The Marathon Swimmers Federation celebrates the exploits and achievements of marathon and channel swimmers worldwide with its annual Global Marathon Swimming Awards.
The purpose is to recognize outstanding achievements and contributions in solo marathon swimming in four categories:
- Solo Swim of the Year awarded to the most outstanding solo marathon swim
- Yudovin Award given to the most adventurous swim in honor of David Yudovin; limited to swims that are the first known completion of a route
- Barra List recognizes up to five swimmers who had the most outstanding overall year of marathon swimming (in honor of MSF charter member avid Barra’s epic year of swimming in 2010
- Service to Marathon Swimming recognizes outstanding contributions to the sport in a non-swimming role
Criteria for Solo Swim of the Year
- Swim must be solo, nonstop, and conducted according to unassisted marathon swimming rules per MSF Rules, English Channel rules, or equivalent.
- If the swim is in a body of water covered by an established local sanction association, it must be ratified by the relevant association.
- If it is an independent swim (no local sanction association for the body of water), the swim must be submitted to MSF Documented Swims by January 7th 2025
- The two finalists include Brian Foster’s two-way North Channel crossing and Vera Rivard and Margaret Rivard’s tandem two-way Lake Memphremagog crossing
Previous Recipients
- Tina Neill‘s San Clemente Island to California mainland crossing in 2012
- Trent Grimsey‘s new English Channel crossing record in 2012
- Wendy Trehiou‘s two-way English Channel crossing in 2013
- Sylvain Estadieu‘s English Channel butterfly crossing in 2013
- Chloё McCardel‘s South Eleuthera Island to Nassau, Bahamas swim in 2014
- Craig Lenning‘s Farallon Islands to California mainland crossing in 2014
- Chloё McCardel‘s three-way English Channel crossing in 2015
- Jason Betley‘s two-way Catalina Channel crossing in 2015
- Sarah Thomas‘s Lake Powell swim in 2016 [shown above]
- Howard James‘s earliest English Channel crossing on May 16th 2016
- Sarah Thomas‘s Lake Champlain swim in 2017
- Cameron Bellamy‘s circumnavigation swim of Barbados in 2018
- Sarah Thomas‘s four-way English Channel crossing in 2019
Criteria for Yudovin Award for Most Adventurous Swim
- Swim must be solo, nonstop, and conducted according to unassisted marathon swimming rules (MSF Rules, English Channel rules, or equivalent)
- Swim must be the first known swim of its route
- If the swim is in a body of water covered by an established local sanction association, it must be ratified by the relevant association
- If it is an independent swim (no local sanction association for the body of water), the swim must be submitted to MSF Documented Swims by January 7th 2025
Previous Recipients
- Peter Hayden‘s Anacapa Island circumnavigation swim, return to mainland in 2014
- Wendy Trehiou‘s St. Malo, France to Jersey crossing in 2015 [shown above on right]
- Lori King‘s Bermuda circumnavigation swim in 2016
- Jaimie Monahan‘s Lake Maggiore swim in 2017 [shown above on left]
- Colleen Blair‘s North Minch crossing in 2018
Criteria for Barra List
- Nominees will be generated by an automated query on the LongSwims Database, and announced after March 1st 2025. If you want your 2024 swims to be considered for this award, make sure they have been submitted to the LongSwims Database by the end of December (link to MSF contact form).
Previous Recipients
- Grace van der Byl in 2012 [shown above on left]
- Sarah Thomas in 2013
- Darren Miller in 2013
- Charlotte Samuels in 2014 [shown above on right with Dave Barra as escort kayaker]
- Mo Siegel in 2014
- Bridgette Hobart in 2015
- Craig Lenning in 2015
- Mark Sheridan in 2015
- Jaimie Monahan in 2016
- Dan Simonelli in 2016
- Abigail Fairman in 2017
- Stephen Rouch in 2017
- Martyn Webster in 2018
- John Batchelder in 2019
- Sandra Frimerman-Bergquist in 2019
- Stephen Rouch in 2019
- Sarah Thomas in 2019
- John Zemaitis in 2019
Criteria for Service to Marathon Swimming
- Significant and selfless contributions to the sport in a non-swimming role – volunteer, organizational, or swim support. Scope of nominations may include contributions in any year, not just 2024. Previous winners not eligible.
Previous Recipients
- Dover Beach crew – Freda Streeter, Irene Wakeham, Barrie Wakeham in 2013
- Neil van der Byl and Grace van der Byl in 2014
- Dan Simonelli in 2015
- David Barra, Rondi Davies, and Alex Arevalo [shown above on right] of New York Open Water in 2016
- Andrew Malinak in 2017
- Lynn Kubasek in 2018 [shown above on left]
- Phil White in 2019
- Phil White in 2020
For more information, visit marathonswimmers.org/awards/2024/nominate.
© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming
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