m freestyle – S7 100m breaststroke – SB6 200m medley – SM7 100m butterfly – S3 Men’s 4x50m medley relay 20pts 4x50m freestyle relay 20pts 100m backstroke – S7 4x100m freestyle relay 34pts |
2014 Honorable Mentions
- Daniel Dias, Brazil – One of the greatest athletes in para-swimming history, Daniel Dias had another outstanding year that included 6 gold medals at his target meet: the Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships in Pasadena, California. He also tagged on another World Record by swimming a 33.98 in the S5 50 fly.
- Daniel Fox, Australia – Fox won gold at both the Commonwealth Games (S14 men’s 200 free) and Pan Pacs (S14 50 free, 100 free, 200 free). The IPC isn’t yet recognizing World Records in some of those events for S14’s, but Fox has the fastest time in history that we can find in all three distances (24.77, 54.69, and 1:57.16, respectively).
- Ian Silverman, USA – Silverman doesn’t have quite the range as some of the swimmers above him, especially the winner Bohodayko, but he makes up for that with World Records in four different events in the S10 category in 2014: the 400 free (4:03.57), the 800 free (8:35.69), the 1500 free (16:19.70), and the 400 IM (4:53.24). That 400 was named as the U.S. Paralympic Committee’s 4th best moment of 2014, as it broke a 13-year old World Record in the event.
2014 Breakout Performance of the Year
- Roderick Sewell, USA – In his rookie go with Team USA, Sewell won the men’s SB6 100 meter breaststroke by nine seconds. Sewell not only has skill in the water, but he has serious star-power out of it, and is a swimmer to watch for the Americans heading toward Rio. (See interview with Sewell here).