Greek artistic swimmer Evangelia Platanioti has been nominated for the World Aquatics Athlete of the Year award in artistic swimming for 2024.
The 30-year-old athlete who won gold for her solo technical routine and silver for her solo free routine during the 2024 World Championships in Doha, Qatar in February, has been singled out by the World Aquatics federation (formerly known as FINA) together with Jacqueline Simoneau from Canada, Huiyan Xu from China, Klara Bleyer from Germany, and Kyra Hoevertsz from Aruba.
The winner will be selected via public vote on the World Aquatics Instagram account and by the Nomination Committee.
Platanioti made her debut in the 2012 Summer Olympics, competing in the women’s duet. She returned for the 2016 Games, finishing 10th alongside Evangelia Papazoglou.
She is the first Greek artistic swimmer to win medals in the European and World championships and made history in 2021 by winning two medals (silver and bronze) in solo events in the European Championships. She also won two bronze medals in 2022 in the World Championships, becoming the first Greek athlete to clinch medal in this competition. She has won nine medals in the FINA Artistic Swimming World Series (2017–2022).
In the men’s category, nominees are Giorgio Minisini from Italy, Kenneth Gaudet from the US, Dennis Gonzalez Boneu from Spain, Gustavo Sanchez from Mexico, and Viktor Druzin from Kazakhstan.
