Olympic gold medalist and World Champion Katie Ledecky was named USA Swimming Athlete of the Year at the 2013 United States Aquatic Sports Convention Saturday. Ledecky, who earned four gold medals and broke two world records at the 2013 FINA World Championships, also won the Phillips 66 Performance award for her world record swim at Worlds in the 1500m Freestyle. Also at that same meet she earned the FINA trophy for being the highest scoring female swimmer of the meet.
In other awards Ron Van Pool took home the USA Swimming Award, considered to be the highest honor in the sport of swimming, given to the individual or organization with the most outstanding contribution to the sport. Van Pool has been involved with USA Swimming for the past 30 years, serving as an official at high level meets such as the 1996 and 2000 Olympic Trials, as well as serving as the USA Swimming President from 2002-2006.
Van Pool has also served as the USA Swimming representative to the USOC and the National Governing Body Council for over 10 years, and is a member of the USSIC Board of Directors.
Outside of the Pool, Open Water awards were given out with Haley Anderson winning the Open Water Female Open Water Swimmer of the Year while 10k National Champion Alex Meyer was named the Fran Crippen Memorial Male Open Water Swimmer of the Year.
Catherine Vogt, the 2013 World Championship head open water coach, was presented with the Glen S. Hummer Award, given to the person making the greatest contribution to open water swimming for the year.
A Complete List of this Weekends award winners can be found here.
Congratulations to Ron Van Pool for his dedication and unselfish commitment to USA Swimming and its athletes for three decades. In particular, his work as the USA Swimming representative to the United States Olympic Committee has been exemplary. I am very glad to see one of our best volunteers receive this well-deserved recognition.