USA Swimming announced that the 2022 Golden Goggles Awards will be held in New York City on November 21, 2022. The annual ceremony will return to New York for the first time since 2018, which is the last time took place there. It will take place at the New York Marriott Marquis.
The Golden Goggles are awards given out by USA Swimming to celebrate the most accomplished swimmers of the year. The awards include Female and Male Athlete of the Year and Race of the Year, Breakout Performer of the Year, Coach of the Year, Relay Performance of the Year, and the Perseverance Award. The Golden Goggles has occurred annually since 2004.
There have also been three 1-time awards given out at the Golden Goggles including the Athlete Humanitarian Award, the Team Leadership & Inspiration Award, and the Honourary Award. Additionally, an Imapct Award is given out once every four years.
The Golden Goggles took place in either Los Angeles or New York nearly every year since the first ceremony in New York City in 2004 through 2019. The 2020 ceremony was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then in 2021, it shifted to Miami, Florida for the first time – with Florida at the time having less COVID-19 restrictions than most of the country when the decision was made, especially compared to New York and California.
The Goggle Goggles primarily focuses awards on performances at the biggest major international meet of the year, which will be the 2022 World Championships for this year.
As a refresher, here are the Golden Goggles winners from 2021, based on results from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics:
- Female Athlete of the Year: Katie Ledecky
- Male Athlete of the Year: Caeleb Dressel
- Breakout Performer of the Year: Lydia Jacoby
- Coach of the Year: Gregg Troy
- Perseverance Award: Annie Lazor
- Relay Performance of the Year: Men’s 4×100 Medley at the Olympic Games (Ryan Murphy, Michael Andrew, Caeleb Dressel, Zach Apple)
- Female Race of the Year: Lydia Jacoby for 100 meter breaststroke at the Olympic Games
- Bobby Finke for 800 meter freestyle at the Olympic Games
- Impact Award: Cecil Gordon and Bob Vincent
The women’s 4 X 200 relay better get a relay award. That was the best swim of all swims in Budapest and two teenagers stacked on the end with two veterans in the middle, not expected to win a medal. Huge, this is a movie in the making. The anchors time drop was wild and noise level said it all.
Fink for breakout performer of 2022
nic fink for perserverance award in 2022!!