2021 Golden Goggles Auction Includes a Car With a Caeleb Dressel Paint Job

USA Swimming has begun to compile a list of items that will be available for bid as part of the Golden Goggles Awards ceremony.

The annual Golden Goggles Awards serve as USA Swimming’s star-packed gala, honoring the best in American swimming from the prior year.

The auction can be accessed here: https://cbo.io/bidapp/index.php?slug=usaswimfoundation. About 100 items will be available and will be added. Auction opens November 29, but people who want first cracks at items should register now prior to the auction (button is at the top of the page in the link). Everyone needs to register before they can bid.

The proceeds from the annual online auction support the USA Swimming Foundation.  The USA Swimming Foundation serves as the philanthropic arm of USA Swimming.  Established in 2004, the Foundation works to strengthen the sport by saving lives and building champions.  Whether equipping children or adults with the life-saving skill of learn-to-swim, or providing financial support to our member clubs and heroes on the U.S. National Team, the USA Swimming Foundation aims to strengthen the sport of swimming and provide the experience of swimming to kids at all levels across the country.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foundation took on a special role, distributing millions of dollars in aid to clubs struggling financially.

As always, this year’s auction is filled with items both valuable and invaluable. Here are some of our favorites from the 2021 lot:

SwimSwam Practice and Pancakes With Gold Medal Mel Stewart

Obviously the most valuable item on the list. Gold Medal Mel Stewart will fly to your club and film a super-special episode of the SwimSwam series Practice & Pancakes. He’ll pass around his medal, tell some kid-friendly stories to your athletes, tell some less-kid-friendly stories to your coaches, and of course jam pancakes at your local favorite breakfast spot.

2021 Caeleb Dressel Toyota GR Supra

Yep, it’s an actual car. A fast car. The base level MSRP on a Toyota GR Supra is about $43,000. But this is a special GR Supra – it’s tricked out with a Caeleb Dressel themed paint job that includes motifs from his tattoos like the famous eagle on his left shoulder and chest.

Honestly, whoever buys this gets the status of ‘coolest swim nerd’ for at least a year.

Image in the header.

A pair of Sylvester Stalone Signed Boxing Gloves

I have no idea how USA Swimming got their hands on these, but that’s crazy cool. Sylvester Stalone, of course, portrayed the great screen boxer Rocky Balboa in the first few of the films in the Rocky franchise. The story goes that Rocky is a local boxer, fighting on weekends for extra cash, who through a series of events gets the opportunity to fight the famous boxer Apollo Creed.

Of course Rocky wins, everyone’s happy, and he goes on to beat some other guys later.

The movies are the birthplace of a number of sporting archetypes you may or may not have known originated there. This is iconic. This is something you put in your living room and suddenly have the coolest house on your street.

A guitar signed by The Eagles

The Eagles the band. Not the football team. The Eagles have the first and third best-selling albums of all-time, and have a never-ending list of iconic songs, including Take it Easy, Hotel California, Desperado, Already Gone, One of These Nights, Lyin’ Eyes, and Take It to the Limit.

And More

That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The auction will also include a pile of swimming memorabilia, as one would expect, with a lot of Katie Ledecky signed items and 2016 and 2020 signed and framed Olympic Team flags.

Other non-swimming items on the list include wine and a stay-and-play golf package at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina. Pinehurst is one of the most renowned golf facilities in the world, home to nine 18-hole courses and having hosted a number of major tournaments (including 5 U.S. Open tournaments).

There are a few other items that will only be up for bids via the LIVE auction at the event. Among the coolest of those is a Michael & Michaela Andrew surf package.

Michael & Michaela Andrew Surf & Art Package

You know Michael Andrew, US Olympic gold medalist, World Champion, World Record holder. Spend a day taking a surfing lesson with Michael in Coronado, California (gear included, flight and hotel not included), and grabbing a meal at one of Michael’s favorite San Diego spots. And that’s cool enough on its own.

But did you know that his sister, who swam as a kid but never pursued it to the level as her brother, is an artist?

Unsurprisingly, a lot of her art is water-themed, including a series of painted surfboards, one of which is included in this package.

Michaela says that the way it turned out isn’t how she envisioned it when she started – there was an issue with the paint that ran, but as she was pondering painting over it, she fell in love with it, and left it. That’s the process of art sometimes.

The outcome is a very cool monochromatic image of a streamlining swimmer.

This package includes a day of surfing with Michael Andrew, where you can ask him all of your burning questions about USRPT or being the youngest pro swimmer in US history or growing up in South Dakota, and Michaela’s surfboard art. Rental of surfing equipment will be included. Don’t surf on the art surfboard. Or do what you want, it’s your art, but it would be a shame to ruin such a beautiful work of art.

The auctions open on November 29 and the awards ceremony will be held in Miami on December 7.