USA Swimming Golden Goggle Awards 2006 Results

Now that the 2006 Golden Goggle Awards are over, here is a run down of the winners from our live blogging updates:
Breakout Performer of the Year: Cullen Jones
Preseverance Award: Erik Vendt
Coach of the Year: Bob Bowman
Relay Performance of the Year: Men’s 4×100 Free Relay
Female Performance of the Year: Whitney Myers’ 200 IM
Male Performance of […]

Male Athlete of the Year

Winning the last Golden Goggle of the evening is Brenden Hansen!
About Hansen: Set three world records this summer, two of them in the 200m breaststroke. Triple gold medalist at Pan Pacs.

Female Athlete of the Year is…

… Katie Hoff takes the Golden Goggle.
About Hoff: Won five medals, including three gold, at the Pan Pacific meet, and set an American record in the 200 individual medley at U.S. nationals.

Male Race of the Year

Michael Phelps’s 200IM takes the Golden Goggle.
About this swim: Broke his own three-year-old world record by one-tenth and won the gold medal at Pan Pacific Championships.

Female Race of the Year

Whitney Myers and her 200IM wins the award!
About Myers’ race: Her victory in the 200 IM at Pan Pacs, where she missed the American record by six-hundredths of a second and upset pre-race favorite Katie Hoff.

Relay Performance of the Year

The Golden Goggle for this category has just been given to the Men’s 4 x 100 free relay!
About this relay: Michael Phelps, along with Neil Walker, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak, gave the United States its first world record in the event since 1995 at the Pan Pacs in August.

Coach of the Year is…

…Bob Bowman!
About Bowman: The head coach at Michigan. He placed seven Club Wolverine swimmers on the Pan Pacific team, including Phelps, his star pupil. Bowman will serve as head coach of the U.S. men’s team at next year’s world championships in Melbourne, Australia.

Perseverance Award

The award goes to Erik Vendt!
About Vendt: He returned to swimming in April after taking nearly two years off and trains with Phelps in Ann Arbor, Mich. Vendt won the 1,500 free at U.S. Nationals in August and earned a silver medal in the event at Pan Pacs.

Breakout Performer of the Year

The award goes to Cullen Jones!
About Jones: He was the first black male swimmer to set a world record for the United States. Jones swam at North Carolina State and won his first national title in the 50 freestyle in August.

Golden Goggles Blogged Live Here at Timed Finals

A who’s who of the swimming community will gather in Beverly Hills, California tomorrow, November 19 for the third-annual Golden Goggle Awards, USA Swimming’s year-end celebration.
Nearly 100 Olympians, including Michael Phelps, Amanda Beard and Mark Spitz, as well as Hollywood headliners, including David James Elliott (JAG), Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men), Gil Bellows […]