On November 15, 2004, seven years ago from today, USA Swimming held their very first incarnation of the Golden Goggles Awards to benefit the USA Swimming Foundation.
Even in it’s first year, the event known as the “Academy Awards of swimming” was a huge blowout. Legendary Olympic broadcaster Bob Costas was the host for the night, and they were held in New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom.
The big award-winners at that first event were Natalie Coughlin as female swimmer of the year, Michael Phelps as male swimmer of the year, and Bob Bowman as coach of the year.
This year will be the 8th version of the event that has raised millions of dollars to help the foundation fight drowning. This year’s event will take place this Sunday, November 20th, in Los Angeles. To read more about the nominees, click here.
Birthdays
- Robert Nay, would be 55 – Today is a very special birthday, as we honor the memory of Robert Nay, father of Australian Olympian Meagan Nay (and a 1972 Olympian himself), on what would have been his 55th birthday. He died in a car accident in 1992, when Meagan was only 4 years old.
- Stefan Pfeiffer, 46 – German swimmer who won two medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics in the 1500 freestyle.
- Giaan Rooney, 29 – Rooney is a backstroker and former Swimming Australia team captain and was a member of the gold-medal winning medley relay in 2000 when she was only 18. She would retire in 2006 at only 24 years old.