Tom Daley and Adam Peaty crowned Europe’s best after stellar 2021

Tom Daley and Adam Peaty have received a further accolade for a stellar 12 months after being crowned Europe’s best diver and swimmer.

They topped the rankings in their respective categories in the LEN Awards 2021 – with four other British swimmers and divers also receiving votes.

Daley first won the award in 2009 and also took top spot in 2015 and 2017.

He received 76.7 per cent of the votes after winning gold and bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, while he also topped the podium and won a silver medal at the European Championships in Budapest.

Jack Laugher, a previous double winner of the LEN Award in 2016 and 2018, was fifth in the poll having picked up 1.6 per cent of the votes cast for his Olympic bronze medal in Japan and a silver in Hungary. 

Peaty’s success is the fourth time in five years he has been presented with the prize – with Russia’s Kliment Kolesnikov the only other swimmer to have topped the list since 2016.

An impressive four golds at the European Championships was followed with two Tokyo triumphs as he became the first British swimmer to retain an Olympic title with victory in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke, while he was also part of the victorious 4x100m Mixed Medley Relay team.

Olympic 200m Freestyle champion Tom Dean was fourth in the final rankings with 12.9 per cent of the vote, just ahead of his British team-mate Duncan Scott who was fifth with 3.4 per cent.

Kathleen Dawson finished third in the best female swimmer category with a total of 17.7 per cent of the votes, behind Sweden’s Sarah Sjostrom and Holland’s Ranomi Kromowidjojo.

It is the 13th year that the LEN Awards have been held, with LEN member federations and officials casting their votes to choose Europe’s best aquatic athletes.