Swimming World Magazine names its 2023 Open Water Swimmers of the Year: German teammates Leonie Beck and Florian Wellbrock.

And what a year Beck enjoyed.

At the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, the 26-year-old German started off with a gold medal performance in the 10 km race (2:02:34.00). Then won gold again in the 5 km race (59:31.70) and finished up with a 4th place finish in the 4x1500m mixed relay.

In late May, she finished 17th in the 10 km race (2:03:47.50) in Portugal, but in early May she won the gold medal in both the 10 km (1:56:17.40) and 4x1500m mixed relay at the World Cup event in Italy. She also won the 10 km World Cup in Egypt (2:04:04.60) in May and raced the 200m freestyle (2:01.00), 400m freestyle (4:11.04), and 800m freestyle (8:35.39) races at the Italian National Championships.

Beck enters in final year of the Olympic quadrennial as the 2024 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim gold medal favorite with significant pressure on her shoulders – but she stood tall ahead of her competitors in 2023.

© 2023 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

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