Olympic Champion and world record holder Adam Peaty has been named British Swimming Athlete of the Year 2016 at the prestigious event hosted at the Connaught Rooms in London.
Peaty has dominated the world of men’s breaststroke sprinting since breaking on to the international scene in 2014 and this year he cemented himself as one of the best athlete’s on Team GB in Rio.
The City of Derby swimmer won Team GB’s first gold medal with a jaw-dropping performance in the 100m Breaststroke that saw him also lower his own world record in the heats and the final.
The triple world champion sealed his stellar performance with silver in the 4x100m Medley Relay and clocked a split time of sub 57 seconds - the first time by any 100m Breaststroker.
Earlier in 2016 he was the star name at the home Europeans where he won four gold medals to reclaim all of his titles from 2014.
“I’m so proud to receive this honour,” Peaty said. “To have won Team GB’s first gold medal in Rio was an incredible moment for me and something I will always be proud of. To get to this point has taken so much hard work from a fantastic team that I have around me and I can’t thank them enough – especially my coach Mel (Marshall).
“I also want to thank British Swimming for recognising me in this way. These Awards are a great way of recognising athletes and coaches across all of the sports.
“I am already looking ahead to the next four years, I have Tokyo 2020 very much in my sights and I can’t wait to get back to racing again.”
British Swimming Chairman Maurice Watkins CBE commented: “My congratulations go to Adam for winning the British Swimming Athlete of the Year Award. He has had a fantastic year with his gold medals at both the Olympics and European Championships, and sealing his position as one of the real greats in swimming.
“These Awards are a fantastic way of recognising so many athletes and coaches for their hard work and dedication to the sports.”
The British Swimming Awards also recognised by discipline the Athlete, Coach and Emerging Athlete of the Year celebrating the fantastic achievements throughout the sports for their success in 2016.
For Chief Executive David Sparkes this event has been the perfect way to recognise key achievements throughout the Olympic and Paralympic year.
“This year has seen some truly excellent performances from our athletes and coaches across our sports and I am really happy to celebrate them tonight,” Sparkes said. “I would like to congratulate Adam for winning the overall prize. He has shown himself to be truly world leading in his stroke and to win Team GB’s first gold medal sealed his name in the history books.
“Each of our sports created history this year though as Swimming enjoyed their best Olympics since 1908, diving had their best Olympics ever and Para-Swimming moved back up to third in the medal table.
“We saw Jazz Carlin become Team GB’s first athlete to win two medals and Jack Laugher and Chris Mears become our first ever diving Olympic Champions while Bethany Firth was ParalympicsGB’s most decorated athlete with three gold and a silver. I am excited as we enter the new quadrennial and know that we have more to come from our athletes.”
List of winners:
BRITISH SWIMMING ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Adam Peaty
ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Swimming: Adam Peaty
Para-Swimming: Bethany Firth
Diving: Jack Laugher
EMERGING ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Swimming: Freya Anderson
Para-swimming: Ellie Robinson
Diving: Victoria Vincent
COACH OF THE YEAR
Swimming: Melanie Marshall
Para-swimming: Danny Thompson
Diving: Adrian Hinchliffe
Water Polo: Andy McGinty
Synchro: Katie Chapman