Torri Huske, Bobby Finke named Athletes of the Year at USA Swimming’s Golden Goggles awards ceremony

Coming off of 28 medals at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, USA Swimming celebrated its Olympic success at the annual Golden Goggles Awards Ceremony on Saturday in Indianapolis, the home of this year’s Olympic Trials held inside an American football stadium.

Gold medallists Bobby Finke and Torri Huske were announced as athletes of the year as they also each won the race of the year award for their gold medals in the 1500m freestyle and 100m butterfly, respectively.

Finke won his second male athlete of the year award at the Golden Goggles in three years, backing up his win in 2022.

“The race itself was a lot of fun to do,” Finke said on Saturday night at the ceremony. “The Olympics this year truly meant a lot especially with everything going into it. The hype going into this Olympics was truly meaningful and the world is getting a lot faster so to be able to be up here and represent our country is truly an honour.”

Finke was the lone American male to win an individual gold medal at the Paris Olympics, winning the 1500m freestyle in world record time on the last night of swimming at the Games. Finke swam 14:30.67 to become the fifth man to win multiple Olympic gold medals in the 1500m freestyle.

“I didn’t know how the race was going to play out,” Finke said on the last night in Paris. “I was feeling pretty good at the first 300m, and I saw I had a decent lead. I really wanted to just hold it. I didn’t want to be the person who runs people down and then get run down. The whole ‘(American) men’s team hadn’t won an individual gold medal’ was in the back of my mind and that was helping pushing me throughout the race.”

Huske won her first athlete of the year award, as this is Katie Ledecky’s first time not winning the award since 2019 as Ledecky has won the award nine times since 2013.

Huske won gold in the 100m butterfly and won silver in the 100m freestyle, and was on gold medal winning relays in both the mixed 4x100m medley and women’s 4x100m medley.

“I didn’t get here alone,” Huske said at the ceremony. “I want to thank everyone at Stanford and the girls I swim with every single day. They’re the reason I am the swimmer and person I am today and they make me so much better. Thank you, Greg (Meehan). I always trust the process with you and you make it so easy. Thank you USA Swimming and the USA Swimming Foundation for making it so easy this summer so that swimmers like me just had to step up on the blocks and race and not think about anything behind the scenes.”

Huske’s 100m butterfly in Paris came after she was fourth in the Tokyo Olympics three years prior and third in the World Championships the year before.

“Last time I missed a podium by 1/100 of a second,” Huske said. “That was devastating, but I think that it really fuelled me, and I think that did make me better. The same goes for last year. I had a really rough summer last year, and my races weren’t the best races I could put together. It was a really hard road, but I had an amazing support system.

“I have my family to thank and all my friends and the amazing people at Stanford and my teammates and my coaches. They pushed me every single day. And I also had the entire team USA behind my back, and I was racing next to Gretchen, so I had a lot of good things going for me.”

Huske won the 100m butterfly gold medal in a 1-2 finish with Gretchen Walsh, who was awarded the breakout performer of the year award. Walsh swam the butterfly leg on both the mixed 4x100m medley and women’s 4x100m medley alongside Huske, who anchored both relays.

“My swimming career has not been perfect but it’s moments like these and this past summer that make all the setbacks worth it,” Walsh said at the ceremony.

Walsh also set the world record in the 100m butterfly at the Olympic Trials, and won her first major international individual medal in Paris. Walsh was also fourth in the 50m freestyle and eighth in the 100m freestyle final, and swam the second leg on the silver medal winning 4x100m freestyle team.

Walsh and Huske reunited once more to claim the Golden Goggles for the women’s 4x100m medley as the relay of the year award winner. They paired with world record holders Regan Smith and Lilly King to break the world record that had stood since 2019. The United States dominated that event in Paris on the final night of swimming, winning by nearly four full seconds over Australia.

“We are historically very strong in this relay, and we weren’t about to change things this now,” Smith said in Paris. “We did exactly what we came here to do, and we had so much fun the whole way.”

Todd DeSorbo, the head coach of the University of Virginia, was named as coach of the year as head coach of the women’s Olympic team. DeSorbo coached the likes of Olympic gold medalist Kate Douglass to gold in the 200m breaststroke along with Walsh to silver in the 100m butterfly and Alex Walsh and Emma Weber to spots on the team.

“It’s a dream come true to be on the Olympic team coaching staff,” DeSorbo said at the ceremony. “I know that the athletes and staff, not just the coaches, we are away for a long time and it takes a great support staff at home to help us get through that. None of us would be here without the athletes we coach - they are unbelievable people. They’ve made my dreams come true and they’re the reason why I’m here.”

DeSorbo’s Virginia team has won four straight NCAA titles in dominating fashion as the team has transformed the landscape of swimming in the United States, putting a lot of emphasis on analytics and racing fast all the time.

Paige Madden, who was a part of the first national title team for Virginia in 2021, was named the perseverance award winner Saturday. Madden, who swam for coaches Bob Bowman and Erik Posegay at Arizona State and the University of Texas this year, won bronze in the 800m freestyle in Paris after a difficult go after the Tokyo Olympics.

“I truly think everyone here has persevered through something in their life,” Madden said at the ceremony. “We all go through hard times and I think what is most important is that we lean on each other and I found that through the last few years. I truly can walk away from the last year just saying that I am so in love with the sport and it didn’t matter whether I won a medal or made the Olympic team or not, I loved every single day and loved the grind. There were definitely some ups and downs. I fell out of love with the daily grind for a little but I worked my way back up to it.”

Madden, age 26, dropped seven seconds in between the Olympic Trials and the Olympics to win bronze in the 800m freestyle in Paris, moving up to fourth on the all-time list.

“It was a big drop,” Madden said in Paris. “It’s been building over the past year with my change in training and doing more yardage. I have some of the best coaches in the world with Bob Bowman and Erik Posegay - they push me both physically and mentally and I think I was underperforming in the 800m all year. It just never really clicked.

“Finally at Trials, I wanted that spot so I did what I did to qualify and after Trials, my goal was to get a medal. I think I really stepped up in Croatia and in Raleigh at our training camp. That was what was on my mind. I had some really taxing sets that gave me the confidence going into this race and that came to a culmination tonight and things finally clicked so that was great!”

Katie Grimes was named the Fran Crippen Open Water Swimmer of the Year for the second time, after she finished 15th in the 10km race in Paris. Grimes was officially the first American to qualify for this year’s Olympics after last year’s World Championships, but she could not replicate that heroism in the River Seine in France as she finished well off the podium.Grimes, age 18, will be headed to DeSorbo’s squad at the University of Virginia in January 2025 just days after her 19th birthday.

Olympic gold medallist Rowdy Gaines was honoured with the Alumni of the Year award, which is presented to a national team alumni who continues to give back to the sport after retirement. Gaines, the ‘voice of swimming,’ has served as the color commentator for swimming at every Olympics since Atlanta 1996, as he has announced his retirement from broadcasting after the 2028 Los Angeles Games in four years.

“It’s been 20 years since I’ve been coming (to the Golden Goggles) and I always take pictures with (the trophy) but I’ve never gotten one,” Gaines said at the ceremony. “When I started swimming at 17, I was going down a pretty dark path and when I found swimming, I owe it so much. I can promise you nobody loves the sport more than I do. I really appreciate this and it really means a lot because I feel like you’re all my brothers and sisters and I’m very proud to be able to accept it even though it was a complete surprise.”

Gaines has long served as the voice of many other swim meets, including but not limited to the World Aquatics Championships and NCAA Championships, and has served as ambassador to the USA Swimming Foundation since 2003.

Lastly, USA Swimming honoured Arlene McDonald with the Impact Award, for her role as the event coordinator for the Olympic Trials in Indianapolis in June. McDonald was presented the award by fellow Indiana natives Blake Pieroni, Lilly King, and Drew Kibler.

Scott and Lorraine Davison were also presented with the Foundation Impact Award, as they helped sponsor learn to swim efforts around the state of Indiana.

USA Swimming will turn its attention to the World Short Course Championships next month in Budapest, Hungary from December 10 - 15.