How the Swimmer of the Millennium Voting Unfolded
Over the past several days, Swimming World has run a series that initially appeared in the December issue of our print product. Rather than award our annual Swimmer of the Year awards, as is the case at the end of each year, we felt there was not enough competition to name various Swimmers of the Year for the 2020 season. Why? Well, the COVID-19 pandemic is the primary reason. So, instead of naming Swimmer of the Year honorees, we decided to name the top swimmers of the new millennium – from 2000 to 2019.
The winners of the various Swimmer of the Millennium awards can be found by visiting the links that are below, which provide complete features of the victors. However, we wanted to also provide a look at the voting that unfolded. Without further ado, here are the lists of which swimmers who finished in the top-3 or received votes. There were nine members of the voting panel.
World/American Swimmers of the Millennium
European Swimmers of the Millennium
Pacific Rim Swimmers of the Millennium
African Swimmers of the Millennium
THE VOTING
World Swimmer of the Millennium (Male)
1. Michael Phelps (9)
2. Ian Thorpe
3. Pieter van den Hoogenband
World Swimmer of the Millennium (Female)
1. Katie Ledecky (9)
2. Inge de Bruijn
3. Leisel Jones
American Swimmer of the Millennium (Male)
1. Michael Phelps (9)
2. Ryan Lochte
3. Aaron Peirsol
American Swimmer of the Millennium (Female)
1. Katie Ledecky (9)
2. Natalie Coughlin
3. Missy Franklin
European Swimmer of the Millennium (Male)
1. Pieter van den Hoogenband (7)
2. Adam Peaty (1.5)
3. Laszlo Cseh (.5)
European Swimmer of the Millennium (Female)
1. Inge de Bruijn (3)
2. Yana Klochkova (1)
3. Katinka Hosszu (1.5)
4. Sarah Sjostrom (2.5)
5. Federica Pellegrini (1)
Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Millennium (Male)
1. Ian Thorpe (7)
2. Kosuke Kitajima (1)
3. Grant Hackett
4. Sun Yang (1)
Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Millennium (Female)
1. Leisel Jones (8)
2. Stephanie Rice (1)
3. Ye Shiwen
African Swimmer of the Millennium (Male)
1. Chad Le Clos (8)
2. Cameron van der Burgh (1)
3. Ous Mellouli
African Swimmer of the Millennium (Female)
1. Kirsty Coventry (9)
2. Farida Osman
3. Tatjana Schoenamker
Good list, pretty much agree with all choices.
Also glad to see Laszlo Cseh made the list. But for Phelps & Lochte he would be both Olympic & World a number of times over.