As part of our vision to be a forum for rewarding and recognising Irish swims and swimmers, the ILDSA hosts an annual awards event at a location in Ireland after the end of each swimming season.

The awards are the highlight of the year where the ILDSA rewards, recognises and celebrates the passionate and vibrant long distance swimming community and their achievements. The event in recent years has also been live streamed for those that are unable to attend in person.

There are 35 Categories of awards and at the 13th Annual Awards which were held in Galway we presented over 170 awards and ratified swim medals to swimmers from Ireland and across the globe.

Whilst we enthusiastically celebrate the current explosion and participation in open water swimming we also respectfully continue to search out our historical swims and swimmers and recognise the achievements of those that were pioneers in open water swimming before many of us were born. We were delighted to see John Earls inducted into the Ireland Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame at the 2021 awards in Galway.

As a national organization the ILDSA alternates the location of the awards around the country and this year we were specifically keen to choose a venue where we could showcase the vibrant open water swimming community that enjoy some of the most beautiful lakes in Ireland.

We are looking forward to the event in Mullingar where Anthony Hughes will share the history of swimming in Lough Lene, Lough Owel and Lough Ennell. Through the sharing of information regarding swimming locations we are providing more choices and opportunities for our swimming community to enjoy all year round.