At 31, Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström has had another stupendous year in the pool and is in contention to win a sixth award as the European Aquatics Female Athlete of the Year.

Her season peaked at the Paris Olympics, where she won gold in the 50m and 100m freestyle events, eight years after winning the 100m butterfly at the Rio 2016 Games.

The Swede had planned to swim only the 50m freestyle at the Games, but decided to enter the 100m freestyle as it fitted into her schedule.  

She began in the pool by helping Sweden finish fifth in the women’s 4x100m freestyle relay before winning the 100m in 52.16 ahead of Torri Huske of the United States, who clocked 52.29.

Sjöström then secured the 50m freestyle title in 23.71 ahead of Australia’s Meg Harris, who recorded 23.97.

Her Olympic triumphs were presaged in February by further success at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha.

In Qatar she won gold in the 50m freestyle ahead of Kate Douglass of the United States, clocking 23.69, and the 50m butterfly, where she finished almost a full second clear in 24.63.

That took her number of world titles to 23, extending a record she established at last year’s World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka where she surpassed the previous mark of 20 held by Michael Phelps of the United States.

Sjöström also won silver as part of the 4x100m medley relay team.

Anastasiya Kirpichnikova swam with the weight of home expectations upon her in this summer’s Paris Games, and she delivered the goods under pressure to the country she adopted in 2023 as she earned silver in the 1500m freestyle.

The 24-year-old Kirpichnikova clocked a national record of 15:40.35 as she followed home defending champion Katie Ledecky of the United States, who set an Olympic record of 15.30.02.

Taking bronze medal in that race, in a national record of 15:41.16, was Germany’s Isabel Gose, the third 2024 award nominee. The 22-year-old from Berlin had begun her year with three visits to a global podium in Doha.

She earned world silver in the 800m freestyle behind Simona Quadarella of Italy, and also took bronze in the 400m and 1500m freestyle events, clocking a national record of 4:02.39 in the former race.

Gose ended her year atop a global podium as, after earning 800m freestyle silver at the World Aquatics Swimming Championships (25m) in Budapest, she won gold in the 1500m ahead of Quadarella, clocking 15:24.69.

Success in Doha also compounded further success in Paris as far as Tes Schouten of The Netherlands was concerned.

The 23-year-old from Bodegraven began her year by taking silver in the 100m breaststroke and then going one better in the 200m breaststroke, where she finished ahead of Douglass in a national record of 2:19.81.

Fast forward to Paris 2024, and Schouten found her way onto the podium as she took third place in the 200m breaststroke, clocking 2:21.05.

Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko also made a huge splash in 2024 – most notably at the European Aquatics Championships in Belgrade.

The 21-year-old from Haifa began her season by taking silver in the 400m medley at the World Championships.

Four months later in Serbia she found her way to the top step of the podium on four occasions as she won the 200m and 400m individual medley titles, in 2:09.75 and 4:36.05 respectively.

She also claimed two golds in relay racing, setting a national record of 1:56.74 on the opening leg of the 4x200m freestyle relay and contributing to the victory of the 4x100m mixed medley relay team.

All European aquatics fans are invited to vote ahead of the competition deadline of 23:59 CET on December 31.

You can find the lists of nominees here.

To cast your vote please select the image of the athlete you wish to support – you will have one vote per discipline in each category.

The 12 winners are set to be revealed in January on European Aquatics website and social media channels.