Budapest, Hungary - The FINA Athletes of the Year 2015 were unveiled in Budapest (HUN) in a memorable FINA World Aquatics Gala - "Soirée des Etoiles" (Evening of the Stars), held in the iconic Vigado Concert Hall on Sunday January 31, 2016.

FINA awarded the best athletes across FINA's six disciplines in men and women's categories and paid tribute to their greatness and achievement in the sport.

In addition, an award for the best swimming performances in Kazan 2015 was presented to a male and a female athlete.

For the sport of water polo, awards were team based honoring the most sucessful team of the previous calendar year. With gold medals from the FINA World League Super Final and FINA World Championship the USA Women's Senior National Team were the obvious choice. Head Coach Adam Krikorian and team captain Maggie Steffens were recognized as leaders of Team USA. Steffens' sister and two-time Olympian Jessica Steffens attended the event in Budapest to represent Team USA>

The 2015 winners per category are:

Swimming	Men	Mitchell Larkin	Australia
	Women	Katinka Hosszu	Hungary
	Best Swimming Performance	Adam Peaty Katie Ledecky	Great Britain USA
Water Polo	Men	Serbia Player: captain Zivko Gocic	Serbia
	Women	USA Player: captain Maggie Steffens	USA
Diving	Men	He Chao	China
	Women	Shi Tingmao	China
Synchro	Men	Bill May Aleksandr Maltsev	USA RUS
	Women	Svetlana Romashina	RUS
Open Water	Men	Jordan Willimovsky	USA
	Women	Ana Marcela Cunha	BRA
High Diving	Men	Gary Hunt	GBR
	Women	Rachelle Simpson	USA

The following coaches were also rewarded on the occasion: Alex Rochas (coach of Gary Hunt), Dejan Savic (coach of Serbia), Adam Krikorian (coach of USA), Nie Yudi (coach of He Chao), Zhao Wenjin (coach of Shi Tingmao), Chris Caver (coach of Bill May), Gana Maximova (coach of Aleksandr Maltsev), Tatiana Danchenko (coach of Svetlana Romashina), Michael Bohl (coach of Mitch Larkin), Jason Carlton (coach of Rachelle Simpson), Dave Kelsheimer (coach of Jordan Willimovsky), Fernando Possenti (coach of Ana Marcela Cunha), Bruce Gemmell (coach of Katie Ledecky), Melanie Marshall (coach of Adam Peaty), and Shane Tusup (coach of Katinka Hosszu).

The "Soirée des Etoiles" was first held in Doha, Qatar, in December 2014, in between the annual FINA World Aquatics Convention and the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m).

Budapest is the host of the next FINA World Championships and FINA World Masters Championships in July-August 2017.