SwimmingWorldMagazine.com Rewind: 1998 World Swimmers of the Year

By Jason Marsteller

PHOENIX, Arizona, November 12. VERY soon, Swimming World Magazine will unveil this year's World Swimmers of the Year. In less than a month, the world will see just how close the 2006 races were for our voting panel. We also will be introducing this year's American, African, European and Pacific Rim Region Swimmers of the Year

SwimmingWorldMagazine.com Rewind will travel back through the years to reminisce about previous winners throughout the next month in anticipation of this year's celebration.

Today's Rewind checks out the 1998 winners: Ian Thorpe and Jenny Thompson.

Here is an excerpt of the story written in the December issue of 1998:

For eight months of 1998, it appeared that Australia's Michael Klim would easily walk away with his second straight World Swimmer award. After all, Klim turned in a near-Spitzian performance at the World Championships at Perth in January with seven medals—four gold, two silver and one bronze. The only other person close for consideration was USA's Lenny Krayzelburg with two World Championship gold medals and an American record. Then came September and a 15-year-old kid named Ian Thorpe. Klim's Aussie teammate had already made a name for himself at Perth when he won two gold medals and became the youngest male swimmer ever to win a title at the World Championships. With 100 meters to go in the 400 free, Thorpe overcame nearly a two-and-a-half second deficit to win in 3:46.29. His performance there, however, was only the tip of the iceberg. At the Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur Sept. 12-17, Ian came within one-hundredth of a second of the world record in the 200 meter free (1:46.70) and turned in the second fastest performance ever in the 400 free (3:44.35). He added a third gold medal as part of Australia's world record 800 freestyle relay (7:11.86), becoming the youngest man to hold a world record. And later that month, he set another world record in the short course meters 400 free with a 3:39.82. Now 16, Thorpe is also the youngest man to be named Swimming World Magazine's male World and Pacific Rim Swimmer of the Year.

With five Olympic gold medals to her credit, one could ask what else is there for Jenny Thompson to accomplish? Just look back at 1998, and you'll find plenty. And because of her numerous accomplishments, Jenny edged Australia's Susie O'Neill as Swimming World Magazine's female World and American Swimmer of the Year–the first American woman to win the world honor since Janet Evans in 1990 and only the third to do so (along with Mary T. Meagher) in the last two decades! The 25-year-old Stanford Swimming star actually got things rolling at the end of last year when she set a short course meters world record in the 50 fly (26.48) at a meet in Toronto to top the 1997-98 world rankings in that event. In January at the World Championships in Perth, she won five medals–four gold and a silver–the most by an American since Tracy Caulkins won five gold and a silver in 1978. Her gold medal performance in the 100 meter fly (58.46) was the third fastest performance ever, behind only legendary Meagher (57.93 in 1981) and China's Liu Limin (58.38 in 1994). Jenny also won two gold, two silver and a bronze at the Goodwill Games. She became only the 16th swimmer to record 20 career U.S. national titles, and she ended the year ranked first in the world in both the 100 free (54.95) and 100 fly.

For the complete Swimming World Magazine article on the 1998 World Swimmers of the Year, click here.

Premium online subscribers can view the entire 1998 December edition of the magazine, as well as any other edition of the magazine back to 1960. To order a premium subscription, please click here.

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