Courtesy of WOWSA, Huntington Beach, California.
The WOWSA Awards are not necessarily for the best athletes, but are meant to honor the men and women who:
* best embody the spirit of open water swimming,
* possess the sense of adventure, tenacity and perseverance that open water swimmers are known for, and
* have most positively influenced the world of open water swimming in calendar year 2016.
and products, events and services that:
* best support and assist open water swimmers achieve their goals,
* are innovative, unique and beneficial to open water swimmers, race directors, coaches or administrators, and
* have made the most positive impact on the world of open water swimming during the calendar year.
To vote for the World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year, the World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year, the World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year, and the World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year via a global online poll, visit the WOWSA Awards here.
The nominees for the World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year include the following inspirational individuals:
1. Roger Finch (South Africa)
2. Nick Adams (Great Britain)
3. Tomi Stefanovski (Macedonia)
4. Edoardo Stochino (Italy)
5. Ferry Weertman (Netherlands)
6. Nejib Belhedi (Tunisia)
7. Ger Kennedy (Ireland)
8. Alex Kostich (USA)
9. Theodore Yach (South Africa)
10. Colin Hill (Great Britain)
11. Ingemar Patiño Macarine (Philippines)
12. Lewis Pugh (Great Britain)
13. Christof Wandratsch (Germany)
Previous recipients of the World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year include:
2008: Randy Nutt (USA) race director and swimming advocate
2009: Petar Stoychev (Bulgaria) professional marathon swimmer
2010: Marcos Díaz (Dominican Republic) United Nations Millennium Development ambassador
2011: Jamie Patrick (USA) swimmer, event organizer, crew member, governing body administrator
2012: Stephen Redmond (Ireland) Oceans Seven swimmer
2013: Pádraig Mallon (Ireland) channel swimmer, endurance athlete
2014: Henri Kaarma (Estonia) ice swimmer
2015: Antonio Argüelles Díaz-González (Mexico) channel swimmer
The nominees for the 2016 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year are as follows:
1. Victoria Mori (Argentina)
2. Rachele Bruni (Italy)
3. Sharon van Rouwendaal (Netherlands)
4. Olga Kozydub (Russia)
5. Sally Minty-Gravett, M.B.E. (Jersey)
6. Chloë McCardel (Australia)
7. Pat Gallant-Charette (USA)
8. Elizabeth Fry (USA)
9. Cheryl Reinke (USA)
10. Sabrina Wiedmer (Switzerland)
11. Nuala Moore (Ireland)
12. Shelley Taylor-Smith (Australia)
13. Samantha Arévalo Salinas (Ecuador)
14. Jaimie Monahan (USA)
Previous recipients of the World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year include:
2008: Edith van Dijk Netherlands) professional marathon swimmer
2009: Poliana Okimoto (Brazil) professional marathon swimmer
2010: Anne Marie Ward (Ireland) channel swimmer
2011: Pilar Geijo (Argentina) professional marathon swimmer
2012: Annaleise Carr (Canada) marathon swimmer
2013: Olga Kozydub (Russia) professional marathon swimmer
2014: Nataliya Fatyanova, M.D. (Russia) physician and ice swimming researcher
2015: Bridgette Hobart Janeczko (USA) marathon swimmer
The nominees for the 2016 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year are as follows:
1. Toshio Tominaga (Japan) Tsugaru Channel Crossing
2. Dead Sea Swim (Jordan-Israel)
3. Sarah Thomas (USA) Lake Powell Crossing
4. Jennifer Figge (USA) Bermuda Triangle Swim
5. Pieter Christian Jongeneel Anderica (Spain) Double Manhattan Circumnavigation
6. Dan Canta (Romania) Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming
7. Sean Conway (Great Britain) Swim Leg of the World’s Longest Triathlon
8. Hudson Brothers (Great Britain) Into the Maelstrom
9. Cristian Vergara (Chile) Easter Island Circumnavigation
10. Jarrod Poort (Australia) Olympic 10K Marathon Swim
11. Javier Mérida Prieto (Spain) Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming
12. Patrick McKnight (USA) Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming
13. Spyridon Gianniotis (Greece) Olympic 10K Marathon Swim
14. Falkland Challenge by Matías Ola (Argentina) and Jackie Cobell (Great Britain)
15. Stephanie Hopson (USA) English Channel Crossing
16. Carol Schumacher Hayden (USA) Catalina Channel Crossing
17. Vasilly Mosin (Russia) Winter Swimming
Previous recipients of the World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year include:
2009: Andrew Smilley (Cayman Islands) RCP Tiburon Mile
2010: Ventura Deep Six by Jim McConica, Tom Ball, Kurtis Baron, Jim Neitz, Mike Shaffer, John Chung (USA) 202-mile relay along the California coast in 4 days 5 hours
2011: Nejib Belhedi (Tunisia) 1400K Swim Across Tunisia
2012: Juan Ignacio Martínez Fernández-Villamil Spain) Descenso a Nado Ría de Navia
2013: Bering Strait Swim (Russia-USA) 6-day 86 km relay with 121 swimmers across the Bering Strait
2014: Diomede Islands Swim by Alexandr Brylin and Grigorii Prokopchuk (Russia)
2015: Andrea Fazio (Italy) Strait of Messina record
The nominees for the 2016 World Open Water Offering of the Year are as follows:
1. Prison Island Swims (International)
2. KIM SWIMS (USA)
3. Samsung Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swim (Turkey)
4. Ocean City Swim Club Unified Team / Legion of Ocean Heroes Surf Lifesaving Festival (USA)
5. KAATSU Aqua (Japan)
6. Hawaiʻi Tiger Shark Tracking (USA)
7. OceanFit (Australia)
8. The Power of Swimming or Simma med Stjärnorna (Sweden)
9. Wildswim.com (United Kingdom)
10. Instabeat (International)
11. Terroir Project Collection (Denmark)
12. Agar Plasticity (Japan)
13. MadSwimmer (South Africa) Children Charity Swims
14. Swimming in the Sink: An Episode of the Heart by Lynne Cox (USA)
15. Global Alert Platform by the Ocean Recovery Alliance (Hong Kong)
16. Blue Mind Summits (International)
Previous recipients of the World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year include:
2012: SWIM Channel by Patrick Winkler (Brazil)
2013: International Ice Swimming Association (international)
2014: Step Out Of The Ordinary Blue Letter Campaign by Pádraig Mallon (Ireland)
2015: World Ice Swimming Championships in Murmansk, Russia
To vote for the WOWSA Awards, visit here. Online voting – one per person – continues until December 31st 2016.
Copyright © 2016 by World Open Water Swimming Association