Kristof Rasovszky has been named best male open water swimmer in the 2024 European Aquatics Athlete of the Year Awards.
The 27-year-old Hungarian known as the “Balaton Shark” – after the name of his swimming club – proved an irresistible predator in the water as he won the world and Olympic 10km titles, spearheading Europe’s dominance of the global sport.
Rasovszky, world 10km silver medallist at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, began his season in February by going one better at the Doha edition and added a bronze in the mixed team event.
And while he missed out on an individual medal at the European Aquatics Championships in Belgrade – despite helping Hungary to gold in the mixed team event – Rasovszky returned to top form at the Paris 2024 Games.
There on the River Seine course he clocked 1:50.52.7 to add 10km gold to the silver he had won three years earlier at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Rasovszky achieved a total of 38.19 per cent of the total vote, comprising 41.86 per cent of national federation votes and 29.64 per cent of the public vote.
His hopes of earning a second individual medal at the Doha World Championships were frustrated by Italy’s 29-year-old Domenico Acerenza, who replicated his performance in the previous year’s world 5km race by claiming bronze as he finished half a second ahead of his Hungarian rival.
At the Paris 2024 Olympics the fractions worked against the Italian as he missed third place by just 0.6sec.
But they worked in his favour in this year’s competition as a 26.41 per cent share of the public vote helped him take second place with a total percentage of 19.32 per cent, having also gained 16.28 per cent of federation votes.
Third place went to Rasovszky’s 21-year-old compatriot David Betlehem, who also had a consistently successful season, claiming medals in all major competitions.
He began his year in Doha helping his country earn bronze in the mixed team competition.
At the Europeans in Belgrade he won 5km gold by 0.4sec from France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier, and secured bronze in the 10km race, finishing 0.2sec behind the French swimmer.
He also visited the top of the podium in company with Mira Szimcsak, Bettina Fabian and Rasovszky after their victory in the mixed team event.
Betlehem’s season peaked in Paris, where he earned bronze in a time of 1:51.09.0, finishing one place behind Germany’s Oliver Klemet, who claimed silver in 1:50.54.8.
Klemet, 22, had offered evidence of his potential a year earlier at the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, where he took bronze in the 10km race.
His showing in Paris earned him fourth place in the Athlete of the Year competition as he secured a total of 13.31 per cent of the votes, narrowly ahead of Olivier, who secured a total of 13.11 per cent.
There was some disappointment in Paris for home hope Olivier, as he finished seventh. He had put himself into contention for medals with outstanding achievements in the earlier part of the year.
At the Doha Worlds he had taken 10km silver behind Rasovszky, and three days later had earned a second silver in the 5km race after finishing just 0.3sec behind compatriot Logan Fontaine.
In the European Aquatics Championships in Belgrade that preceded the Olympics, Olivier had added two more silvers, finishing behind Betlehem and Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri in the 5km and 10km races respectively. He also helped France take bronze in the mixed team event.
And Olivier finished his season on a high as he earned the overall men’s title in the 2024 World Aquatics Open Water Swimming World Cup series, where European male athletes filled the top 11 places in the overall standings.