August Swimmers of the Month

The month of August featured three of the highest profile meets of 2010: U.S. Nationals, the European Championships, and the Pan Pacific Championships. So for August, Swimmers of the Month will correspond to the top swimmers from each region at their respective championship meets. I will also give awards for the top race of each competition, both men and women.

European Championships
Female Performer: Katinka Hosszu, Hungary
Won four medals at the European Champs, three gold and one silver, and moved to second in the world in two events (200 fly, 200 IM)

Female Performance: Hannah Miley, Great Britain – 400 IM (4:33.09)
Defeated World Champ Hosszu with the fastest time in the world by a second

Male Performer: Camille Lacourt, France
Came up just short of world records in the 50 (24.07) and 100 back (52.11)

Male Performance: Camille Lacourt, France – 100 Back (52.11)
Status as an Olympic event gives the 100 the edge over the shorter race

Pan Pacific Championships
Pac Rim Female Performer: Emily Seebohm, Australia
Won six medals, two gold in the 100 back and 200 IM, as well as four relays

American Female Performer: Rebecca Soni, USA
Posted world-dominating times in the 100 and 200 breast for wins, as well as winning gold in the medley relay and the B-final in the 50 breast

Female Performance: Rebecca Soni, USA – 100 Breast (1:04.93)
Equaled the third-fastest performance in history, becoming the first woman to swim sub-1:05 in textile

Pan Rim Male Performer: Kosuke Kitajima, Japan
Posted textile best and world best times to win the 100 (59.35, 59.04 in prelims) and 200 (2:08.36)

American Male Performer: Ryan Lochte, USA
Won six gold medals at the meet and posted world best times in four individual events: 200 free (1:45.30), 400 IM (4:07.59), 200 back (1:54.12), and 200 IM (1:54.43)

Male Performance: Ryan Lochte, USA – 200 IM (1:54.43)
Capped off an outstanding meet with a near-world record in this event

Special Awards
Perseverance Award: TIE – Katie Hoff, USA and Kate Ziegler, USA
Both fought back from disappointing Olympics and terrible 2009s to make a splash and set themselves up well for 2011 Worlds - Hoff with her eye-watering victory in the 400 free at Nationals, while Ziegler suddenly bouncing back to her old self when she pulled away from the field in the 800 free at Pan Pacs

Relay Performance: France (Camille Lacourt, Hugues Duboscq, Fred Bousquet, Fabien Gilot) - Men’s 400 Medley Relay at European Champs (3:31.32)
Put together a dominant performance with all outstanding splits to beat the top American time by more than a second

Favorite Swim: Nathan Adrian, USA – Men’s 100 Free at Pan Pacs (48.15)
Got it done and proved he is the best sprinter in the world. Amazing.

Junior Pan Pacs finished up yesterday in Maui. Check out full results as well as on-demand finals video at Swimnetwork.com.

Swimming World.com re-launched just a few hours ago, taking on the layout of what has all summer been Swimming World TV. The new site is much better organized and makes specific pages much easier to find and interconnected. Reaction Time will eventually disappear to be replaced by the powerful new Disqus comment system, which you can log in through social networking accounts such as Facebook and Twitter. Still some work to be done, which Swimming World CEO Brent Rutemiller outlines in his column in the September issue of the Magazine. Highly recommend checking it out; the site will continue to be the best source for any swimming news and reports from across the world.