See all of our 2024 Swammy Awards here.
After winning the two most prestigious races of the year, Kristof Rasovszky is the 2024 Swammy Award winner for Open Water Male Swimmer of the Year by a landslide.
This marks Rasovszky’s second time claiming the award, having previously done so in 2018 (as did the women’s winner, Sharon van Rouwendaal).
Rasovszky had found plenty of success on the international stage coming into 2024, but had never won a major title in the marquee event of open water swimming, the 10km. He won the 2019 world title in the men’s 5km, and had European titles to his name in both the 5km and 25km, plus an Olympic silver in the 10km in Tokyo.
But in 2024, the 27-year-old Hungarian leveled up by not only winning his first world title in the 10km, but following up with an Olympic gold medal.
Starting things off at the 2024 Worlds in Doha—which, unlike pool swimming, had the majority of the top players in open water racing—Rasovszky snagged gold in an exciting race that saw the top 13 finishers within 13 seconds of one another.
Rasovszky clocked 1:48:21.2, topping Frenchman Marc-Antoine Olivier (1:48:23.6) to win gold, with the rest of the contenders bunched up in the 1:48:29-1:48:30 range.
Three days later in the 5km, Rasovszky narrowly missed a medal by half a second, placing 4th. The following day, he added a bronze medal anchoring the Hungarian mixed open water relay.
The defining moment of Rasovszky’s year came in early August, when he did one better than the silver medal he won in the men’s Olympic 10km event in Tokyo.
Playing a major role throughout the entire race, making aggressive moves and leading the pack at various points while swimming upstream in the Seine, Rasovszky found himself with three other men late in the 10km final in Paris.
After Rasovszky and German Oliver Klemet broke free from Hungarian David Betlehem and Italian Domenico Acerenza, Rasovszky had the edge in the final sprint to top Klemet by over two seconds and win Olympic gold in a time of 1:50:52.7.
The victory made Rasovszky just the second male swimmer to win multiple medals in open water at the Olympic Games, joining German Thomas Lurz, who won bronze in Beijing and silver in London.
Rasovszky added another major title in the team event at the 2024 Euros in Belgrade, and raced at all five stops of the Open Water World Cup, with his best finish coming at the Italian leg (3rd) to ultimately place 5th overall in the series.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
- Marc-Antoine Olivier (FRA) – Olivier had a very consistent year, and although the 28-year-old missed out on winning a second Olympic medal in Paris, he was among the best open water swimmers in 2024. The Frenchman won a pair of silvers in the men’s 5km and 10km events at the 2024 Worlds in February, and then in June, he had two more runner-up finishes in the same events at the 2024 Euros. After placing 7th in the Olympic 10km in Paris, Olivier closed out the Open Water World Cup circuit by winning the overall title, having won the Italian leg and finished no lower than 4th throughout the series.
- Logan Fontaine (FRA) – Another Frenchman, Fontaine won the men’s 5km world title in Doha, edging out his countryman Olivier by three-tenths of a second. That marked the first individual world title of Fontaine’s career, having won gold in 2017 in the team relay. He also finished 4th in the 10km in Doha, missing a medal by three-tenths, and then placed 5th in the Olympic 10km, leading the second chase pack behind the top four finishers who had opened up a big gap. The 25-year-old also had an impressive swim in his lone appearance at the Open Water World Cup, placing 2nd at the Italian stop in May.
Past Winners:
