WOWSA Awards – World Open Water Swimming Woman Of The Year
Sponsored by KAATSU, Huntington Beach, California.
The WOWSA Awards are sponsored by the World Open Water Swimming Association and serve as an annual public recognition of the world’s open water swimmers and products or services in four categories via a global online poll. The categories are as follows:
* World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year
* World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year
* World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year
* World Open Water Swimming Offering of the Year
Over the history of the WOWSA Awards, the following individuals were selected in the Woman of the Woman of the Year category:
2008 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year: Edith van Dijk of the Netherlands
2009 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year: Poliana Okimoto of Brazil
2010 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year: Anne Marie Ward of Ireland
2011 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year: Pilar Geijo of Argentina
2012 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year: Annaleise Carr of Canada
2013 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year: Olga Kozydub of Russia
2014 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year: Nataliya Fatyanova, MD of Russia
2015 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year: Bridgette Hobart Janeczko of the USA
2016 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year: Jaimie Monahan of the USA
2017 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year: Jaimie Monahan of the USA
2018 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year: Aleksandra Bednarek of Poland
2019 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year: Mariel Hawley Dávila of Mexico
The 2019 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year Mariel Hawley Dávila is typical of the purpose of the WOWSA Awards:
The nominees for the World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year are selected among an heroic and impressive group of individuals with exceptionally inspirational exploits, histories and lifestyles and who specialize in open water swimming. The WOWSA Awards are not necessarily for the fastest swimmer, but are specifically meant to honor the woman who:
* best embodies the spirit of open water swimming,
* possesses the sense of adventure, tenacity and perseverance that open water swimmers are known for, and
* has most positively influenced the world of open water swimming
Mariel Hawley Dávila was nominated with the following nomination:
For years through her marathon swims and channel crossings, attorney Mariel Hawley Dávila has been raising money for Quiero Sonreír to fund surgeries for Mexican children with cleft lips and palate, paying for oncological treatments for children with cancer, working with women in jail, and promoting health via Mexicanos Activos. Her selflessness and widespread charitable works are constants in her life. She swims, she works, she writes, and she is a working mother who had to struggle on after the death of her husband in 2015. But she continued channel swimming and ultimately achieved the Oceans Seven with a 23 km Cook Strait crossing in 11 hours 45 minutes as well as a 32 km Los Cabos Open Water Acuarium in 10 hours 14 minutes in Mexico. For publishing her first English-language book Like the Heart of the Sea: Always at Peace and her initial book Días Azules about her marathon swimming exploits, for completing her long Oceans Seven journey in triumph across the Cook Strait on the same day as did her close friend and coach, and for being a strong, resilient, selfless mother in face of adversity, unexpected obstacles and seemingly insurmountable challenges, Mariel Hawley Dávila is a worthy nominee for the 2019 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year.
To nominate a worthy candidate for the 2019 World Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year, send an explanatory email to WOWSA Awards Nominations here.
For more information on the WOWSA Awards, visit here.
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