COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, October 11. USA Swimming released the nominations for the 2006 Golden Goggle Awards on Wednesday. The celebration will take place at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Sunday, Nov. 19, and will feature more than 30 U.S. Olympic swimmers as well as entertainment industry celebrities. <\/p>\n
A total of 13 U.S. Olympians are nominated for awards in eight categories. Fans can vote for their favorites online at usaswimming.org\/GoldenGoggleAwards. Voting begins Oct. 11 and will continue through November.<\/p>\n
Michael Phelps (Baltimore, Md. \/ Club Wolverine) tops the ballot with three individual nominations and two relay nominations after setting three world records this summer. Distance champion Kate Ziegler (Great Falls, Va. \/ The Fish) and Breakout Performer of the Year nominee Whitney Myers (Oxford, Ohio \/ Tucson Ford) are the most-nominated women with two individual nominations apiece. <\/p>\n
For Male Athlete of the Year, Phelps will face stiff competition from Olympians Brendan Hansen (Havertown, Pa. \/ Longhorn) and Aaron Peirsol (Irvine, Calif. \/ Longhorn). All three athletes set world records this summer at the 2006 Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships.<\/p>\n
Two U.S. Olympians are looking to repeat in the Female Athlete of the Year category, including five-time Olympic medalist Natalie Coughlin (Vallejo, Calif. \/ Cal Aquatics) and American record holder Katie Hoff (Towson, Md. \/ North Baltimore). Rounding out the ballot in this category is second-time nominee Ziegler. <\/p>\n
In the Coach of the Year category, newly-named Olympic head coach Eddie Reese (Univ. of Texas) will look for his third consecutive Golden Goggle Award. He is joined on the ballot by Bob Bowman (Club Wolverine), Gregg Troy (Univ. of Florida) and Paul Yetter (North Baltimore Aquatic Club).<\/p>\n
Also in Golden Goggle Award contention are three record-setting U.S. relay teams from the Pan Pacific Championships. The world-record-setting men\u2019s 4 x 100m free relay team of Phelps, Neil Walker (Verona, Wis. \/ Longhorn), Cullen Jones (New Brunswick, N.J. \/ NC State Aquatics) and Jason Lezak (Irvine, Calif. \/ Irvine Novaquatics) are joined on the ballot by the American record-setting women's 4 x 100m free relay team of Coughlin, Amanda Weir (Lawrenceville, Ga. \/ Swim Atlanta), Lacey Nymeyer (Tucson, Ariz. \/ Tucson Ford) and Kara Lynn Joyce (Ann Arbor, Mich. \/ Athens Bulldog). Also nominated for the award is the men's 4 x 200m free relay team of Phelps, Ryan Lochte (Daytona Beach, Fla. \/ Daytona Beach Swimming), Klete Keller (Phoenix, Ariz. \/ Club Wolverine) and Peter Vanderkaay (Rochester, Mich. \/ Club Wolverine), which broke the American record for the third time at the Pan Pacific Championships.<\/p>\n
The complete list of 2006 nominees is as follows:<\/p>\n
Breakout Performer of the Year:<\/b>
\nCullen Jones
\nWhitney Myers
\nChloe Sutton<\/p>\n
Perseverance Award: <\/b>
\nMegan Jendrick
\nHayley Peirsol
\nErik Vendt<\/p>\n
Coach of the Year: <\/b>
\nBob Bowman
\nEddie Reese
\nGregg Troy
\nPaul Yetter<\/p>\n
Relay Performance of the Year: (all from the Pan Pacific Championships) <\/b>
\nWomen's 4 x 100m Free Relay
\nMen's 4 x 100m Free Relay
\nMen's 4 x 200m Free Relay <\/p>\n
Female Performance of the Year:<\/b>
\nAmanda Weir for the 100m Freestyle at U.S. Nationals
\nKate Ziegler for the 1500m Freestyle at Pan Pacifics
\nWhitney Myers for the 200m IM at Pan Pacifics<\/p>\n
Male Performance of the Year: <\/b>
\nAaron Peirsol for the 200m Backstroke at Pan Pacifics
\nBrendan Hansen for the 200m Breaststroke at Pan Pacifics
\nMichael Phelps for the 200m Butterfly at Pan Pacifics
\nMichael Phelps for the 200m IM at Pan Pacifics<\/p>\n
Female Athlete of the Year: <\/b>
\nNatalie Coughlin
\nKatie Hoff
\nKate Ziegler<\/p>\n
Male Athlete of the Year: <\/b>
\nBrendan Hansen
\nAaron Peirsol
\nMichael Phelps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, October 11. USA Swimming released the nominations for the 2006 Golden Goggle Awards on Wednesday. The celebration will take place at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n