The third annual Speed Endurance Top 50 Swimmers of the Year list is upon us. There is no set-in-stone criteria, but priority is given to achievements in Barcelona at the World Championships. World records and textile best times also carry a lot of weight. Other outstanding achievements away from Barcelona were acknowledged, but it took an extraordinary feat to better a World Championship medal. Also worth noting, as this is a list of the Top 50 individuals, relay medals did not come into play, however race-changing relay contributions were valued highly.
50. Chase Kalisz: 2013 Highlight: A fast finishing 400 IM in Barcelona to win silver in 4:09.22 and announce his arrival on the international scene.
49. Jimmy Feigen: 2013 Highlight: Winning a surprise silver in a loaded 100 free final 0.02 seconds ahead of compatriot Nathan Adrian. Would have been higher up the list but a poor (by his standard) anchor leg helped France win the 4x100 free relay over the US.
48. Melani Costa - 2013 Highlight: While Katie Ledecky was chasing the world record in the 400 free, the race for second in Barcelona was comfortably Costa's with nobody getting within a second of her in the last 200m.
47. Laszlo Cseh - 2013 Highlight: Silver in the 100 fly gave him his ninth World Championship medal 10 years after his first.
46. Belinda Hocking - 2013 Highlight: The Australian put her 2012 disappointment behind her to repeat as World silver medallist in the 200 backstroke
45. Pawel Korzeniowski - 2013 Highlight: 1:55.01 in the 200 fly to take silver in Barcelona. Led Chad le Clos with 50m to go.
44. Radoslaw Kawecki - 2013 Highlight: A new European record in the 200 backstroke on his way to silver, pushing Ryan Lochte all the way.
43. Emily Seebohm - 2013 Highlight: Not able to recreate her 58.23 fireworks in the 100 back from London, but her 59.06 effort in the final was good enough for silver in Barcelona. Hopefully the next few years will see some more classic 100 backstroke battles between Seebohm and Missy Franklin.
42. Connor Dwyer - 2013 Highlight: A blazing 26.59 closing split in the 200 freestyle final at Worlds to move from 5th at 150m, up to silver at the touch. This marked the first major individual long course medal for the talented American.
41. Fabien Gilot - 2013 Highlight: A stunning 46.90 third leg of the victorious French 4x100 freestyle relay team. Gilot took over in 4th, and put Jeremy Stravius in the water first. His relay split was half a second faster than all others in the race.
On the bubble: David Plummer, Florent Manaudou, Arkady Vyatchanin, Eugene Godsoe, Marco Koch, Tyler Clary, Camille Muffat, Elizabeth Beisel, Fran Halsall, Konrad Czerniak, Connor Jaeger, Michael McBroom, Ying Lu, Wu Peng, Gregorio Paltrinieri, Fred Bousquet, Felipe Lima, Ye Shiwen, Hilary Caldwell, Giulio Zorzi, Matti Mattsson, George Bovell, Steffen Deibler, Jiao Liuyang, Elizabeth Pelton, Michael Jamieson
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