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 list was led by swimmers Caeleb Dressel and Emma McKeon.
Caeleb Dressel (photo: Jack Spitser)
Dressel won the award for the 3rd time after 2017 and 2019. The 25-year old American won 5 Olympic gold medals in 6 races, topping the 50 free, 100 free, and 100 fly individually, plus winning gold in the men’s 400 free and 400 medley relays.
He also swam on the American mixed medley relay, though that relay didn’t medal.
His Tokyo haul included a new World Record in the 100 fly in long course, and in the men’s 400 medley relay where he swam the butterfly leg.
That effort made him the fifth swimmer to win 5 gold medals in a single Olympic Games, and he now has 7 total.
The 27-year old Australian McKeon, meanwhile, won 4 Olympic gold medals among 7 total. That effort, among 11 total career medals, makes her the most-decorated female Australian Olympian in history, and ties her with Ian Thorpe for the most gold medals (5) by an Australian in history.
She won the 50 free and 100 free individually, as well as swimming legs of winning 400 free and 400 medley relays. She also picked up bronze medals in Tokyo via the 100 fly individually, the women’s 800 free relay, and the mixed 400 medley relay.
McKeon was also the highest-scoring competitor, male or female, at the 2021 FINA Swimming World Cup.
The Best Open Water Swimmer awards went to Florian Wellbrock of Germany and Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil: the winners of the men’s and women’s 10km races, respectively, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The win is Cunha’s 7th in 11 years where the award was given. Wellbrock’s was a first.
FINA didn’t hand out awards in 2020 after the Olympic Games were postponed because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
- Best Male Water Polo Player in 2021: Filip Filipovic (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)
Dennis Miller Award
The awards also included the newly-created Dennis Miller Prize. Miller, a former FINA representative from Fiji, was created to honor an “outstanding organizer in open water events.” Miller died in 2019 of cancer.
The first recipient is Sid Cassidy, a long-time competitor, organizer, and official in open water swimming. He currently serves as Vice-Chair of the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee.
The choice of Dressel was a slam dunk. It’s too bad there was no award in 2020. Smashing 3 individual SC WRs in a span of just 25 hours — wow.
I was hoping Braden Keith would win the “Dennis Miller Award” because I think he’s got a wonderful sense of humor!
Caeleb Dressel was the obvious choice on the men’s side. Emma McKeon is a deserved winner but there were other strong contenders: Katie Ledecky, Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown, Zhang Yufei.
No lol
I think if say Titmus or McKeon had broken a couple of WRs maybe (they were close), otherwise no….
Titmus went 3:56, a time that would be a world record if it weren’t for the female GOAT ledecky.
lol well it’s not a world record cope
Same can be said about McKeon’s 100 had sjostrom not put up the time at 2017 worlds. McKeon was the clear winner she had a great year, 7 Olympic medals and the World Cup winner no one comes close
Yes
cap, I honestly think her winning 7 medals has been so overlooked and she’s the first woman to lead an OVERALL medal table in decades, and im glad she’s getting the recognition she deserves
That’s not how medal tables work.
It’s interesting how conveniently Americans shift back and forth between sorting the medal table by golds or by total medals. Yes, I agree that the medal table is by golds, then silver, then bronze and never by total medals!
It usually makes no difference to Americans; the USA tends to lead in both gold and overall medals. (As for Summer Olympics in their entirety, the USA has topped both in ’96, ’00, ’04, ’08, ’12, ’16 & ’20; the only “slip” was in ’08 when the host, China, topped the golds.
You obviously weren’t paying attention during the games. American were insisting that overall medals is the only thing that mattered when Australia was tied for the most golds. But as soon as the Olympics is over, they all did a 180 and insisted 5 golds is better than 4 golds and 3 bronze. It’s hypocritical and ridiculous.
What gets “overlooked”, if anything, is that three of McKeon’s Oly medals were bronze, and four other women also won two individual Oly events–really some more impressively than McKeon. McKeon imho backed into individual gold given the injury/setbacks to Sjostrom and Manuel. She had a high number of relay events in her corner, it’s a pure numbers play, and that’s about it.
So you didn’t actually watch her 50 and 100 free? Managing that many races in a week is remarkable, 2 of them were 10 minutes apart. Let’s give some credit heh. Lots of other swimmers win relay medals too eg. Dressel
She broke the OR in the 50 and then split faster than Manuel ever has to anchor the MMR a few minutes later.
Sarah has the world record from four years ago and that was as a lead off to a relay. Simone has never been as fast as Emma. Emma’s time to win the 100 freestyle was pretty damn impressive being the second woman to go under 52 so I think her win was well deserved though I would love to have seen the race with all the girls swimming at their best. Totally impressed with Sarah to get as far as she did after her elbow injury – what a champ.
Exactly, the only swimmer faster then Emma was Sarah at the start of a relay in which Sweden came 6th, very little pressure.
You’re actually kidding yourself. Emma broke a relay world record in the 100 free with the fastest split of the field in 51.35, making her the second fastest performer of all time in a relay split.
She broke the 100 free Olympic record twice, now becoming the second fastest performer of all time (only beaten by Sjostrom’s relay lead off leg) and holding 3 of the top ten performances of all time.
She broke the 50 free Olympic record three times, becoming the fifth fastest performer of all time.
She broke the 100 medley relay Olympic record and now is the fifth fastest butterfly splitter of all time.
Compare that to Ledecky, who was nowhere near a record in any… Read more »
Well deserved , I love you Emma
I love how one of Emma’s medals was won by 0.01seconds (like a couple of Phelps’ medals)! When things are going your way in life…… 🙂
Sun Yang Snubbed 😤
Let’s go Remel !!!!!
True swim fan – he’s pumped Milak went so fast
The satisfaction of Milak for going 49.6 was amazing to see.
He’s usually so tough on himself (see the 200 fly lol, dude you’re an Olympic champion).