Has everyone cast their vote for the Golden Goggles Award?

Has anyone here who reads these forums ever gone to the Golden Goggles banquet? I believe they can go for a $500 price tag or something like that. They get all sorts of famous people both in and out of swimming that go to this. I wonder if they have ever sold this out? This is like the Emmys or Academy Awards for USA swimming. About the closest thing that Masters has to this is Swimming World/Swim Magazine Masters Swimmers of the Year in which they pick 10 swimmers from around the World with the best swimming performances judged by a panel of masters swimming experts from around the world. As far as USMS goes, I don't think we do this with our magazine or with the organization. However, every year we have been awarded a USMS masters swimmer in the International Swimming Hall of Fame as inductees as Masters swimmers. This year at the convention, there was a special applause for people that have been inducted in the past in the House of Delegates session. We have a dinner banquet every year that honors the swimmers being inducted at the ISHOF or for this year it was at Stanford University during the World Meet.

USMS does have the "All American" and "All Star" recognition for those achieving the most Top 10 times and first place Top 10 times. That's not so bad. P.S. Newmastersswimmer: If you think Natalie Coughlin is hot, you should see some of Amanda Beard's modeling work!

Has anyone here who reads these forums ever gone to the Golden Goggles banquet? I believe they can go for a $500 price tag or something like that. They get all sorts of famous people both in and out of swimming that go to this. I wonder if they have ever sold this out? This is like the Emmys or Academy Awards for USA swimming. I think last year the tickets were $1,000 a piece....otherwise I totally would have gone. I think I remeber hearing somewhere that they sold out last year, but I could be wrong. p.s. I'm willing to accept donations for a ticket if anybody wants me to go. I'll be sure to send pictures and write a detailed account. ;) I guess I can take one for the team and schmooze with Michael Phelps.

I guess I can take one for the team and schmooze with Michael Phelps. Aww! What a selfless thing to do for all of us! ;) How can we ever repay you? I cast some votes for Phelps, Hansen, Vendt, Coughlin, and Myers. If need be I can go schmooze with Myers and Coughlin. :cool:

Aww! What a selfless thing to do for all of us! ;) How can we ever repay you? Because I'm such a selfless person, I'll do it for free. It's just the way I am.:groovy: Is anybody going to sign up for the text up-dates?

I sure cast mine! I had to vote for Greg Troy, previous coach and good man. :-)

I just voted. I voted for Cullen as the male breakoout swimmer of the year.....I voted for Phelps (200 IM) as the best male performance,....I voted for Natalie Coughlin as best female swimmer of the year (I had no idea she was that hot looking!)....I voted for the mens 400 free relay as the best relay (although the mens 800 free relay was also very impressive....and so was the other nominees of course...don't get me wrong)....I can't really remember the rest...Oh yeah....I vited for Katie Ziegler as best female performance of the year for breaking 16 minutes in the 1500 (WOW!!). Newmastersswimmer P.s. I am also voting for Rich Seager as best male performance in Masters swimming last year for his 1:55 flat in the 200 meter free at worlds last August in the 40-44 year old agegroup.....That time is simply blistering for someone over the age of 40!....Dennis Baker's 200 meter fly at 2:06 something has to be right up there though in the 45 - 49 year old agegroup.....I guess I picked Rich over Dennis only b/c I've become accustomed to the fact that Dennis is not from this world already ....and so his times don't even register in my brain anymore. We need awards like these in Masters swimming. Do we have already have awards like these in USMS??

I cast my vote for BlackDove he is still trying his best to be able to swim front crawl smoothly. isjaw.blogspot.com/.../my-evolving-freestyle.html

I found a lot of the categories were SO HARD to decide. How is one WR better or more deserving than another? I think people forget how great of a breakout year Chloe Sutton has had. I have several times and I think I vote differently every time ... it'll be interesting to see how it all turns out ...

Man, you never know what sparks controversy on this website .... What is wrong with "Foggy Goggles" or "late bloomin" or stuff like that?! P.S. HHowland: I did vote for Chloe Sutton for female breakout performance. She is awesome and not just in distance events either. Ray Benecki actually had to get one of his assistant coaches to research open water swimming and learn to row so that she could do her open water training.