Recently, in the world of competitive swimming—this past November, to be exact—the Golden Goggle Awards were held in Los Angeles, California. Sunny LA was where the best of the best swimmers in the U.S. gathered to celebrate the many swim accomplishments of one another. The Golden Goggle Awards are awards that are usually awarded for certain races or athletes. For instance, Katie Grimes, Katie Ledecky, Bobby Finke, Ryan Murphy, and so on were all up for honors. The awards are primarily based on a swimmer’s outstanding performance during that year. They are also given out to the best swim coaches.
Now, the history of Olympic swimming circles back to the late 1800s when only men were allowed to swim and women were not. In 1912, women’s events were added. Nobody wore swim caps or goggles yet and all they had were flimsy bathing suits. Before all the main strokes that you see today in competitive swimming were allowed (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle), there used to be weird obstacle races that took place in the water. This consisted of jumping over poles and swimming under a line of boats in 200 meters. However, the reason why the sport of competitive swimming is different from other competitions is primarily because of how water is much denser than air, making it more difficult to move around freely. Swimming also differs because of the water temperature since it is usually made colder which affects the way we perform. If the water is too hot we may become tired much faster or feel like we have less energy.
In the Golden Googles Awards, there are typically nine different categories that more than one person could be nominated for and win. For 2023, there was the Breakout Performer Award, the Coach of the Year Award, the Relay Performance of the Year Award, the Female Race of the Year Award, the Male Race of the Year Award, the Female Athlete of the Year Award, the Male Athlete of the Year Award, the Perseverance Award, and lastly, the Open Water Swimmer of the Year Award. Keep in mind that these awards are not just handed out to anybody. They recognize those swimmers who put in an incredible amount of effort every single day in and out of the pool. These awards are truly an honor to these hard-working athletes.
In my opinion, I think these awards were given out to the athletes who deserved it the most. Katie Ledecky had many amazing swims during 2023. In fact, she even broke the 1650-yard freestyle US Open record, which stood for six years. Her time was blazing fast, 15:01.41 minutes. (Which is basically one whole mile of swimming in just 15 minutes.) She also had the 3rd fastest 800 and 1500 freestyle times. As for Bobby Finke, he had a hard-fought race in the 1500-meter freestyle and earned silver. His time was 14:31.59 minutes, which is incredible considering the world record time for this event is 14:06.88. Last but not least is Katie Grimes who was one of the first athletes to secure a spot on the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team. However, the reason she earned not one but two Golden Goggle Awards was because of her marvelous 10k open water swim in 2023. In this swim, she beat two Olympic champions by 0.1 seconds and even earned bronze. There were other races where she really pushed herself to get magnificent times. Considering the fact that she is only 17 years old and already a two-time Olympian, this is even more impressive. She truly outdid herself; this was her absolute best season so far.
Earning a golden Goggle Award truly means that they are exceptional athletes who were consistent with all their workouts. They showed up even when they really didn’t feel like it. Frankly, every single person who earned this award deserved it, and I think that because of the effort they put into this sport, they will see even better results next season.
