Sweden’s Sarah Sjöström has been named Best Female Swimmer in the 2024 European Aquatics Athlete of the Year Awards, taking the honour for the sixth time in her career.

At 31, Sjöström put together another year of illustrious achievement. She began in February with two golds at the World Aquatics Championships in Doha, taking her record number of world titles to 23.

And her season culminated at the Paris 2024 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, who secured 71.70 per cent of the total vote, thus retained her Athlete of the Year title. Her initial run of four consecutive victories had been ended by the success of Lithuania’s Ruta Meilutyte in the 2022 competition.

This year Sjöström secured, respectively, 86.04 per cent of national federation votes and 38.22 per cent of the public vote.

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

 Sjöström began in the Olympic 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.

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

In Qatar she had 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 extended the record she had established at the 2023 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 in Doha as part of the 4x100m medley relay team.

Second place in the voting went to Germany’s Isabel Gose, who secured 8.80 per cent of the total vote after securing respective federation and public vote percentages of 6.97 and 13.05.

Gose earned Olympic bronze in the 1500m freestyle in a national record of 15:41.16. The 22-year-old Berliner had begun her year with three visits to a global podium in Doha and she finished with further global honours in Budapest.

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

And 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.

A huge 28.38 per cent share of the public vote helped earn Israel’s Anastasia Gorbenko third place with a total of 8.51 per cent.

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

Four months later at the European Aquatics Championships in Belgrade 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.

Fourth place in this year’s voting, with a total of 7.49 per cent, went to France’s Anastasiya Kirpichnikova, who swam with the weight of home expectations upon her in this summer’s Paris Games.

The 24-year-old, who earned 6.97 per cent of federation voting and 8.68 per cent of the public vote, delivered the goods to the country she adopted in 2023 as she earned silver in the 1500m freestyle, clocking a national record of 15:40.35.

Success in Doha also compounded further success in Paris for Tes Schouten of The Netherlands, who finished fifth in the voting with a total share of 3.5 per cent.

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.