FINA, the international governing body for 6 aquatic disciplines, has handed out its 2021 best-of awards.
Presented at a gala on Friday evening at the Hilton Abu Dhabi Yas Island Hotel, in conjunction with the World Short Course Swimming Championships, 12 superlatives were handed out for best Male and Female athlete in each of the organization’s 6 disciplines.
The diving awards were headlined by Xie Siyi and Shi Tingmao, a pair of Chinese Olympic champions.
Siyi won gold in the 3-meter springboard and the 3-meter synchronized springboard at the Tokyo Olympics. This was his first ever career Olympic appearance. In the individual event, he set a new Olympic record with a score of 558.75. He also won the 3-meter synchronized springboard with partner Wang Zongyuan.
This is the second time Siyi has been honored by FINA, the first coming after his double-gold performance at the 2019 World Swimming Championships.
The awards mark the sixth time in a row Tingmao has received this honor. The Chinese World and Olympic champion was named Best Female Diver of the Year five times from 2015 to 2019: the awards were not handed out in 2020.
Tingmao is no stranger to gold medals, as she demonstrated this past summer in Tokyo. She won gold in both the 3-meter springboard and the 3-meter synchronized springboard events, adding to her impressive total of 17 golds spread across the Asian Games, World Championships, and Olympic Games.
Both recipients of the Best High Diver of the Year were first-time recipients. Cliff divers Owen Weymouth of Great Britain and Ellie Smart of the United States were honored. The pair participate in the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series and are founders of The Clean Cliffs Project, an initiative to clean up plastic pollution and inspire action through cliff diving.
FINA did not hand out awards in 2020 after the Olympic Games were postponed because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The full list of awards can be seen below.
- Best Male Water Polo Player in 2021: Filip Filipović (2nd award)
- Best Female Water Polo Player in 2021: Maggie Steffens (2nd award)
- Best Male Artistic Swimmer in 2021: Aleksandr Maltsev (4th award)
- Best Female Artistic Swimmer in 2021: Svetlana Kolesnichenko (3rd award) & Svetlana Romashina (6th award)
- Best Male Diver in 2021: Xie Siyi (2nd award)
- Best Female Diver in 2021: Shi Tingmao (6th award)
- Best Male High Diver in 2021: Owen Weymouth (1st award)
- Best Female High Diver in 2021: Ellie Smart (1st award)
- Best Male Swimmer in 2021: Caeleb Dressel (3rd award)
- Best Female Swimmer in 2021: Emma McKeon (1st award)
- Best Male Open Water Swimmer in 2021: Florian Wellbrock (1st award)
- Best Female Open Water Swimmer in 2021: Ana Marcela Cunha (7th award)