USA Swimming has announced the nominees for the 2014 Golden Goggles awards: its annual awards gala to benefit the USA Swimming Foundation.
This year’s event will be held in New York City on Monday, November 24th, and will be hosted by Matt Lauer and Al Roker.
Most of the usual suspects have made the lists of this year’s nominees. Some of the noteworthy newcomers to the list include Cal men’s coach Dave Durden, who earned his first nomination for Coach of the Year, and Maya DiRado, nominated for Female Athlete of the Year.
Fan voting, which will contribute an unannounced percentage to the overall decision, is now open. Fans can vote here without registration.
SwimSwam’s official ballot will be revealed shortly.
Breakout Performer of the Year
Maya DiRado
Katie McLaughlin
Ryan Murphy
Cierra Runge
Kendyl Stewart
Perseverance Award
Open Water Gold Medalists: Haley Anderson & Andrew Gemmell
Kevin Cordes
Missy Franklin
Michael Phelps
Tom Shields
Coach of the Year
Bob Bowman
Dave Durden
Bruce Gemmell
David Marsh
Relay Performance of the Year
Women’s 4x200m Free Relay – 2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Men’s 4x200m Free Relay – 2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Men’s 4x100m Medley Relay – 2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Female Race of the Year
Cammile Adams – 200m Fly, 2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Maya DiRado – 200m IM, 2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Jessica Hardy – 100m Breast, 2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Katie Ledecky – 400m Free, 2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Katie Ledecky – 1500m Free, 2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Male Race of the Year
Tyler Clary – 200m Back, 2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Nic Fink – 200m Breast, 2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Connor Jaeger – 1500m Free, 2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Michael Phelps – 100m Fly, 2014 Pan Pacific Championships
Female Athlete of the Year
Elizabeth Beisel
Maya DiRado
Missy Franklin
Katie Ledecky
Male Athlete of the Year
Tyler Clary
Connor Jaeger
Michael Phelps
A little late to the party, but just curious as to why a guy like Brendan McHugh wasn’t nominated for either breakout performer of the year or the perseverance award? Also thought Cody Miller or Michael Weiss would be in the mix too for breakout performer.
SC Swim Fan – while it’s not necessarily the criteria I agree with personally, this goes back to the focus being on Pan Pacs, and specifically Pan Pacs medals. Brendan didn’t make Pan Pacs, and the other two didn’t do much individually at that meet.
USA Swimming seems to want to use everything as a carrot to dangle in front of swimmers to make sure that the athletes are focused on the meets that USA Swimming wants them to be focused on. It would seem to me as though these kinds of awards should be more about fans and developing those fans, but not my party.
A little late to the party, but just curious as to why a guy like Brendan McHugh wasn’t nominated for either breakout performer of the year or the perseverance award? Also thought Cody Mille or Michael Weissr would be in the mix too for breakout performer.
Cast my votes!
I’m 99.99999% sure that Phelps & Ledecky will win both the Male/Female Athlete of The Year and Male/Female Race of The Year. 🙂
Two winners for Perseverance Award IMO would have been better than just one?!
Happy voting, folks.
Can you only vote once? I thought last year you could vote multiple times for those of us that are indecisive, but I don’t see where that is possible. Didn’t see it in the notice either. Or I missed it……
Just Curious – clear your cache, and you can probably vote again.
Cordes for his incredible breaststroke split on the medley relay deserves full respect to my heart as well . he did put it together and put the hammer down very well . Respect MR Cordes .
I would put Clary for perseverence award with Tom Shields . hey , Tyler did put such a great 200 back at Pan pacs as well beating Irie in the process and Murphy .
my votes….. 😀
Michael Phelps — male athlete of the year
Katie Ledecky — female athlete of the year
MP’s 100 fly — male race of the year
Ledecky’s 1500 free — female race of the year
men’s 4×100 medley relay — relay performance of the year
Bowman or Durden (not sure lol) — coach of the year
Cordes or Franklin (hard to choose lol) — perseverance award
Ryan Murphy — breakout performance OTY
Really? Bowman for COY? I would say Marsh or Durden if not Gemmell.
I would say UGA staff for doing an outstanding job with no Bauerle on deck!? Just a thought….not an easy situation and they more than the best of it.
None of the choices for men’s race of the year are particularly overwhelming.
TheTroubleWithX – agreed, that’s part of the problem when these awards are done solely on the operation gold meet.
There’s swims from U.S. Nationals that I might consider equally with the ones nominated here.
In terms of excitement, I think the 100 fly and 200 IM at Nationals might’ve been more exciting. Of course, the fact that I was actually at Nationals, but couldn’t even watch the Pan Pacs finals live, might have something to do with my underwhelmed feelings about the races that got nominated.