''Swimming World'' Swimmers of the Year is awarded by the American-based ''

Swimming World } ''Swimming World'' is a US-based quarterly swimming magazine that was first published in a magazine format as ''Junior Swimmer'' in January 1960. It concurrently runs online websites ''Swimming World Magazine'' and ''Swimming World News'' (kn ...

''. There are seven categories: World Swimmer, American Swimmer, European Swimmer, Pacific Rim Swimmer, World Disabled Swimmer, African Swimmer, and Open Water Swimmer of year. An award for male and female is made for each category. The award was inaugurated in 1964, when ''Swimming World'' named Don Schollander as its World Swimmer of the Year. Two years later, a female category was added, and the awards continued in this format until 1980. The winners were mostly American until the rise of East Germany's women in the 1970s, and 1980 saw the creation of subcategories for American and European swimmers. Following the end of the

Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

, Germany declined following the end of the East's systematic state-sponsored doping program, while Australia's swimming team enjoyed a revival. In December 2013, Swimming World announced a decision to strip the drug-fueled East Germans of all World and European Swimmers of the Year awards. In 1994, Australian swimmers won both awards for World Swimmer of the Year for the first time, and in 1995, a subcategory was inaugurated for

Pacific Rim The Pacific Rim comprises the lands around the rim of the Pacific Ocean. The '' Pacific Basin'' includes the Pacific Rim and the islands in the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Rim roughly overlaps with the geological Pacific Ring of Fire. List ...

swimmers. A subcategory for disabled swimmers was introduced in 2003, and in the following year, an African award was launched after South Africa became the first country from the continent to win an Olympic relay. In 2005, open water swimming was added to the Olympic program and another category was duly added. United States swimmers have won the title 51 times, followed by Australia (13 times) and East Germany (11 times). This ratio is approximately proportional to the number of gold medals won by the respective nations at the Olympics. East Germany was particularly successful in the 1970s and 1980s, when they dominated the women's events, aided by systematic state-sponsored doping.

Michael Phelps Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold me ...

of the United States has won the global award eight times, followed by

Katie Ledecky Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky ( ; born March 17, 1997) is an American competitive Swimming (sport), swimmer. She is the List of individual gold medalists in swimming at the Olympics and World Aquatics Championships (women)#Title leaders, most deco ...

of the United States and

Ian Thorpe Ian James Thorpe (born 13 October 1982) is an Australian retired swimmer who specialised in freestyle swimming, freestyle, but also competed in backstroke and the medley swimming, individual medley. He has won five Olympic gold medals, the se ...

of Australia with four. Regionally, German, Hungarian and Dutch swimmers have had the most success in Europe, while Australians have won more than three-quarters of the Pacific awards.

World Swimmers of the Year

2008 Australian Olympic team Grant Hackett 2 - Sarah Ewart

2008 Australian Olympic team Leisel Jones - Sarah Ewart

The award was inaugurated in 1964, when ''Swimming World'' named Don Schollander as its World Swimmer of the Year. One year later, a female category was added. From 1973 until 1989, the rise of East Germany's women saw them win a majority of the awards. Following the end of the

, Germany declined following the end of the East's systematic state-sponsored doping program, while Australia's swimming team enjoyed a revival in the late 1990s, winning nine awards since 1997, the most by any country in that period. ''Swimming World'' has since stripped the East Germans of their titles. United States swimmers have won the title 51 times, followed by Australia (13 times) and East Germany (11 times). This ratio is approximately proportional to the number of gold medals won by the respective nations at the Olympics. East Germany was particularly successful in the 1970s and 1980s, when they dominated the women's events, aided by systematic state-sponsored doping. With his win in 2016,

(

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

) now holds the overall record with eight titles. He won in 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2016.

(United States) is the second most-prolific winner, winning in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2018. Phelps and Ledecky are the only swimmers to win the award four straight times.

(AUS) was honored four times, in 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2002. Ledecky is the only female swimmer to win the award more than three times. Four female swimmers have won three awards:

Debbie Meyer Deborah Elizabeth Meyer (born August 14, 1952), also known by her married name Deborah Meyer Weber, is an American former competition swimmer, a 1968 three-time Olympic champion, and a former world record-holder in five freestyle events, 200,400 ...

(United States) in 1967, 1968 and 1969, Krisztina Egerszegi (HUN) in 1991, 1992 and 1995,

Janet Evans Janet Beth Evans (born August 28, 1971) is an American former competition swimmer who swam from 1989 to 1992 for Stanford University and specialized in distance freestyle events. Evans was a world champion and world record-holder, and won a to ...

(United States) in 1987, 1989 and 1990, and

Kristin Otto Kristin Otto (; born 7 February 1966) is a former German swimmer, becoming Olympic, World and European champion, multiple times. She is most famous for being the first woman to win six gold medals at a single Olympic Games, doing so at the 1988 ...

(GDR) in 1984, 1986 and 1988. Franziska van Almsick is the youngest female to have won the award, having turned 15 on 5 April in the year of her first award. Thorpe is the youngest male recipient, having turned 16 on 13 October in the year of his first award.

American Swimmers of the Year

has been named American Swimmer of the Year on eleven occasions; his streak of 2001 to 2009 was interrupted only by

Aaron Peirsol Aaron Wells Peirsol (born July 23, 1983) is an American former competition swimming (sport), swimmer and backstroke specialist who is a former world champion and world record-holder. He is a three-time Olympian and seven-time Olympic Games, Oly ...

in 2005.

is the most decorated female swimmer with six awards, followed by Evans, who won five consecutive awards from 1987 to 1991. Tracy Caulkins won four times in the early-1980s, while

Natalie Coughlin Natalie Anne Coughlin Hall (born August 23, 1982) is an American former competition swimmer and twelve-time Olympic medalist. While attending the University of California, Berkeley, she became the first woman ever to swim the World record progre ...

Katie Hoff Kathryn Elise Hoff (born June 3, 1989) is a former American competitive swimming (sport), swimmer, Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder. Hoff was known for the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medley events. She represented the Uni ...

and Jenny Thompson all won three times. On the men's side, Mike Barrowman and Lenny Krayzelburg won the award four consecutive times, while

Matt Biondi Matthew Nicholas Biondi (born October 8, 1965) is an American former competitive swimmer and water polo player. As a swimmer, he is an eleven-time Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder in five events. Biondi competed in the Summer Oly ...

and Tom Dolan captured three awards.

European Swimmers of the Year

East Germany was particularly successful in the 1970s and 1980s, when they dominated the women's events, aided by systematic state-sponsored doping. Their women swept the award for the first ten years of its existence from 1980 to 1989, with

winning three times, before the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

and communism fell. With the end of the state-sponsored doping program, the (East) German stranglehold on women's swimming was broken. In the two decades since reunification, the female award was won by Germans four times, three by Franziska van Almsick. During the 1980s, Michael Gross of West Germany, nicknamed ''The Albatross'' in reference to his vast wingspan, dominated European swimming, winning five consecutive awards from 1982 to 1986, record that stood alone until Adam Peaty of Great Britain equalled the feat between 2014 and 2018. ''Swimming World'' has vacated all awards previously awarded to East German swimmers because of the government-sanctioned systematic doping. Hungary has won the award 17 times, mainly on the back of its strength in

medley swimming Medley swimming is a combination of four different swimming (sport), swimming strokes (Freestyle swimming, freestyle (usually front crawl), backstroke, breaststroke, Butterfly stroke, butterfly) into one race. This race is either swum by one sw ...

. Breaststrokers Ágnes Kovács and

Károly Güttler Károly Güttler (born 15 June 1968 in Budapest) is a former breaststroker from Hungary, who represented his native country at four consecutive Olympics, beginning with the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul and ending with the 2000 Summer Olympics ...

, and backstroker Sándor Wladár were the only Hungarian winners who were not champion medley swimmers. Krisztina Egerszegi won four awards, the most by a female swimmer, while

Tamás Darnyi Tamás Darnyi (born 3 June 1967 in Budapest) is a Hungarian retired male swimmer. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest medley swimmers in history. He won four gold medals at two Olympic Games (1988 and 1992) and was unbeaten in th ...

claimed three. The Netherlands have won seven awards, through the efforts of Inge de Bruijn (3) and

Pieter van den Hoogenband Pieter Cornelis Martijn van den Hoogenband (; born 14 March 1978) is a Dutch retired swimmer. He is a triple Olympic champion and former world record holder. Early life Born in Maastricht, Limburg, he is the son of Cees-Rein van den Hoogenb ...

(4), who led the sprinting world for women and men at the turn of the century. Russian or Soviet swimmers have won seven awards, all of them male.

Pacific Rim Swimmers of the Year

The ''Pacific Rim'' award was introduced in 1995, the year after two Australian swimmers— Kieren Perkins and Samantha Riley—became the first two Pacific Rim swimmers to be named as ''World Swimmer of the Year''. It has subsequently been dominated by Australian swimmers, who have won 30 of the 48 awards given.

won six awards (five consecutively) and

Susie O'Neill Susan O'Neill, (born 2 August 1973) is an Australian former competitive swimmer from Brisbane, Queensland, nicknamed "Madame Butterfly". She achieved eight Olympic Games medals during her swimming career. Early life O'Neill was born on 2 Augu ...

has won four (three consecutively). Australia's success has been built on female butterfliers (O’Neill and Petria Thomas), female breaststrokers (Riley and Leisel Jones), and male freestylers (Thorpe,

Grant Hackett Grant George Hackett Order of Australia, OAM (born 9 May 1980) is an Australian swimmer, most famous for winning the men's 1500 metres freestyle swimming, freestyle race at both the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in ...

and Michael Klim). The men's awards have been dominated by Asian swimmers since 2006.

Kosuke Kitajima is a Japanese retired breaststroke swimmer. He won gold medals at the men's 100 m and 200 m breaststroke events at the 2004 Summer Olympics, and the 2008 Summer Olympics – becoming the first and only swimmer to sweep the breaststroke events at ...

(Japan) was the first non-Australian swimmer to win the award more than once (in 2003, 2007, 2008, and 2010). He was followed by Sun Yang of China who won five awards (in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2017 and 2018).

African Swimmers of the Year

The ''African'' award was introduced in 2004, the year in which

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

won the men's 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the

Olympics The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competit ...

. Although Joan Harrison (

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

) and Penny Heyns (

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

) had won individual gold medals for South Africa, the 2004 victory was the first time that an African relay team won a medal, indicating their increasing depth. In the same Olympics,

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

Kirsty Coventry Kirsty Leigh Coventry Seward (née Coventry; born 16 September 1983) is a Zimbabwean politician, sports administrator and former competitive swimmer. She will become the 10th president of the International Olympic Committee in June 2025, being ...

's won three medals, including one gold, making her the first African swimmer outside of South Africa to stand on the podium.
''Results classification: "By individual" → Competition gender: Select all → Medal: Select all → Continents and nations: "Africa" → Sports and events: "Swimming" → Search ↵'' Coventry has won the female award nine times. South African Chad le Clos won seven men's awards in a row, and South African sprinter Roland Schoeman four, and in total South African swimmers have claimed nineteen awards. In 2008, Ous Mellouli of Tunisia broke the South African and Zimbabwean duopoly after becoming the first African male to win an individual Olympic gold medal.

Open Water Swimmers of the Year

The ''Open Water'' award was introduced in 2005, when it was announced that

open water swimming Open water swimming is a swimming discipline which takes place in outdoor bodies of water such as open oceans, lakes, and rivers. Competitive open water swimming is governed by the International Swimming Federation, World Aquatics (formerly kno ...

events would be included in the Olympics for the first time: the men's and women's 10 km events at the

2008 Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

. The award has been won by Dutch and German swimmers five times, while Russian swimmers have won four times.

Thomas Lurz Thomas Lurz (born 28 November 1979) is a German swimmer who specializes in long-distance freestyle swimming, especially open water swimming. Lurz lives in Gerbrunn and swims for the SV Würzburg 05 sports club. Biography He competed for German ...

of Germany has won the award five times, triumphing in 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2013, while Russia's Larisa Ilchenko has won the award three years in a row (2006–2008).

World Disabled Swimmers of the Year

This award was created in 2003, and then was not awarded in 2004. The award has been won by American swimmers six times, Brazilian and Australian swimmers four times, and Canadian swimmers twice.

World Water Polo Players of the Year

The Water Polo award was introduced in 2011. {, class="wikitable sortable" , + , - " ! scope="col" , Year ! scope="col" , Female winner ! scope="col" , Nationality ! scope="col" , Male winner ! scope="col" , Nationality , - , align=center, 2011 , , , , style="white-space:nowrap;", , , {{sortname, Aleksandar Ivović , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{MNE , - , align=center, 2012 , , {{sortname, Maggie, Steffens , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{USA , , {{sortname, Maro, Joković , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{CRO , - , align=center, 2013 , , {{sortname, Jennifer, Pareja , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{ESP , , {{sortname, Viktor, Nagy , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{HUN , - , align=center, 2014 , , {{sortname, Ashleigh, Johnson , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{USA , , Filip Filipović , , style="white-space:nowrap;" , {{SRB , - , align=center, 2015 , , {{sortname, Ashleigh, Johnson , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{USA , , {{sortname, Duško, Pijetlović , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{SRB , - , align=center, 2016 , , {{sortname, Ashleigh, Johnson , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{USA , , {{sortname, Filip, Filipović, Filip Filipović (water polo) , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{SRB , - , align=center, 2017 , , {{sortname, Maggie, Steffens , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{USA , , {{sortname, Márton, Vámos , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{HUN , - , align=center, 2018 , , {{sortname, Sabrina, van der Sloot , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{NED , , {{sortname, Aleksandar, Ivović , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{MNE , - , align=center, 2019 , , {{sortname, Ashleigh, Johnson , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{USA , , {{sortname, Francesco, Di Fulvio , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{ITA , - , align=center, 2020 , , align=center colspan="4", ''Not awarded due to

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

'' , - , align=center, 2021 , , {{sortname, Maddie, Musselman , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{USA , , {{sortname, Filip, Filipović, Filip Filipović (water polo) & Dušan Mandić , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{SRB , - , align=center, 2022 , , {{sortname, Ashleigh, Johnson , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{USA , , {{sortname, Francesco, Di Fulvio , , style="white-space:nowrap;" , {{ITA , - , align=center, 2023 , , {{sortname, Judith, Forca , , style="white-space:nowrap;", {{ESP , , {{sortname, Gergő, Zalánki , , style="white-space:nowrap;" , {{HUN

Notes

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References

{{reflist {{featured list {{DEFAULTSORT:Swimming World Swimmers of the Year