Swim Poll of the Week: Who will win the Perseverance Award at Golden Goggles?

This is the Swim Poll of the Week for Thursday, November 18, 2021, sponsored by Strechcordz Swim Training Products. In our last poll, we wanted to know: Who will win the Perseverance Award at Golden Goggles?

The nominees for the award are Annie Lazor, Erica Sullivan, and Tom Shields.

After suddenly losing her father this past year, Lazor swam to victory in the 200m breaststroke at Olympic Trials less than two months after his death. She qualified for her first Olympics at 26 years old. In her debut, she won bronze in the same event in Tokyo. She stood alongside her teammate, Lilly King, who won silver.

Back in 2017, Sullivan struggled to continue with swimming after the loss of her father. She found strength in support from her family and decided to stay with her sport. In the year leading up to the 2021 Olympics, Sullivan came out publically while also dealing with mental health issues. With all of this on her shoulders, she swam to a silver medal victory in the inaugural 1500m freestyle event in Tokyo.

Shields sought out professional help after contemplating suicide a few years back. Since then, he has become a champion for mental health as well as an advocate for others. He has also become a champion for Team USA. In the 2021 Toyko Olympics, he helped lead the 4x100m medley relay team to a gold medal victory. This was Shield’s second time representing the United States on the Olympic stage, as he previously qualified for Rio in 2016.

What we want to know is, which of these impressive swimmers do you think deserves to win the Golden Goggle Award?