Olympic Champions Rasovsky, Van Rouwendaal Win European Aquatics Open Water Awards

01/26/2025 11:44 AM

By Braden Keith on SwimSwam

European Aquatics has announced the remainder of its 2024 award winners in the sports of open water swimming, diving, water polo, and artistic swimming.

Open Water Swimming Awards

After France’s Leon Marchand and Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom were named the Swimmers of the Year for the continent in the pool, Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky and Netherlands’ Sharon van Rouwendaal won the equivalent awards in open water.

Van Rouwendaal won 48.22% of the total vote, including 55.81% of federation votes and 30.51% of the public vote.

In 2024, at 30 years old, she became the first swimmer to win two Olympic 10k titles, taking gold in Paris and Rio. Added to a silver in Tokyo, she also became the first woman to claim three Olympic medals in open water swimming. She also won 5km and 10km titles in open water at the World Championships in February.

Top Vote Getters, Women’s Open Water Swimmer of the Year:

The men’s winner was the Olympic champion as well as Europe dominated the race in the Seine. Europeans were responsible for each of the top 10 places in the final standings in the men’s 10km race, led by Rasovszky’s gold.

That was a second-straight medal for the Balaton Shark after winning silver at the 2020 Olympics. He also won the World Championship in the 10k in February and a European gold in the team relay in Belgrade.

Top Vote Getters, Men’s Open Water Swimmer of the Year:

Other Sport Winners:

• Female Diver, Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, Great Britain – With 30.75% of the vote, Spendolini-Sirieix was part of a pair, with Lois Toulson, that took 10m synchro bronze at the Paris Olympics. That made them the first women’s Olympic medalists for Great Britain in 64 years.
• Male Diver, Tom Daley, Great Britain – A fifth award for Daley, who announced his retirement in July, after previous winning in 2009, 2015, 2017, and 2021. That makes him the most frequent winner of this award in history. After a post-Tokyo hiatus, he made more history as the first British diver to compete at five Games, where he won men’s 10-meter synchro with partner Noah Williams. Daley took 49.78% of the vote.
• Female Artistic Swimmer, Vasiliki Alexandri, Austria – A year after her triplet sisters Anna-Maria and Eirini-Marina won the award, it was Vasiliki’s turn. The Greek-born synchro swimmer won both European Championships in 2024 in the solo free routine and the solo technical routine, taking advantage of the absence of the dominant Russians. She won 34.88% of the vote.
• Male Artistic Swimmer, Giorgio Minsini, Italy – Another award winner who called time on their career this summer, he missed out on his chance at the Olympics after no countries selected any men to compete in their first opportunity. Nonetheless, he won his 4th World Championship gold medal and first World Championship solo medal in the free routine; he also won silver in the technical routine. He won 37.13% of the vote.
• Women’s Water Polo, Bea Ortiz, Spain – Taking 45.9% of the vote, she was the clear winner after winning gold with her country and the Champions League with her club. It is her second award after 2021, making her just the third woman to win the honor on multiple occasions. She was also named the MVP of the European Championships and the World Aquatics Female Player of the Year.
• Men’s Water Polo, Dusan Mandic, Serbia – Earning 32.7% of the vote, Mandic becomes the fourth Serbian to win the award. It comes after leading Serbia to a third-straight Olympic gold medal and FTC-Telekom Budapest to the Champions League title. His run included 7 goals in a magnificent 16-15 win over Japan in the team’s opener, followed by five against Greece. His 10 goals direct from free throws were more than twice as many as the next-best in that ranking at the Games.

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