Sarah Sjostrom & Adam Peaty Voted Europe’s Best Pool Swimmers, Van Rouwendaal & Wellbrock Top Open Water Poll
Tokyo 2020ne Olympic champions Adam Peaty (GBR, 100m breaststroke) and Florian Wellbrock (GER, marathon) and Olympic silver medallists Sarah Sjostrom (SWE, 50m Freestyle) and Sharon van Rouwendaal (NED, marathon) have been voted European swimmers of the Year for 2021.
For Sjostrom, the prize comes a year after she broke her elbow in a fall on the ice at home in Sweden. The injury threatened Sjostrom’s entire season but despite the challenges, she still managed to claim Olympic silver in the 50m freestyle closest to woman of the Games, Emma McKeon, of Australia. This past week, Sjostrom was back on the ice and snow but for an outcome far happier: engagement to her beau, Johan, AKA Swedish fencer John de Jong Skierus. 🥳🎉 🍾 🥂
It was Olympic silver, too, for Van Rouwendaal, in a marathon won by Brazil’s Ana Cunha four years after the Dutch star claimed Rio 2016 gold.
In Tokyo, Peaty became the first British swimmer ever to retain an Olympic title in the pool when he kept the 100m breaststroke crown on his head in a week that also delivered gold in the Mixed medley relay with Britain mates and silver in the men’s medley relay with mates.
After bronze in the 1500m freestyle in the pool, Wellbrock made it gold in the marathon for Germany the week after. He ended the year with a stunning World record over 1500m freestyle for the World short-course title.
Sjostrom, Peaty, Van Rouwendaal & Wellbrock – 2021 Toppers From LEN
Adam Peaty repeated his win from 2019 and gained his fourth LEN Award in five seasons, while Sweden’s Sarah Sjostom earned her third recognition in four. Dutch open water swimmer Sharon van Rouwendaal and British diver Tom Daley also finished first for the fourth time, while Serbian water polo legend Filip Filipovic was elected the best European player on the fifth occasion.
It was the 13th time since 2008 that the LEN member federations and LEN Officials casted their votes to choose Europe’s best aquatic athletes (2020 was skipped for obvious reasons). As it was expected, Olympic success weighed the most in the eyes of the electorate though the outstanding performances at the European Championships also made an impact.
Perhaps his four titles from Budapest 2021 helped Adam Peaty to finish ahead of Russia’s Evgeny Rylov in men’s swimming. In Tokyo, Rylov was Europe’s only swimmer to claim two individual gold medals (100-200m back double). Peaty had an individual gold and one from a relay but his brilliant swims at the Europeans earned him the highest number of votes. However, the percentages show that it was a really close call between these two and ahead of Europe’s other individual champions, Kristof Milak of Hungary and the other Brit Tom Dean.
Sarah Sjostrom got almost half of the votes among the women – European female swimmers left Tokyo without gold medals, still, the Swede got a silver and she excelled at the season-ending short-course meets, the Europeans in Kazan and at the Worlds in Abu-Dhabi.
Another British victory came in diving – Tom Daley claimed the most convincing win of all, with 76.7% of the votes. The genius of the platform fulfilled his dreams by becoming Olympic champion (with Matt Lee in synchro) and added a bronze in the individual event, besides having a gold and a silver from Budapest. While Daley joined the circles of the four-time LEN Award winners, he is unique in this club as his first recognition dates back to 2009!
A new winner was crowned among the women, Germany’s Tina Punzel finished first, thanks to her Olympic bronze and four European medals. Compatriot Florian Wellbrock also claimed his first LEN Award among the male open water swimmers – the Olympic champion of the marathon event had an amazing year as he also came up with a couple of brilliant swims in the pool, including a world record- breaking blast at the short-course Worlds in the 1500m free.
Sharon van Rouwendaal’s victory was also unquestionable among the women: the Dutchwoman added an Olympic silver to her treasury, months after making another memorable appearance at the Europeans. She has also become a four-timer among our awardees.
Not surprisingly, it was Russia all the way in artistic swimming. Concerning the results, the two Svetlanas produced identical tallies both at the Europeans and the Olympics – Kolesnichenko got one more vote than Romashina but perhaps a shared first place would have been more fitting as their duet
enchanted everyone once more. The males had one major event to shine at, the Europeans, and double gold medallist Aleksandar Maltsev retained his award.
Water polo was the only discipline, where solely the Olympics – and somewhat the club events – determined the choices of the voters as the warriors’ Europeans were held in 2020 (the last major sport event staged among ‘normal’ circumstances…). As expected, the Tokyo gold medallist Serb males and the silver medallist Spanish females dominated the voting. Filip Filipovic was picked ahead of fellow leftie Dusan Mandic, thus the legendary captain claimed his 5th LEN Award, the first male athlete since Germany’s open water king Thomas Lurz who reached this height – only Italy’s diving diva Tania Cagnotto finished atop more (7 times). Among the women, Beatriz Ortiz got the majority of the votes,it’s her first-ever win, but the sixth for Spain altogether.
LEN Award – results of the voting
Best male swimmer
Adam Peaty (GBR) 35.5%
Evgeny Rylov (RUS) 22.6% Kristof Milak (HUN) 21.0% Thomas Dean (GBR) 12.9% Duncan Scott (GBR) 3.4% Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA) 1.6% Florian Wellbrock (GER) 1.6%
Best female swimmer
Sarah Sjostrom (SWE) 45.2%
Ranomi Kromowidjojo (NED) 22.6% Kathleen Dawson (GBR) 17.7% Pernille Blume (DEN) 6.5%
Simona Quadarella (ITA) 6.5% Leonie Beck (GER) 1.6%
Best male diver
Tom Daley (GBR) 76.7%
Patrick Hausding (GER) 9.4% Evgeniy Kuznetsov (RUS) 9.4% Aleksandar Bondar (RUS) 3.1% Jack Laugher (GBR) 1.6%
Best female diver
Tina Punzel (GER) 62.6%
Chiara Pellacani (ITA) 15.6% Yulia Timoshinina (RUS) 10.9% Ekaterina Beliaeva (RUS) 7.8% Elena Bertocchi (ITA) 1.6% Inge Jansen (NED) 1.6%
Best female artistic swimmer
Svetlana Kolesnichenko (RUS) 35.6%
Svetlana Romashina (RUS) 33.9% Marta Fiedina (UKR) 28.8%
Best male artistic swimmer
Aleksandr Maltsev (RUS) 66.7%
Pau Ribes (ESP) 22.8% Nicolo Ogliari (ITA) 10.5%
Best Male Open Water Swimmer
Florian Wellbrock (GER) 55.6%
Gregorio Paltrinieri (ITA) 27.0% Kristof Rasovszky (HUN) 12.7% Axel Reymond (FRA) 3.2% Marc-Antoine Olivier (FRA) 1.6%
Best female open water swimmer
Sharon van Rouwendaal (NED) 57.1%
Giulia Gabbrielleschi (ITA) 17.5% Anna Olasz (HUN) 9.5%
Lea Boy (GER) 7.9%
Oceane Cassignol (FRA) 6.3% Leonie Beck (GER) 1.6%
Best male water polo player
Filip Filipovic (SRB) 50.0%
Dusan Mandic (SRB) 18.3% Ioannis Fountoulis (GRE) 13.3% Aleksandar Ivovic (MNE) 10.0% Viktor Nagy (HUN) 8.3%
Best female water polo player
Beatriz Ortiz (ESP) 51.7%
Anni Espar (ESP) 25.0%
Vasiliki Plevritou (GRE) 8.3% Ekaterina Prokofyeva (RUS) 8.3% Alda Magyari (HUN) 6.7%