PHOENIX, Arizona, December 5. IN the December issue of Swimming World Magazine<\/i>, general manager of media properties Jason Marsteller explains this year's balloting process for the World\/Regional Swimmer of the Year awards. He also lists the members of the voting panel.<\/p>\n
It is that time again when we celebrate another illustrious year in aquatic sports. The December issue of Swimming World Magazine is the edition in which we name the World and Regional Swimmers of the Year, as selected by our disparate, expert panelists.<\/p>\n
This year, we name our 46th and 48th Female and Male World Swimmers of the Year, respectively. It all started in 1964 when we named USA's Don Schollander as the world's best male swimmer. Two years later, Swimming World selected the top female, with Claudia Kolb of the United States recognized as the first honoree.<\/p>\n
In this year's voting, we had a rare occurrence that has happened just twice before in the more than four decades that we have been awarding both a male and female World Swimmer of the Year. Both of last year's champions defended their titles, with Ryan Lochte and Rebecca Soni of the United States winning for the second year in a row. Previously, the only ones to accomplish that feat were Australia's Shane Gould and USA's Mark Spitz (1971-72) and USA's Janet Evans and Mike Barrowman (1989-90).<\/p>\n
In his second consecutive landslide victory, Lochte just missed being a unanimous selection. Only one vote\u2014given to China's Sun Yang\u2014prevented him from sweeping all 19 first-place votes. Next year, Lochte will be looking to become the second man to win the award three straight years. USA's Michael Phelps is the only person to win more than two consecutive titles, capturing four in a row from 2006-09. <\/p>\n
The female World Swimmer of the Year voting turned out to be an extremely close battle among three strong candidates. Soni emerged victorious, earning eight of the 19 first-place votes. Runner-up Federica Pellegrini of Italy was selected No. 1 on four ballots, while third-place Missy Franklin of the United States was picked first seven times.<\/p>\n
Voters were asked to rank their top five choices in each category\u2014world, American, European, Pacific Rim and African\u2014with five points being awarded for a No. 1 selection down to one point for a No. 5 vote.<\/p>\n
Swimming World Magazine thanks the members of its volunteer panel for being so generous with their time and experience to select these awards: <\/p>\n
Asia: Hideki Mochizuki, writer for Japanese Swimming Magazine and Swimming World Japanese correspondent. Australia: Nicole Jeffery, senior sportswriter for The Australian; Ian Hanson, owner of the Hanson Media Group and Swimming World chief Australian correspondent. Central Europe: Camillo Cametti, editor of Nuoto. Eastern Europe: Norbert Agh, Swimming World European correspondent from Hungary; Ivan Tsanov, editor of Bulswim.info in Bulgaria. Middle East: Buky Chass, swimming commentator for Israeli TV and former national technical director. North Africa: Chaker Belhadj, swimming writer for Le Temps. Northern Europe: Rokur Jakupsstovu, editor of Svimjing.com and SwimmersDaily.com in Faroe Islands; Oene Rusticus, Swimming World European correspondent from The Netherlands. South Africa: Neville Smith, Swimming South Africa. South America: Jorge Aguado, Swimming World South American correspondent from Argentina; Alex Pussieldi, senior writer for Bestswimming.com.br. United Kingdom: James Hickman, world champion swimmer, director of Made in Manchester Productions. United States: Phil Whitten, former Swimming World editor-in-chief. Swimming World: Jeff Commings, associate producer of SwimmingWorld.TV; Bob Ingram, senior editor; Judy Jacob, production assistant; John Lohn, senior writer; and myself, Jason Marsteller, general manager of media properties.<\/i><\/p>\n
Video preview of December issue<\/b>
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