The 5th Annual MSF Global Marathon Swimming Awards

evmo · October 2016

5th Annual! I did a double-take when I first wrote that, but alas, it's true.

What are the MSF Global Marathon Swimming Awards?

We sometimes promote them as "the only peer-nominated, peer-voted awards for the sport of marathon swimming." Which is true, but possibly beside the point.

Because it's never really been about "awards" anyway, right? At least, not anything tangible. Or "winners," for that matter. Nobody "wins" in solo marathon swimming. They finish, endure, and aqua-peregrinate.

Darren Miller @ForeverSwim graciously donated plaques to the 2012 "winners." And @david_barra has come through with some amazingly useful and beautiful titanium sporks for his namesake award. But for the most part, the Awards are not about "awards," per se.

The MSF Awards are about a global community coming together at the end of the year and saying, "These swims happened; and they were awesome. These are the swims and swimmers we want to remember."

And so we have.

We hope many of you will exercise your right as a Marathon Swimmers Forum member to nominate swims, swimmers, crew members, race directors, and other people who have made a difference in our sport this year -- or to "second" nominations via the "like" button. The process of the MSF Awards is something we value as much as anything else -- that the recognition is organic and community-generated.

Here are the nomination threads:

evmo · October 2016

Instructions for Submitting Nominations

In general: Please include sufficient details about the swim/swimmer in your nomination, to help us distinguish among different achievements, and decide which nominations to support.

Link to submit a private nomination

Solo Swim of the Year

Please include the following details:

Name of swimmer
Description of swim (distance, elapsed time, etc.)
Name of observer and escort boat
Sanctioning organization (if applicable)
Link to news articles about swim (if applicable)

If uncertain of details, that's OK -- note that and we can attempt to fill in the blanks.
Also, you can reach out to the person and ask! They will probably be honored that you did!

If it is an independent swim (outside an existing local governing body), they are encouraged to submit documentation to MSF Documented Swims.

Barra Award for Best Overall Year

Name of nominee
List of marathon swimming-relevant stuff they've done this year
Swims, volunteer work, crewing, observing, event organizing, etc.

If uncertain, reach out to the person and ask! They will probably be honored that you did!

Streeter Award for Service to Marathon Swimming

Name of nominee(s) -- can be more than one, or even a group
Describe what have they done recently, "to advance, enrich, and support the sport of marathon swimming."
Not limited to 2016, but preference to recent contributions.

If uncertain, reach out to the person and ask! They will probably be honored that you did!

Yudovin Award for Most Adventurous Swim

See instructions for Solo Swim of the Year category

evmo · October 2016

FYI, folks: As in the previous four years we've done these awards, only Forum members registered before the opening of nominations (October 17) are eligible to vote on the Finalists.

This is to counteract the vote-brigading seen in certain other online awards voting, and to promote fairness.

Please don't invite your extended family members or high school alumni network, who don't otherwise have an interest in marathon swimming -- they won't be able to vote, anyway

Thanks!

evmo · November 2016

Last call for nominations. Finalists will be announced... probably Monday 28th Nov. Please use the respective nomination threads, currently linked from the top of the Forum.