Each year Swimming World Magazine selects the top male and female swimmers from the following regions: Africa, the Pacific Rim, Europe, America, and World.
Yesterday Swimming World began announcing the top athletes in each region leading up to the announcement of the Male and Female World Swimmer of the Year on December 1st. The final announcement will coincide with the official release of the December Swimming World Magazine. To download and read previous “Swimmers of the Year”, visit the Swimming World Vault and download past December issues.
Male Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year
One year after missing the World Championships due to a fractured elbow, Japan’s Kosuke Hagino made his return to the international stage in grand fashion.
Hagino was named Male World and Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year in 2014 after winning two gold medals at the Pan Pacific Championships and four golds at the Asian Games. He routinely swam the 400 free and the backstroke events that year, but he focused on the 200 free and especially the IMs for his shot at Olympic glory.
He kicked things off in Rio with a gold medal in the 400 IM—just nine days before his 22nd birthday. Hagino opened up a massive lead in the backstroke, then held off a surging Chase Kalisz on the freestyle leg. Hagino’s final time of 4:06.05 made him the third fastest performer in history, behind Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.
Hagino also finished seventh in the 200 free and second in the 200 IM. He fell behind early in the medley, but rallied on the freestyle leg to capture the silver medal behind Phelps.
Hagino joins Kosuke Kitajima as the only two Japanese men to win Male Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year honors, and he becomes the fourth man to win the award more than once, joining Ian Thorpe (1998-2002, 2004), Sun Yang (2011-2013), and Kitajima (2003, 2007-2008, 2010).
Female Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year
Rie Kaneto became the first female swimmer from Japan to be named Swimming World’s Female Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year in the 22-year history of the award—quite an accomplishment, considering she had thoughts of quitting the sport four years ago.
She had made Japan’s Olympic team in 2008 as a 19-year-old, placing seventh in the 200 breast, but struggled in 2010 when she missed out on the podium in her specialty event at the Asian Games. In 2012, she didn’t make the Olympic team and began questioning why she should even remain in the sport.
But after a couple of rough years, all doubts were erased early in 2016 when Kaneto downed the Japanese and Asian records in the 200 breast (2:19.65) in April at the Japanese Championships, which doubled as Japan’s Olympic Trials for the 2016 Rio Games.
The two-time Olympian delivered a dynamic performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics, where she powered to gold in the 200 breast- stroke. Australia’s Taylor McKeown took the early lead, but the 27-year-old Kaneto owned the second half of the race, finishing a decisive second-and-a-half ahead of her competition with a 2:20.30.
Kaneto not only finished the year with the top ranking in the 200 breast with her performance in April, but she also ranked 14th in the 100 breast (1:06.58).
Isn’t Sun Yang won this award 3 times?(2011-2013)why Kosuke Hagino is the third men who win the award more than once?
Sun Yang has won the award three times. That is an editorial mistake and has been fixed.
Thanks for pointing it out!
“Hagino joins Kosuke Kitajima as the only two Japanese men to win Male Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year honors, and he becomes only the third man to win the award more than once, joining Ian Thorpe (1998-2002, 2004) and Kitajima (2003, 2007-2008, 2010).”
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Well, Sun Yang had won the award for three times ( 2011-2013) before this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Swimming_World_Swimmers_of_the_Year#World_Swimmers_of_the_Year