MELBOURNE, Australia, November 24. FIVE-time London Olympic medallist Alicia Coutts has been named the 2012 EnergyAustralia Swimmer of the Year at a gala dinner in Melbourne tonight.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old won the award over fellow Olympic relay gold medallists Cate Campbell, Brittany Elmslie and Melanie Schlanger having previously taken out Swimming Australia's top prize in 2010 with five gold medals at the Delhi Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n
A member of our gold medal winning freestyle relay team on the opening night of the Games, a silver medallist in the 200m IM and bronze medallist in the 100m fly, Coutts also picked up silver in the women's 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley relay, to equal Ian Thorpe and Shane Gould as a five-time medallist at a single Games.<\/p>\n
Not to go unrecognised on the night, the relay quartet of Coutts, Campbell, Elmslie and Schlanger were awarded the Speedo Golden Moment of the Year, while men's breaststroke silver medallist Christian Sprenger won the Swisse People's Choice Award.<\/p>\n
Paralympian of the Year Jacqueline Freney was named the Multi Class Swimmer of the Year for her remarkable achievement in London, winning eight gold medals including two world records, while Matthew Cowdrey won the EnergyAustralia Swimmers' Swimmer Award as voted for by his peers.<\/p>\n
The South Australian was also acknowledged for his outstanding contribution to Paralympic sport, becoming Australia's most successful Paralympian of all-time in London, having now won a total of 13 gold medals from three Paralympic Games — with his London haul including five gold, two silver and one bronze medal.<\/p>\n
Queenslander Melissa Gorman took out the Open Water Swimmer of the year, finishing 11th at her second Olympic Games, while fellow distance swimmer Trent Grimsey was acknowledged for his achievements in setting a new world record for the English Channel crossing, as well as being crowned the FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix Champion for 2012.<\/p>\n
AIS Coach John Fowlie was named coach of the year for steering Alicia Coutts to Olympic success, while Michael Freney, who coached daughter Jacqui to similar highs in London was named the Multi Class Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n
In other awards, 18-year-old Brittany Elmslie won the Australian Sports Commission Discovery of the Year, Blair Evans won the Singapore Airlines Short Course Swimmer of the Year and the Age Group Coach of the Year went to Craig Jackson from Melbourne Vicentre.<\/p>\n
A full list of 2012 Award winners is as follows:<\/b><\/p>\n
Award: Winner:
\nEnergyAustralia Swimmer of the Year Alicia Coutts
\nEnergyAustralia Swimmers' Swimmer of the Year Matthew Cowdrey
\nSwisse People's Choice Award Christian Sprenger
\nMulti-Class Swimmer of the Year Jacqueline Freney
\nOpen Water Swimmer of the Year Melissa Gorman
\nSingapore Airlines Short Course Swimmer of the Year Blair Evans
\nSpeedo Golden Moment of the Year Women 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay
\nRoger Smith Technical Official of the Year Ryan Arblaster
\nAustralian Sports Commission Discovery of the Year Brittany Elmslie
\nAge Group Coach of the Year Craig Jackson
\nMulti-Class Coach of the Year Michael Freney
\nOpen Water Coach of the Year Ken Wood
\nCoach of the Year John Fowlie
\nInternational All Star Team Cate Campbell
\nMelanie Schlanger
\nBronte Barratt
\nKylie Palmer
\nEmily Seebohm
\nLeisel Jones
\nSally Foster
\nJessicah Schipper
\nAlicia Coutts
\nStephanie Rice
\nMelissa Gorman
\nJames Magnussen
\nDavid McKeon
\nMack Horton
\nHayden Stoeckel
\nMitch Larkin
\nChristian Sprenger
\nBrenton Rickard
\nChris Wright
\nNick D'Arcy
\nDaniel Tranter
\nThomas Fraser-Holmes
\nKy Hurst
\nJacqueline Freney
\nMatt Cowdrey
\nEllie Cole
\nPrue Watt
\nBlake Cochrane
\nBrenden Hall
\nEnergyAustralia Volunteer of the Year Jenni Trewren, Berri Swimming Club
\nEnergyAustralia Club of the Year Joint winners:
\nMount Annan Swim Club (NSW)
\n Helensvale Swim Club (QLD)<\/p>\n
The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MELBOURNE, Australia, November 24. FIVE-time London Olympic medallist Alicia Coutts has been named the 2012 EnergyAustralia Swimmer of the Year at a gala dinner in Melbourne tonight. The 25-year-old won<\/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":[3,10,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-world","category-zzzzzzzzz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\r\n