Seward swimmer Lydia Jacoby earns dual honors at USA Swimming’s annual awards

MIAMI — Seward swimmer Lydia Jacoby earned two awards for breakout performer and female race of the year at USA Swimming’s annual Golden Goggle awards on Tuesday night.

Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky were also honored as male and female athletes of the year.

Jacoby won the 100 breaststroke at the Tokyo Olympics in an upset over defending Olympic champion Lilly King. She also helped the U.S. to a silver in the 4x100 medley relay. The 17-year-old was the first swimmer from Alaska to make a U.S. Olympic team.

[Back home in Seward, Olympic swim champion Lydia Jacoby attracts a lot of attention]

Dressel repeated as athlete of the year after earning gold medals in the 50-meter freestyle, 100 free, and 100 butterfly in Tokyo. He also was a key member of the winning men’s 4x100 free and 4x100 medley relays, becoming just the fourth American male swimmer to win five golds at a single games. Michael Phelps, Mark Spitz and Matt Biondi also won five swimming gold medals in a single games.

Ledecky earned two gold and two silver medals in Tokyo to become the most decorated female individual gold medalist in Olympic history. She won the 800 free and inaugural 1,500 free, finished second in the 400 free, and anchored the 4x200 free relay to a silver.

Other winners were Bobby Finke for male race of the year; Dressel, Zach Apple, Michael Andrew and Ryan Murphy for relay performance of the year; Annie Lazor for the perseverance award; and Gregg Troy as coach of the year. He coached Dressel through the Olympics before the swimmer switched to Anthony Nesty.