World Aquatics announced five women and five men as nominees for World Swimmer of the Year awards.
The women’s nominees:
Katie Ledecky (USA)
Four 2024 Olympic medals, including 800m and 1500m freestyle golds, to become the most decorated female swimmer in Olympic history with 14 medals, including nine golds.
Summer McIntosh (CAN)
Lone woman to win three individual golds in Paris: 200m butterfly, 200m individual medley, 400m individual medley.
Kaylee McKeown (AUS)
The second swimmer to sweep the 100m and 200m backstrokes at two Olympics after East German Roland Matthes in 1968 and 1972.
Sarah Sjöström (SWE)
Won the 50m free and 100m free at age 30, becoming the second-oldest woman to win individual Olympic swimming gold and the oldest to win two individual golds by more than three years.
Regan Smith (USA)
Won five Paris Olympic medals, plus broke the 100m back world record at the Olympic Trials.
The men’s nominees:
Bobby Finke (USA)
Repeated as Olympic 1500m free gold medalist; one of two swimmers to break an individual world record in Paris.
Léon Marchand (FRA)
Won the 200m breaststroke, 200m fly and 200m and 400m IMs to become the fourth swimmer to win four individual golds at one Olympics.
Kristóf Milák (HUN)
Took 100m fly gold and 200m butterfly silver in Paris.
Pan Zhanle (CHN)
Won Olympic 100m free, breaking the world record by four tenths of a second.
Daniel Wiffen (IRL)
Earned Olympic 800m free gold (in an Olympic record time) and 1500m free bronze.
McKeown and Chinese breaststroker Qin Haiyang won the awards in 2023. The last Americans to win were Ledecky in 2022 for the women and Caeleb Dressel in 2021 for the men.
World Aquatics previously announced nominees for men’s and women’s World Diver of the Year, World Water Polo Player of the Year (including American Adrian Weinberg), World Open Water Swimmer of the Year, World Artistic Swimmer of the Year (including American Kenny Gaudet) and World High Diver of the Year (including American Kaylea Arnett).
Winners are based on public voting on World Aquatics’ Instagram and a nomination committee.
