By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
The 2025 Golden Goggles Awards show is one part honoring the year in American swimming, and one part raising money for the USA Swimming Foundation.
There are about 145 items up for auction this year, which is roughly a third as many as last year’s list of 500 items.
Bid for items here.I’ve picked out some of my favorites below. When I think of silent auctions, my favorite items are things that have an intrinsic value that outweigh their actual cost – an experience that can’t just be easily purchased via a few clicks of a mouse. Things that are rare or finite or hard-to-find elsewhere.
#100 – Custom Handbag Created by Olympian Matt King (Starting Bid: $2,000)
Among the usual list of athlete-donated items, this might be the coolest and most unique the GG Auction has ever had. Matt King, who won an Olympic gold medal last year as a prelims swimmer on the men’s 400 free relay, spent over 100 hours planning, designing, and crafting this handbag by hand out of water buffalo hide.
Unclear how many of those hours went into making this reel of the work, but the outcome is really beautiful, with lots of great detail work and hand craftsmanship. Complete with his own label, King’s Instagram account is loaded with videos of him making other bags.
Who knows, maybe an early King will be worth a fortune one day. The original Birkin bag just sold for more than $10 million. Stunningly, this is one of just 34 items in the auction that don’t have at least one bid so far.
(Also, the number of talents Matt King has is unbelievable. He also plays piano).
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Matt King (@matt_king445)
#107 – Official 2016 Rio Games Olympic Relay Torch (Current Bid: $2,500)
In addition to the usual signed swimming items, there are lots of items from other sports – including a basketball signed by the US Olympic women’s basketball team, another signed by the men’s team, a week at Atlanta Braves Fantasy Camp, and a baseball bat autographed by Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson.
One of the coolest non-swimming sports items is a torch from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games torch relay. This one specifically was carried by Maurren Higa Maggi, a Brazilian who won gold in the long jump at the 2008 Olympic Games, making her the first Brazilian woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal. There were about 12,000 torch bearers for Rio, though this is one of the more special ones given who carried it.
#112 – “Spring in Sabino” Watercolor by Olympian Rick Demont (Starting Bid: $700)
You know Rick Demont as an Olympian, a World Champion, and the second-in-command to Frank Busch’s superpower Arizona Wildcats team.
But he’s also a decorated artist, specializing in western motifs and desert-colored water color landscapes.
This particular piece carries an impressionistic flavor (moreso than most of his work).
His paintings usually sell for $4,000-$6,000 in galleries, so if you like it, this is a chance to get a Rick DEMont painting at a substantial value price.
#146 – “The Touch” by Heinz Kluetmeier, Autographed by Phelps & Cavic
Many autographed versions of this photo have come up for auction to support aquatic organizations in recent years. The shot shows the iconic too-close-to-call touch between Michael Phelps and Milorad Cavic in the men’s 100 fly at the 2008 Olympic Games, one of the most iconic images in swimming history. That win by Phelps preserved his quest for an unprecedented 8 gold medal performance in Beijing.
This year’s item, however, maybe is a little more special, as the famed photographer Kluetmeier died in January of this year.
#218/#241 – Handcrafted Woven Art – Created by Olympian Natalie Hinds (Starting Bid: $150 Each)
Akin to Matt King’s handcrafted Handbag, Olympic bronze medalist Natalie Hinds has donated two textile hand woven art pieces in colors of USA Swimming (red, white, and blue).
Hinds creates tapestry art through her brand Loominary. Learn more about these items below:
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Natalie Hinds (@_nhinds)
Feel the Need for Speed – Top Gun Movie Poster (Current Bid: $1,200)
This autographed poster from the original 1986 Top Gun movie, that year’s highest grossing movie, features autographs from a number of the stars of the movie, including the biggest names Tom Cruise, Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, and Val Kilmer, who died earlier this year.
This is one of a number of cool pop culture items in this year’s auction. Others include a guitar signed by a number of country music superstars like Dolly Parton, Garth Brooks, Jason Aldean, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Blake Shelton, Hank Williams Jr., George Strait, Faith Hill, Toby Keith, and Shania Twain; and another guitar signed by rock superstars Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin), Roger Daltrey (The Who), Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath), Brian Johnson (AC/DC), Axl Rose (Guns N Roses), Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam), and James Hetfield (Metallica).
Most of these pop culture items were acquired through an organization called Charity Fundraising, an organization that essentially allows groups like the USA Swimming Foundation to auction off high-dollar pop culture items at no up-front cost, and keep the difference between an agreed-upon cost of the item and the actual auction item.
#212 – National Team Apparel – Relay Camp Bundle (Current Bid: $90)
Remember that super secret 2023 relay camp that USA Swimming hosted? The one that USA Swimming refused to share any details about? And that didn’t clearly make the Americans any better at relays?
There was swag. And now you can own it, for $90.
Do it for the memes.
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