Katie Ledecky, Ryan Lochte win top awards at Golden Goggles

Katie Ledecky
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Katie Ledecky and Ryan Lochte reigned at the Golden Goggles much like they dominated their competition this past year.

Ledecky and Lochte swept Athlete of the Year and Race of the Year at USA Swimming’s 10th annual awards hosted by Kevin Nealon in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

Ledecky, 16, won four gold medals and broke two world records at the World Championships in Barcelona over the summer. She added to her Olympic gold in the 1500m with world titles in the 400m, 800m (world record), 1500m (world record) and the 4x200m freestyle relay.

Ledecky beat out Missy Franklin and Haley Anderson for Female Athlete of the Year. She won Race of the Year for her 1500m swim for the second straight year.

“It’s been a process, and it’s been a fun one,” said Ledecky, a Bethesda, Md., high school junior who flew to Los Angeles, according to USA Swimming. “I owe that to my family, my teammates, my classmates, my teachers – everyone I’ve been surrounded with.”

Lochte, 29, won three gold medals (200m backstroke, 200m individual medley, 4x200m free relay) and one silver (4x100m free relay) at the World Championships. Now a four-time Male Athlete of the Year, he won Race of the Year for his 200m IM gold.

Lochte, who beat Matt Grevers for Male Athlete of the Year, was not in attendance but taped a video message. He said he didn’t fly to Los Angeles on doctors’ orders because of his recent injury after a run-in with a fan, according to Swimming World.

“Ryan is fine, he just got tackled a little bit,” said swim coach Jon Urbanchek, who accepted on Lochte’s behalf, according to The Associated Press.

The Relay Performance of the Year went to the women’s 4x100m free relay at the World Championships (Missy Franklin, Natalie CoughlinShannon VreelandMegan Romano) that won gold in an American record.

Chase Kalisz, 19, won Breakout Performer of the Year after winning silver in the 400m IM at worlds, his first major international meet.

Romano took home the Perseverance Award after failing to make the 2012 Olympic Team and bouncing back to win six medals at the World University Games and two golds at worlds.

Ledecky’s coach, Bruce Gemmell, won Coach of the Year.

Video: Sochi Olympic torch relay swims in near-freezing water

French Open: Iga Swiatek rolls toward possible Coco Gauff rematch

Iga Swiatek
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Iga Swiatek reached the French Open third round without dropping a set, eyeing a third Roland Garros title in four years. Not that she needed the help, but Swiatek’s immediate draw is wide open after the rest of the seeds in her section lost.

Swiatek dispatched 102nd-ranked American Claire Liu 6-4, 6-0 on Thursday, the same score as her first-round win. She gets 80th-ranked Wang Xinyu of China in the round of 32.

The other three seeds in Swiatek’s section all lost in the first round, so the earliest that the world No. 1 could play another seed is the quarterfinals. And that would be No. 6 Coco Gauff, who was runner-up to Swiatek last year.

Gauff plays her second-round match later Thursday against 61st-ranked Austrian Julia Grabher. Gauff also doesn’t have any seeds in her way before a possible Swiatek showdown.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Swiatek, who turned 22 on Wednesday, came into this year’s French Open without the invincibility of a year ago, when she was 16-0 in the spring clay season during an overall 37-match win streak.

She retired from her last pre-French Open match with a right thigh injury, but said it wasn’t serious. That diagnosis appears to have been spot-on through two matches this week, though her serve was broken twice in the first set of each match.

While the men’s draw has been upended by 14-time champion Rafael Nadal‘s pre-event withdrawal and No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev‘s loss in the first round, the top women have taken care of business.

Nos. 2, 3 and 4 seeds Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, American Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan also reached the third round without dropping a set.

Though all of them have beaten Swiatek in 2023, the Pole remains the favorite to lift the trophy a week from Saturday. She can join Serena Williams and Justine Henin as the lone women to win three or more French Opens since 2000.

She can also become the youngest woman to win three French Opens since Monica Seles in 1992 and the youngest woman to win four Slams overall since Williams in 2002.

Swiatek doesn’t dwell on it.

“I never even played Serena or Monica Seles,” she said. “I’m kind of living my own life and having my own journey.”

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Penny Oleksiak to miss world swimming championships

Penny Oleksiak
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Seven-time Olympic medalist Penny Oleksiak of Canada will miss July’s world swimming championships because she does not expect to be recovered enough from knee and shoulder injuries.

“The bar that we set was, can she be as good as she’s ever been at these world championships?” coach Ryan Mallette said in a press release. “We just don’t feel like we’re going to be ready to be 100 percent yet this summer. Our focus is to get her back to 100 percent as soon as possible to get ready for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.”

Oleksiak, who owns the Canadian record of seven Olympic medals (across all sports), missed Canada’s trials meet for worlds two months ago due to the injuries. She was still named to the team at the time in hope that she would be ready in time for worlds.

The 22-year-old returned to competition last month at a Mare Nostrum meet in Barcelona, after which she chose to focus on continued rehab rather than compete at worlds in Fukuoka, Japan.

“Swimming at Mare Nostrum was a checkpoint for worlds, and I gave it my best shot,” Oleksiak said in the release. “We reviewed my swims there, and it showed me the level I want to get back to. Now I need to focus on my rehab to get back to where I want to be and put myself in position to be at my best next season.”

Oleksiak had knee surgery last year to repair a meniscus. After that, she developed a left shoulder injury.

In 2016, Oleksiak tied for Olympic 100m freestyle gold with American Simone Manuel. She also earned 100m butterfly silver in Rio and 200m free bronze in Tokyo, along with four relay medals between those two Games.

At last year’s worlds, she earned four relay medals and placed fourth in the 100m free.

She anchored the Canadian 4x100m free relay to silver behind Australia at the most recent Olympics and worlds.

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