Courtesy of FINA, Sanya, China.
At the 2017 FINA World Aquatics Gala Soirée des Etoiles, Marc-Antoine Olivier of France was announced as the 2017 FINA Best Male Open Water Swimmer of the Year. His coach Philippe Lucas was selected as the FINA Open Water Coach of the Year.
An interview with FINA is here.
His success has ricocheted across his France. “These are unforgettable memories for me, but it’s even more important for our sport. It’s hard to attract people and get them to talk about it if we don’t deliver results like this. It’s already growing considerably now.”
His performance at this year’s FINA World Championships was also recognized and nominated for the 2017 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year.
The nominees for the World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year are as follows:
1. Barbados Open Water Swimming Festival with Kristina Evelyn & Zary Evelyn (Barbados)
2. Khitindra Chandra Baishya (Bangladesh)
3. Sven Eckardt (Germany)
4. India National Open Long Distance Swimming Championship Escort Rowers (India)
5. Margarita Llorens Bagur (Spain)
6. Igor Lukin (Russia)
7. Madswimmer by Jean Craven (South Africa)
8. Marc-Antoine Olivier (France)
9. Stephen Rouch (USA)
10. Jason Snell (UK)
11. Christof Wandratsch (Germany)
12. Wild Swimming Brothers (Great Britain)
His nomination reads, “Marc-Antoine Olivier had the best overall performance among the male open water swimmers at the 2017 FINA World Swimming Championships. The 21-year-old Frenchman kicked off his campaign in Lake Balaton in Hungary with a gold medal performance in the 5 km race, then backed it up with a bronze medal in the 10 km race, finishing only 0.7 seconds behind Olympic gold medalist Ferry Weertman. Then he culminated his week with a blazing fast anchor leg on France’s gold medal winning 5 km team race. His 12:08.7 leg over the 1.25 km course was the fastest split of the relay that France needed to hold off the Americans and Italians.
For rising to the occasion among the world’s fastest open water swimmers, for being consistently competitive and medaling in all three of his races with 2 gold and 1 bronze, for continuing podium performances after winning a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Marc-Antoine Olivier’s races at the 2017 FINA Championships is a worthy nominee for the 2017 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year.”
To register and vote on the WOWSA Awards and the 2017 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year here.
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