Katie Hoff named female Athlete of the Year at Golden Goggle Awards

Nov. 20 2007 – Katie Hoff and Michael Phelps, both Maryland natives, have been named female and male Athlete of the Year at the USA Swimming Foundation’s 2007 Golden Goggle Awards. The fourth annual Awards, held at The Beverly Hilton and hosted by late night talk show host Carson Daly, celebrated the U.S National Team and the accomplishments of 2007, a year in which USA Swimming had one of its most successful international seasons to date.

2004 Olympian Hoff won Female Athlete of the Year for the third year running after winning the 200m and 400m individual medleys and the 4×200m freestyle relay in Melbourne. Her triple gold medal performance at World Championships was marked by her first individual world record in the 400m IM, and anchoring the world record-setting 800m free relay team.

Hoff faced competition from Natalie Coughlin and Kate Ziegler in the running for best female athlete. Coughlin collected five medals at the World Championships, two gold, two silver and a bronze, while Ziegler won a pair of gold medals.

Ziegler won Female Performance of the Year after taking more than nine seconds off Janet Evans’ 1500m world best set in 1998, which had been the sport’s longest standing world record.