by Steve Munatones
Kristina Evelyn and Zary Evelyn have delivered Barbados to the international open water swimming community. Through Kristina’s ubiquitous, omnipresent social media promotions, through their hosting of Olympians and well-known personalities at the Barbados Open Water Swimming Festival, and through their combined efforts to establish and welcome swimmers and influence-makers around the world, Evelyn has created the ambiance and footprint of Barbados that is only shared among much more established and older events. The husband-and-wife team recruits their children, parents, cousins, and various friends to put on an outstanding event as they expertly stretch an extremely limited budget while serving as hosts to swimmers from dozens of countries. For their constant promotional and organizational efforts that put Barbados on the open water swimming map, for their creative marketing programs and initiatives that played off of the natural beauty of Barbados, for their relentlessly positive, year-round, comprehensive approach to organizing the multi-event Barbados Open Water Swimming Festival, Kristina Evelyn and Zary Evelyn’s efforts at the Barbados Open Water Swimming Festival is a worthy nominee for the 2017 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year.
2017 WOWSA Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year Nominees