The Association Internationale de la Pesse Sportive (AIPS) have announced their nominees for the 2013 Athletes and Teams of the year award.
One of the most global and far-reaching sports awards in the world, this pits the best athletes from across all sports and across all disciplines for the honors, and can be voted upon by members of the AIPS.
Among the swimming nominees are China’s Sun Yang, who won the World Championships in the 400, 800, and 1500 freestyles this summer, for the men’s award.
Strangely, however, Katie Ledecky, who pulled the same triple, crushed World Records in two of the events in the process, and added another gold as a part of the American 800 free relay, was not included in the women’s list.
The women’s list was, however, thick with swimming nominees. Brazil’s Poliana Okimoto, who won the 10km gold medal at Worlds and medaled in three of the four open water disciplines (5km, 10km, and team 5km) is on the list; so too is Katinka Hosszu of Hungary, who swam to the end of the world and back again winning the FINA World Cup, breaking World Records in all three IM events, and winning World Championship gold in the 200 and 400 IM.
The 3rd female swimmer on the list is American Missy Franklin. The fanfare surrounding her summer, thanks in part due to Ledecky’s parallel success, was a bit quieter than during the Olympics. Franklin, however, won an astonishing 6 World Championships (two more than Olympic gold medals in 2012) and became the winningest long course World Champion in FINA history.
Ledecky wasn’t the only swimmer that voters felt were erroneously omitted. One voter from Lithuania has already left a comment that there needs to be a ‘write in’ option, as she felt that Ruta Meilutyte deserved some votes.
Bobo, what do you think about the L’Equipe “Champions of the Champions” 2013? It was announced this week. Always great to see a swimmer included!
Women – 1. Serena Williams; 2. Missy Franklin; 3. Shelly-Ann Fraser.
Men – 1. Rafael Nadal; 2. Usain Bolt; 3. Sébastian Vettel.
Overall, better this year.
But I have to say they have lost all my credibility for a long time. They have their favorite sports and favorite names. Schumacher was their favorite 10 years ago. Bolt is their favorite now. How can they range the sports? Why would a sport be worth more than another? On track why would sprint be worth more than distance or decathlon? In my opinion, Ashton Eaton deserves much more recognition than someone who runs around 10 seconds and makes stupid faces for the cameras.
Good to see they do 2 different standings for men and women since last year. When they mix both, the women have almost no chance to win. It’s sad but… Read more »
Yes, it’s not easy to put sports and performances in different sports in order. There is always a subjective factor.
“What could Katie Ledecky have done better in Barcelona?
Answer is most likely ‘nothing’. What could Phelps have done better in 2008? Surely nothing. But what could Yelena Isinbajeva have done better in 2008? She won the Olympic gold (of course just one) with a magnificient new world record.
This is where the subjective factor comes into play. One cannot count the number of medals when comparing a swimmer and a pole vaulter?
Especially international comparisons including all the sports are always just for fun. The athlete of the year in one particular country is more objective and… Read more »
😯 🙄 😆
You are nice to call the absence of Miss Ledecky strange. It’s purely ridiculous and stupid.
She was named female swimmer of the world championships by FINA.
How can they forget someone who has won 4 gold medals with 2 world records?
All these nominations or standings make me laugh each year.
For example, here in France, the only French sports newspaper, l’équipe, names it’s “champions of the champions” each year and Michael Phelps has never been named! Never! 😆
I think Eurosport is French in its origin. In their lists Phelps was the best athlete of the world in 2008:
http://www.eurosport.fr/omnisport/champions-de-l-annee-agnel-et-bolt-attendent-leur-successeur_sto4056419/story.shtml
I’m actually following who’s going to be their best French athlete of this year. A Frech biathlete, Martin Fourcade, won almost everything last season in Biathlon and he came 6th. I disagree with that strongly. Teddy Riner, Marion Bartoli and Franch Ribery were 5th, 6th and 4th respectively. In my opinion, they weren’t even close to Fourcade’s achievements this year. 🙂 Top 3 is going to be published in the upcoming days.
However, I think having favourite athletes and favourite sports is part of the game. It’s very difficult to… Read more »