Swimming Australia to Hand Out Annual Awards on Monday in Brisbane

On Monday December 22nd members of the Australian Swim Team will swap their swimming caps for evening wear for the 2014 Swimmer of the Year Awards ceremony in Brisbane.

The ceremony, which will be held at Brisbane City Hall, recognises the outstanding performances or achievements of swimmers, coaches, volunteers and clubs from the 2014 swimming season.

There are 16 awards on offer on the night including Golden Moment, Swimmer’s Swimmer, People’s Choice, Olympic, Paralympic and Open Water Coach of the Year and the highly sought after Swimmer of the Year award.

A number of swimmers impressed on the international stage this year and could pick up an award on Monday. Just recently the Australian Swim Team capped off a highly successful 2014 swimming season with the 20-strong short course team bringing home ten medals from the 12th FINA World Short Course Championships in Doha. Mitch Larkin’s world short course gold in the men’s 100m backstroke and Emily Seebohm’s five medal haul were two standouts for the meet.

Earlier in the year in January, the team united in Perth to take top honours at the BHP Billiton Aquatic Super Series for the second year in a row.

Then in July, following selection trials in Brisbane, the swim team came home with a record medal haul from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with an impressive total of 57 including 19 gold, 21 silver and 17 bronze.

The women’s 4x100m freestyle relay team of Emma McKeon, Melanie Wright (nee Schlanger) and sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell, had the nation on the edge of their seats with their world record breaking final swim.

Australia also picked up four clean sweeps of the podium; the first came in the men’s 200m backstroke with Mitch Larkin, Joshua Beaver and Matson Lawson, then again in the men’s 100m freestyle with James Magnussen, Cameron McEvoy and Tommaso D’Orsogna, then in the women’s 100m freestyle with Cate Campbell, Bronte Campbell and Emma McKeon and finally in the men’s S9 100m freestyle with Rowan Crothers, Matthew Cowdrey and Brenden Hall taking the top three spots. Paralympian Maddison Elliott also impressed in Glasgow, setting a new world record and grabbing the gold in the women’s S8 100m freestyle.

The Para Pan Pacs team then set the pool alight in Pasadena, California, picking up 95 medals in total to top the gold medal tally with 55. Grant Patterson stepped up and proved his potential winning five gold medals while debutant and namesake, Lakeisha Patterson also stepped up to the podium multiple times at the meet.

Fresh off the back of their success in Scotland, the swimmers then headed to the Gold Coast to compete in front of a home crowd at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships. The team united and finished the four day meet with a total of 26 medals, including ten gold. Thomas Fraser-Holmes’ win in the men’s 200m freestyle was a highlight with his time from that final still standing as the fastest in the world this year, while both Emily Seebohm and Belinda Hocking also impressed winning gold in the 100 and 200m backstroke respectively.

The Swimmer of the Year will be announced on Monday night, for a full list of awards please see below and to stay up to date with award winners and information follow #SOTY2014 on Twitter and Facebook.

For media interested in attending the carpet arrivals please contact Kathleen Rayment on 0432 915 262.

Awards
Technical Official of the Year
Club of the Year
Volunteer of the Year
Golden Moment
People’s Choice
Georgina Hope Foundation Age Group Coach of the Year
Open Water Coach of the Year
Paralympic Program Coach of the Year
Olympic Program Coach of the year
Swimmer’s Swimmer
AIS Discovery of the Year
Short Course Swimmer of the Year
Open Water Swimmer of the Year
Georgina Hope Foundation Paralympic Program Swimmer of the Year
Georgina Hope Foundation Olympic Program Swimmer of the Year
Overall Swimmer of the Year