In the coming weeks leading up to the Golden Goggle Awards on Nov. 22, USA Swimming will be highlighting the nominees in two award categories each week. This week’s focus is Breakout Performer of the Year and the Perseverance Award. Fans can vote online for their favorite nominees at www.goldengoggles.com.
Breakout Performer of the Year
This award is given to the athlete whose performance(s) stand out in relation to other years, with special emphasis given to the 2009 World Championships.
Kasey Carlson
At the start of 2009, Kasey Carlson was a National Junior Team member, swimming for the U.S. at the Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Guam. The 17-year-old took some major steps throughout the remainder of the year and surprised many by qualifying for her first elite international meet with a second place finish in the 100m breast at the U.S. World Championship Trials in July. Carlson made the most of that opportunity by nabbing a bronze medal in the 100m breast at the FINA World Championships. Her time of 1:05.75 was a personal best. Days later, she also finished sixth in the 50m breast and temporarily held the American record in that race after the preliminary heats (30.34).
Tyler Clary
Tyler Clary became the only American male rookie on the 2009 U.S. World Championship team to win a medal in the pool in Rome. The 20-year-old from Riverside, Calif., continued the strong tradition of individual medley dominance for the U.S. men by pulling off a stunning silver medal behind World Champion Ryan Lochte in the 400m IM. Clary trailed Laszlo Cseh, the Olympic silver medalist, the entire race before putting on a sensational sprint in the final lap to catch the Hungarian. Clary also finished fifth in the 200m butterfly. The University of Michigan junior qualified for the U.S. World Championship team by finishing second at the Trials in both the 400m IM and 200m fly. He was also third in the 200m back behind Aaron Peirsol and Ryan Lochte in 1:54.53, and ended 2009 as the fourth-ranked swimmer in the world in that event.
Andrew Gemmell
Andrew Gemmell was fearless in his first major international competition, finishing with a silver medal in the 10K open water marathon swim at the FINA World Championships in Ostia, Italy. Gemmell chased Thomas Lurz of Germany, a multiple world champion and possibly the most tenacious open water swimmer in the world, for nearly two hours, finishing in 1:52:08.3, just 1.4 seconds behind Lurz. He and U.S. teammate Fran Crippen are the first American men in open water history to earn medals in the same World Championship race. Gemmell, an 18-year-old from Wilmington, Del., who is coached by his father, Bruce, also finished 5th in the 5K race one day earlier.
Eric Shanteau
An Olympian in 2008 and a finalist in the 200m breast at his first World Championships in 2007, Eric Shanteau truly had a breakout year in 2009. The 26-year-old qualified for three events in Indianapolis and then won his first three international medals at the World Championships in Rome. Shanteau, who is now cancer-free, won a silver medal and set an American record in the 200m breast, earned a bronze medal in the 200m IM and a gold medal as part of the U.S. medley relay. He was also fourth in the 100m breast and broke the American record, becoming the first American athlete to break 59 seconds in that event. The Lilburn, Ga., native was one of only three athletes on the U.S. team to take home three or more medals.
Perseverance Award
This award is given to the athlete who came back from adversity, retirement, sickness, injury, etc., to have an outstanding performance(s) in 2009, with special emphasis on the 2009 World Championships.
Fran Crippen
In late 2007, Fran Crippen was one of the U.S. favorites to qualify for the debut of the 10K open water swim at the 2008 Olympics. But a disappointing swim at the U.S. Trials in late 2007 left the 25-year-old short of his dream. He channeled that disappointment and vowed to do better in 2009. At the World Championships in Ostia, Italy, Crippen was in prime position to win the 10K race with just a few hundred meters remaining. He had taken a different line in the race from the main pack, and appeared to be leading the main group of swimmers, which was led by Thomas Lurz, the multiple World Champion from Germany. With less than 100 meters remaining, Crippen swam head-first into a directional buoy, and lost precious seconds. He recovered in the nick of time, showing true grit and determination in the race to the finish. He eked out third-place, and then had to endure 24 hours of uncertainty as officials had disqualified him for swimming on the wrong side of the directional buoy. Fortunately, an appeal by the U.S. team, and a favorable decision by the FINA Bureau secured his bronze medal, his first at a World Championships.
Ariana Kukors
Finishing third at the Olympic or World Championship Trials is a tremendous accomplishment, but in many cases heartbreaking for the athlete. Ariana Kukors had to endure her second straight third-place finish at a major domestic meet in the 200m IM at the U.S. World Championship Trials in July. She was also third in that same event at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in Omaha. Kukors still made the U.S. team in Rome by virtue of her third-place finish in the 200m free, which gave her the opportunity to swim on the relay. When U.S. teammate Elizabeth Pelton scratched her spot in the 200m IM due to an overloaded Rome schedule, Kukors was given a gift that she turned gold. She broke the American record in the preliminary heats, the world record in the semifinals, and then smashed her own world record in the final to win her first international medal (2:06.15). In the final she defeated the 2008 Olympic gold and silver medalists Stephanie Rice and Kirsty Coventry. The 20-year-old also helped the U.S. to a silver medal in the 800m free relay with a strong third leg in the final.
Dana Vollmer
Dana Vollmer has had to deal with tremendous highs and occasional lows in her career. As a relative newcomer at age 16, Vollmer finished sixth at the 2004 Olympic Games in the 200m free, and also was part of the Americans’ gold-medal-winning 800m free relay. It was quite an accomplishment for her first major international meet. As the 2008 Trials approached, Vollmer was a clear favorite to make the team. Unfortunately she was dealing with injuries and had a disappointing Olympic Trials, barely missing the team in the 100m free, 200m free and 100m butterfly. She took a short break from the sport after the Trials, healed her aching body, and came back with renewed vigor in 2009. She helped lead the University of California women’s swimming and diving team to its first-ever NCAA Championship, and then in Rome, she won bronze in the 200m freestyle, tied for fifth in the 100m butterfly in an American record time (56.94), and helped the American women earn a silver medal in the 800m freestyle relay with an excellent lead-off leg in the finals.
Amanda Weir
Amanda Weir had success at the 2004 Olympic Trials and Games (two silver medals on relays in Athens), and continued that success through the summer of 2006, when she broke the American record in the 100m free. But a disappointing 2008, in which she finished eighth at the Olympic Trials in the same event, had the 23-year-old from SwimAtlanta re-assessing her goals. She went back to work in the fall of 2008 and rebounded at the World Championship Trials in July, finishing a steady second in both the 50m and 100m free. In Rome, she continued to improve, taking .56 off her best time in the 100m free to set the American record at 53.02. She finished fourth in the finals of that race, just .19 off the medals stand. She was also seventh in the 50m free and led off the 400m free relay, which finished fourth.