2006 American Female, Pacific Rim Male Swimmers of the Year: Katie Hoff and Tae Hwan Park

By Jason Marsteller

PHOENIX, Arizona, November 30. WITH just a day left before we announce this year's Swimming World Magazine World Swimmers of the Year, here are two more awards to celebrate. Katie Hoff (American Female) and Tae Hwan Park (Pacific Rim Male) each put together sensational years to earn their honors.

Katie Hoff
Swimming World Magazine's American Female Swimmer of the Year honor came down to the final few ballots. In one of the most tightly-contested categories, Katie Hoff won for the second straight year, edging Kate Ziegler, the magazine's Female National High School Swimmer of the Year. Hoff pocketed eight first-place votes to Ziegler's six, with third-place Natalie Coughlin receiving one.

Hoff produced four top-10 world times, including No. 1 in the 200 meter IM. She also placed second in the 400 IM, third in the 400 free and seventh in the 200 free. Meanwhile, Hoff ripped off a pair of gold medal-winning performances at the Pan Pacific Championships in the 200 free and 400 IM in August.

In addition, she took down a 13-year-old Pan Pac record, previously held by Allison Wagner since 1993, with a 2:12.45 in the 200 IM during prelims. Fellow American Whitney Myers, however, eclipsed that mark during consols with a 2:10.11. In the 400 IM, Hoff smashed the 13-year-old meet record of 4:39.25, previously held by Kristine Quance, with a 4:36.82.

A couple of weeks earlier, Hoff captured the 200 IM American record at the U.S. Nationals. Her 2:10.05 just missed Wu Yanyan's drug-tainted world mark of 2:09.72 set in 1997.

Hoff also turned in a U.S. Open and meet record in the 400 IM at Nationals with a 4:35.82. That performance erased Janet Evans' 18-year-old meet record of 4:38.58 set in 1988 and Hoff's own U.S. Open standard of 4:37.06 posted in 2005.

American Female
1. KATIE HOFF, USA
2. Kate Ziegler, USA
3. Natalie Coughlin, USA
4. Whitney Myers, USA
5. Tara Kirk/Amanda Weir, USA

Tae Hwan Park
After an outrageously long Australian reign in which Aussies won eight out of nine Pacific Rim Male Swimmer of the Year awards from 1997-2005, the country is beginning to lose its iron grip on Swimming World Magazine's annual award.

Japan's Kosuke Kitajima first broke up the Aussie party in 2003. This year, Korea joined the elite as Tae Hwan Park made it two out of the last four winners to hail from outside Down Under.

Park, Korea's teenage distance king, shocked the world when he doubled at the Pan Pacific Championships in August by winning both the 400 and 1500 meter freestyles.

In the 400, he clocked a 3:45.72. After trailing American Klete Keller at 350 meters, Park unleashed a 27-flat final 50 to rocket past Keller for gold.

Later, he out-dueled American Erik Vendt in the 1500 by touching in 15:06.11. Trailing again after 1,250 meters, Park poured it on through the next 150 meters to lead by 2 hundredths. He then pushed the advantage to 54-hundredths at 1,450 meters before closing out the win by more than a second over Vendt.

Those times ranked him No. 2 in the world in the 400 and No. 8 in the world in the 1500 for 2006.

The 17-year-old Korean far surpassed the rest of the field in male Pacific Rim voting by garnering 11 of the 15 first-place votes.

Pacific Rim Male
1. TAE HWAN PARK, Korea
2. Brenton Rickard, Australia
3. Matt Welsh, Australia
4. Jim Piper, Australia
5. Takeshi Matsuda, Japan

Tae Hwan Park wins the Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year from Swimming World Magazine.

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