Anthony Nesty has been named USA Swimming Coach of the Year for the second time in two months. After being feted by the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) in September, the former and so far only Surinamese Olympic champion was recently named Coach of the Year by USA Swimming, America’s national swimming association.

The award ceremony took place last night at the Golden Goggle Awards at the Marriott Marquis in New York. Prizes were awarded largely based on performances during the World Swimming Championships in Budapest earlier this year.

While Nesty led the US men’s swimming team, the swimmers he coached won eight gold medals at the world championships. Caleb Dressel, Bobby Finge and Kieran Smith won medals at the World Cup in the Hungarian capital.

Nesty-coached swimmers also won awards at the awards ceremony in New York. Finke, for example, was named the Swimmer of the Year and won the Race of the Year award for her World Cup gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle in 7:39.36.

Ledecky won the Swimmer of the Year, the Women’s Racer of the Year and the Achiever of the Year awards for winning the gold medal in the 4 x 200m individual medley at the World Championships.

History
Nesti, who has coached the University of Florida’s Florida Gators for several years, made history earlier this year when USA Swimming named him the head coach of the US men’s team. He then became the first black swimming coach to receive the honor.

Earlier this year, as coach of the Gators, he was also named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year for the third consecutive year.

Nesti is still the only Surinamese to have achieved Olympic success. The former professional swimmer, who celebrates his 55th birthday on Friday, won gold at the 1988 Games in Seoul and was nicknamed ‘The Golden Boy’. But apart from that gold medal, Nesty achieved many other victories.

Four years after Seoul, she won bronze during the Olympic Games in Barcelona, ​​and she also won gold at the World Cup and Pan American Games.