Head coach Brent Arckey, dryland/performance sport expert and coach mentor Vern Gambetta, and the team at Sarasota Sharks in Florida working with squads that included Canadian Summer McIntosh all the way to Paris and, when home from the Virginia Cavaliers (see further awards below), American Emma Weyant.

In Paris, Weyant, coached a UVA by Todd de Sorbo and team, added bronze to her Tokyo silver in the 400m medley, the 2024 Olympic final win by Torontonian McIntosh, making it two Sarasota Sharks on the podium in the race that represents the ultimate test of all-round endurance and swimming skills.

McIntosh, of course, also claimed gold in the 200m medley and the 200m butterfly and silver behind Australian Ariarne Titmus in the 400m freestyle. The SOS female swimmer of the year, McIntosh came tantalisingly close to a seven-medals tally, with fourth places for Canada in all three women's relays in unsatisfactory circumstances (see below).

Certainty, of course, is more than good enough, resting as it does on the laurels won. Arckey and team, backed by outstanding efforts of the swimmers parents and the support of Swimming Canada - did a towering job of getting an excellent athlete into the pantheon of greats in the small window of opportunity offered by the biggest event in her sport.

McIntosh's Thrillers:

Summer McIntosh: World Female Swimmer Of 2024 Graces Pantheon Of The All-Time Most Versatile

SOS Awards 2024: our review of the year gone by begins with the top woman in water, Summer McIntosh, the Canadian teen who still in her junior years accomplished what no female swimmer before ever had, with both Olympic medley titles, 200 butterfly gold and silver in the 400m freestyle

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

From the realm of what might have been: McIntosh's tally came close to being an extraordinary seven medals: she and Canada teammates finished fourth in all three women's relays just shy of the three bronzes won by China quartets that included swimmers named in official documents as having been among the 23-g0-free positive tests for the banned heart booster trimetazidine (TMZ) in January 2021.

Unbeknown to the world until media exposure in spring this year [see China Diaries], the explanation from a Chinese state security agency during the Covid pandemic that all the cases could be put down to mass contamination was controversially accepted by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and World Aquatics a month before the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Given the magnitude of doubt and unanswered questions that remain from a set of circumstances that meant the Chinese program was treated to a different level of scrutiny than that many rivals would expect themselves to face in the event of a similar incident, we are not considering any performances by Chinese swimmers for the 2024 SOS awards.

Meanwhile, some programs deserve recognition not only for the soaring achievements of one of two individuals but because such outstanding athletes are in the mix of success stories that include :

• whole squads
• are part of a legacy of coaching achievement
• in the past Olympic cycle became part of a deeper legacy of an outstanding athlete

Below, we recognise the work of Michael Bohl, Dean Boxall, Anthony Nesty, Antonio Lutula, Bernd Berkhahn, Todd de Sorbo, Tyler Fenwick, Greg Meehan & Rocco Meiring ... with a most-mentioned-mentor nod to Bill Sweetenham.