See all of our 2023 Swammy Awards here.
2023 MALE SWIMMER OF THE YEAR: QIN HAIYANG (CHN)
The 2023 Male Swimmer of the Year Swammy award goes to Qin Haiyang of China. Qin, 24, returned to top form in 2023 after a full year under the guidance of his new coach, Cui Dengrong. Not only did he return to top form, but he completely shattered his previous best times in all three breaststroke events — including a world record swim at the Fukuoka World Championships.
This award was a tough decision between Qin and French superstar Leon Marchand. Both athletes broke a world record this past year at the World Championships, and both won three individual gold medals in Fukuoka. However, the totality of Qin’s year puts him over the edge, as he was incredibly consistent with his times in the breaststroke events from March through to October. He also won the overall World Cup title in October, putting himself over the edge to win this award.
Qin began to make his statement in May, when he became the 3rd person in history to break the 58-second barrier in the 100 breaststroke (LCM). At the same meet, he clocked a time of 2:07.55 in the 200 breaststroke to nearly undercut his six-year-old best time of 2:07.35. Qin has been a big name in the swimming community since his performance in 2017, but didn’t break through until this year. He would enter the World Championships as the clear frontrunner in the 100, a likely podium finisher in the 50, and a shot at a medal in the 200, too.
In Fukuoka, Qin opened up the competition with a time of 57.82 in the semifinals of the 100 breast, eclipsing his 57.93 marker from May. He would go on to dominate the final, winning by over a full second to win in another Asian record (57.69). He continued his momentum through the rest of the meet, taking the 50 in another Asian record of 26.20 before the performance of his life in the 200 breast.
After leading the whole race, Qin touched the wall in 2:05.48 to shatter the 200 breast world record en route to Fukuoka gold. He outpaced the former world record holder, Zac Stubblety-Cook, by nearly a full second to secure the first senior world record of his career. With his win in the 200 breast, he became the first person to sweep all three distances of a stroke at a long course World Championship meet.
Qin did not stop at the World Championships, as he continued on to more dominating performances at both the World University Games and then the Asian Games. He secured six total medals (five gold, 1 silver) at the Asian Games, once again sweeping all three breaststroke distances:
- 50 Breast: 26.35 (Gold)
- 100 Breast: 57.76 (Gold)
- 200 Breast: 2:07.03 (Gold)
- 200 IM: 1:57.41 (Silver)
- 4×100 Medley Relay: 3:27.01 – 57.63 breast split (Asian Record, Gold)
- 4×100 Mixed Medley Relay: 3:37.73 – 57.25 breast split (Asian Record, Gold)
Perhaps the most impressive performance from Qin at the Asian Games was his contribution to the Team China relays. In the 4×100 medley relay, China’s final time of 3:27.01 gave the world record of 3:26.78 a big scare. The United States broke that world record en route to gold at the Tokyo Olympics, and are currently undefeated in the event at the Olympic Games. With the Paris 2024 Olympics about half-a-year away, China looks like it has the tools to give the USA a run for the title. China’s time at the Asian Games was faster than the USA’s world-title-winning time a few months prior (3:27.20).
Qin was also 0.38 faster on China’s mixed medley relay, and if that split was replicated on the men’s 4×100 medley, the world record would’ve been broken. Speaking of the mixed medley relay, China’s time of 3:37.73 represented a new Asian record and nearly clipped the 3:37.58 world record — which Team GB put on the books at the Tokyo Olympics. Heading into Paris, Qin has realistic opportunities to win four gold medals, two in individual events and two relay possibilities.
Qin wrapped up his phenomenal international campaign at the World Cup series, sweeping all three breaststroke distances at each of the three stops. He broke the world cup record in all three distances throughout the stops, and left the meet holding all three records:
- 50 Breast: 26.29 (Berlin)
- 100 Breast: 57.69 (Berlin) *=Asian Record*
- 200 Breast: 2:07.32 (Budapest)
Qin Haiyang in 2023, by the numbers:
- 50 Breaststroke – 26.20 *Asian Record*
- 100 Breaststroke – 57.69 *Asian Record*
- 200 Breaststroke – 2:05.48 *World Record*
- 200 IM – 1:57.42
Honorable Mentions:
- Leon Marchand (FRA) – The versatile French star had another great year in the pool, highlighted by breaking Michael Phelps’ legendary 400 IM world record in Fukuoka. Marchand hit the wall in 4:02.50, eclipsing the previous 2008 marker of 4:03.84. He went on to win gold in the 200 IM (1:54.82 – fourth fastest performer of all-time, third person in history to crack 1:55 at the time of the swim) and the 200 butterfly (1:52.43). In addition to his performances at Worlds, Marchand also threw down a time of 2:06.59 in the 200 breaststroke back in June. His time would’ve been good enough for the bronze medal in Fukuoka, but there was a direct conflict there with the 200 IM. The 200 fly and 200 breast will have a back-to-back direct conflict in Paris, so a big decision looms in the coming months. In addition to his performances in the long course pool, Marchand also had a historic year in the SCY pool. He shattered U.S. open records in the 200 and 400 IMs, in addition to the 200 breaststroke. His time of 3:28.82 in the 400 IM is nearly four seconds faster than anyone else has swum in history.
- Ahmed Hafnaoui (TUN) – Hafnaoui took home two gold medals at the Fukuoka World Championships, sweeping the 800 and 1500 freestyle events. He also took the silver medal in the 400 free, stopping the clock in 3:40.70 for the second fastest time in over a decade. His time in all three events represented massive personal best times, and his individual medal haul made him one of the most decorated athletes at the World Championships.
Past Winners:
- 2022 Swammy – David Popovici (ROU)
- 2021 Swammy – Caeleb Dressel (USA)
- 2020 Swammy – Caeleb Dressel (USA)
- 2019 Swammy – Caeleb Dressel (USA)
- 2018 Swammy – Kliment Kolesnikov (RUS)
- 2017 Swammy – Caeleb Dressel (USA)
- 2016 Swammy – Michael Phelps (USA)
- 2015 Swammy – Adam Peaty (GBR)
- 2014 Swammy – Chad Le Clos (RSA)
- 2013 Swammy – Chad Le Clos (RSA)
Please remember that event which Marchand was 3rd in was from the French National 5 weeks before Worlds. Compare column 1, French Nats. v. column 2, Worlds
200 Breast 2:06.59(1:01.02) n/a [0.505/100 M off NEW Qin WR ]
200 Fly 1:55.79 1:52.43 1.68 / 100M differential
200 IM 1:56.23 1:54.82 0.75 / 100 M differential
400 IM 4:10.57 4:02.50 2.01 / 100 M
Clearly Marchand was not rested at French meet 5 weeks out. Comparing his individual event improvement per 100 M between the French meet and Worlds, the average improvement was 1.48sec./100M, or 2.96/200M.
Applying this same improvement rate to his French meet 200 Breast — 2:06.59 – 2.96 = 2:03.63.
Yes. A new World Record… Read more »
Your reasoning for concluding that Marchand would break the 200 breast WR is flawed for a number of reasons:
- You take the average “improvement per 100m” from 3 of his events and then apply that average to 200 breast. That just doesn’t work. It’s not anywhere near a reliable method for estimating time improvements across strokes and you have it across multiple distances (where longer distances tend to show bigger improvements from taper).
- If Marchand did just do a drop taper for French Nationals, then you would expect his first swim to be his best, which was the 200 breast.
- Marchand swam the 200 breast first at French Nationals but would have been his final event at worlds. You
… Read more »In terms of dominance, Qin won his 3 events by 1.1% of swim time, 1.8% and 0.7%. Marchand won his three events by 1.1%, 1.0% and 1.7%. Qin’s 100 breast was statistically more dominant than Marchand’s 400IM, and overall their winning margins were about the same across their 3 events.
Individually, their achievements at worlds were essentially identical. Then Qin has an additional gold and silver relay medal, won the World Cup in a dominant fashion, and overall had more historically significant times in his 3 events (1st, 2nd and 2nd all time vs 1st, 3rd and 4th).
I can certainly understand some people preferring Marchand but acting like Qin winning is completely unjustified is just not in line… Read more »
Not disagreeing, but percentage of swim time is not the only indicator of dominance or strength of swim; the men’s 200 breast WR has been broken numerous times since 2008. Neither one of those WRs have been particularly strong, the last one only lasting a little more than a year; this also shows that the men’s 200 breast in particular is a rapidly improving event. Phelps’s 400IM WR wasn’t really even neared in absoulte time in the last 15 years – a few athletes apart from Leon – Hagino, Seto, Kalisz, Foster – might have been close to it percentagewise, but neither of them ever really had a chance of breaking it. Marchand did it though. That swim was I… Read more »
If you’re talking about the dominance of a particular swim, then % of swim time is the only objective measure in my opinion. But obviously that doesn’t account for the historical significance of a swim, as you could beat a weak field by a massive % with a mediocre time.
There is essentially no way to objectively pit one swim against another in different disciplines. You could use year ranking, all time ranking, % difference from silver, % difference from WR, % difference from 5th or 10th best performer of all time. Each of those could give a different result and, excluding massive outliers, the vast majority of top swims would have some subjectivity when being compared.
My point is… Read more »
Why denigrate the medals in a “non-olympic event”? It verges on the offensive.
Not really. It means the event has less competition and overall focus, because it doesn’t feature in the biggest meet, and many countries (but especially the ones with the strongest teams – USA, Australia) don’t select for it. This doesn’t denigrate the medal, but it does contextualize it.
Ahhh, lies, big lies and statistics. Is the best measure 1st vs 2nd (in that case the 200IM WR swim was weak back in 2011) or 1st vs field at the meet or 1st vs rest of the field or taking the best result of the year, or the all time rankings and then best 5, best 8, best 10 ? Should we take one event, the best 3, all of them from 50 breast to 10K open water ? One could look at the time or at the WA points etc …
If we take the 3 events won by each at the WC
Looking at strength of the field at the meet (WC)
400 IM Marchand is… Read more »
I don’t really understand what you’re saying. What is the difference between “the average” and “rest of the field”?
If your point is that you can use statistics to lie, then yeah, I agree. As I said, you can justify almost any performance over another by picking the right stat that suits what you want the result to be.
In rest of the field the considered swimmer time is excluded from the computation of the average and the percentage difference is computed using the considered swimmer time vs this average.
i.e for the 400IM all time list average of the top 8 swimmers is 4:05.38, excluding Marchand it is 4:05.79. percentage difference Marchand vs average is 1.2% and versus rest of the field 1.3% (If I am not mistaken, using this top 8 list
1 4:2.50
2 4:3.84
3 4:5.18
4 4:5.90
5 4:6.05
6 4:6.09
7 4:6.16
8 4:7.31
for the 200IM Marchand’s time is just the average of the best all time top 8, so no difference between the 2 measures using this list
1:54.82
… Read more »
I think ultimately this one is much closer than female swimmer of the year, but I agree with the choice overall.
For anyone arguing Marchand should win because of his versatility vs Qin only being good at 1 stroke, I’m guessing Kate Douglas should win female swimmer of the year over McKeown by the same logic? Doesn’t make sense does it
It would be a harder argument to make against McKeown because she’s also very versatile and she broke three world records to Qin’s one. That said I think Qin was the right choice.
Unlike Kate Douglas, Leon won 3 individual gold medals, one of them being in a race where he annihilated a legendary Michael Phelps world record that nobody else could even come close to. People here for some reason are acting like he’s only up on Qin in versatility, but he was 4 seconds ahead of the silver and almost 7 seconds ahead of the bronze medal.
see stats above though – Sub13 did the percentages
The overall stats favor Qin over Marchand
Definitely the right choice and most deserving swimmer for the award.
Also where is the article for Asian female swimmer of the year?
Are you sure？
Is it a joke？
So when does the top 100 for 2024 drama begin??
I am waiting for that one with much anticipation 😁
Last year they published the first batch women #76-#100 on January 12 and men #76-#100 on January 13
SwimSwam writers probably still waiting for their HazMat suits/body armour to arrive ! 😉
Still a few weeks away I think.
Let’s make some early predictions (this is what I think they’ll choose, not what my order is):
1. McIntosh
2. McKeown
3. MOC
4. Ledecky
5. Titmus
6. Chikunova
7. Douglass
8. Zhang
9. Sjostrom
10. Smith
1. Marchand
2. Qin
3. Hafnaoui
4. Short
5. Grousset
6. Richards
7. Ceccon
8. Murphy
9. Jiayu
10. Chalmers
Ok the women’s one I’m confident in but the men are an absolute mess. There’s about 17 guys you could justify being in top 10 and the order is going to be super subjective.
McKeown over McIntosh. Could argue Molly O aswell.
McKeown has had an all time great year with 3 world records in every backstroke event combined with top 3 times in the IMs.
But I think Swimswam will have Summer at the top of the 2024 list because she has room to win more. McKeown can’t win the 50 backstroke and the only other event she could become Olympic champion in is 200IM. Whereas summer is the overwhelming favourite in the 400IM, solid fave in the 200fly, and also is a potential Olympic champion in 400 free, 200IM (and unlikely 200free given the schedule)
I back MOC to win 100/200 free (she’s been dropping more time than Haughey and is still a teen) but she’s unlikely to factor… Read more »
I put McIntosh first purely because of 5 individual medal potential, which I think SS will value more than relay potential. Kaylee and Mollie both have 3 individual medal potential at max.
I personally think Kaylee will end up on top but this was a prediction of what SS might say.
That women’s list is infinitely more exciting
No Popovici?!
He swims the 2 most competitive events, won zero medals this year and has zero relay potential. I don’t see how you could justify him in the top 10.
Maybe because he is going to train hard again, get back in form, and break the 100 and 200WRs in Paris.
Ceccon’s credentials have taken a real hit this year so I’d replace him with Tom Dean
Dean, Finke, Kos, McEvoy, Alexy and a few others all could have justifiably been top 10 as well. As I said, I basically just gave up because it was way too hard.
It was much easier to be somewhat objective with the women but the men have so many who are all on a similar level. Will be very interesting to see what happens!
Why all the ASU bias?!?? Oh wait …. What are the haters gonna complain about now?