2022 DUEL IN THE POOL
- Friday, August 19 – Sunday, August 21, 2022
- Sydney, Australia
- Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre (pool swimming, Aug. 20-21)
- Bondi Beach (open water, Aug. 19)
- Start Times
- Friday – open water: 9:00 am local / 7:00 pm ET on Thursday
- Saturday – 7:00 pm local / 5:00 am ET
- Sunday – 7:00 pm local / 5:00 am ET
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
The 2022 Duel in the Pool is set to take place in Sydney, Australia from Friday, August 19 – Sunday, August 21, 2022. Racing begins in Sydney on Friday with the mixed 4×800 freestyle open water relay. For North American fans that race will be on the night of Thursday the 18th.
In preparation for the 3-day meet, USA Swimming has released a full schedule breakdown, along with an explanation of how the events will work. The Duel in the Pool will feature a mix of traditional and non-traditional events. Some of the non-traditional events include the broken 400 and 800 freestyles, mystery IM, ISL-like skins races, and a variety of relays.
See below the full schedule for the meet, which will have 1 event on day 1, 20 events on day 2, and 19 events on day 3. Following the event schedule is an explanation of how some of the races will work, along with an outline of how scoring will work.
Event Schedule
Friday, August 19 (9 a.m. local, 7 p.m. ET previous day)
| Event # | Event |
| 1 | Mixed 4×800 Relay (Open Water) |
Saturday, August 20 (7 p.m. local, 5 a.m. ET)
| Event # | Event |
| 2 | Mixed 4×100 Med-R |
| 3 | W 400 Broken FR |
| 4 | M 100 FL |
| 5 | Mixed Class 4×50-meter freestyle relay 34 pts |
| 6 | W 3×50 FL, Skins |
| 7 | M 100 BR |
| 8 | W 50 FR |
| 9 | W 3×50 BR, Skins |
| 10 | M 800 FR, Broken |
| 11 | M 100 FR |
| 12 | Mixed Class 100 FR |
| 13 | W 4×100 Med-R |
| 14 | M 3×50 BK, Skins |
| 15 | Mixed Class/Able Body Relay |
| 16 | M 200 IM, Mystery |
| 17 | W 100 BK |
| 18 | M 3×50 FR, Skins |
| 19 | Mixed MC 3×50 Form-Stroke, Skins |
| 20 | W 200 FR |
| 21 | Mixed 4×50 Relay (Random) |
Sunday, August 21 (7 p.m. local, 5 a.m. ET)
| Event # | Event |
| 22 | Mixed 6×50 FR-R |
| 23 | W 800 FR, Broken |
| 24 | M 200 FR |
| 25 | Mixed Class 4×100 FR-R 34 pts |
| 26 | W 3×50 FR, Skins |
| 27 | M 3×50 BR, Skins |
| 28 | W 100 FL |
| 29 | W 3×50 BK, Skins |
| 30 | M 4×100 FR-R |
| 31 | M 100 BK |
| 32 | Mixed Class 3×50 FR, Skins |
| 33 | W 100 FR |
| 34 | M 400 FR, Broken |
| 35 | M 50 FR |
| 36 | W 100 BR |
| 37 | M 3×50 FL, Skins |
| 38 | Mixed Class 100 Form-Stroke |
| 39 | W 200 IM, Mystery |
| 40 | Mixed 2x200m vs 4×100 Freestyle Random Relay |
Event Explanations
Broken Freestyle
400m event: 1st leg, 200m on 3 minutes; 2nd leg, 100m on 2 minutes; 3rd leg, 100m on 2 minutes or until finished.
800m event: 1st leg, 300m on 5 minutes; 2nd leg, 200m on 3 minutes; 3rd leg, 200m on 3 minutes; 4th leg, 100m on 2 minutes or until finished.
For both events, all dive starts from the blocks. First place on each leg will score one bonus point.
Skins
Three Australian swimmers vs. three American swimmers. The last two to finish in each leg drop out, until there are only two swimmers left. The first two to drop out do not score points, the second two to drop out will be awarded points 2-1. The final two remaining will be awarded points 4-3.
Mixed Class/Able-Bodied Relay
The team will consist of two able-bodied swimmers and two Para swimmers, in the following order: Swimmer 1 – Female swimmer; Swimmer 2 – Male S9 swimmer; Swimmer 3 – Female S9 swimmer; Swimmer 4 – Male swimmer.
For more on Para athlete classifications, click here.
Mystery Individual Medley
Mystery IM event will have order of strokes randomly determined at the start of the race. Regardless of order, all starts will dive from the blocks, including Backstroke.
Mixed MC 3×50 Form-Stroke (100-meter & Skins)
Staggered start and elimination based on finish places. Stagger will be based on the 100m world record for swimmers chosen stroke. Swimmer to nominate their stroke ahead of time and must swim chosen stroke for each leg of the race. The Starter will announce the swimmer’s count.
Mixed 4×50 Random Relay
Each team must select two males and two females to swim a 4×50 relay of unknown format. Before the start, Team Captains will toss a coin to determine who spins the wheel, the other team will spin for event 41 on Sunday. Winning Captain spins the wheel to determine if this will be Freestyle or Medley. Both teams must swim in this format.
2x200m vs 4×100 Freestyle Random Relay
Each team must select two males and two females to swim a freestyle relay of an unknown distance. The Team Captain of the losing coin toss from Saturday will spin the wheel to determine which distance their team will swim. The other team will swim the alternate format. The team swimming the 2×200 will have to drop one male and one female athlete of their choice. Starts will be staggered based on combined best times (to be provided by the team coach ahead of time).
Scoring
USA Swimming released the scoring breakdown via Instagram:
Individual Events
- First Place: 4 points
- Second Place: 3 points
- Third Place: 2 points
- Fourth Place: 1 point
Relay Events
- First Place: 8 points
- Second Place: 6 points
Individual Skins Events (3 Entrants From Each Team)
Round 1 (6 swimmers)
- 5th and 6th Place: Eliminated, 0 points
- Top 4 Advance
Round 2 (4 swimmers)
- 4th Place: Eliminated, 1 point
- 3rd Place: Eliminated, 2 points
- Top 2 Advance
Round 3 (2 swimmers)
- 2nd Place: 3 Points
- 1st Place: 4 Points
Mixed Class Skins Event (4 Entrants From Each Team)
Round 1 (8 swimmers)
- 6th, 7th, and 8th Place: Eliminated, 0 points
- Top 5 Advance
Round 2 (5 swimmers)
- 4th and 5th Place: Eliminated, 0 Points
- Top 3 Advance
Round 3 (3 swimmers)
- 3rd Place: 2 points
- 2nd Place: 3 points
- 1st Place: 5 points
Additional Scoring Features
Power Play
Can be used in any relay event to gain double points. Each team has one Power Play per day. This must be used prior to the start of the race. If a relay event with a Power Play is won, the team will earn
double the points. If a relay event with a power play is lost (the opposing team wins), half points will be awarded.
Double Dip
Can be played in any skins event to try and gain double points. If Double Dip is called, an extra 50m is contested, with double points awarded to the winner. Only one Double Dip can be played per day.
Flag Frenzy
Can be played in any of the 100m events to gain double points. Each team can play one Flag Frenzy per day. Flag must be thrown prior to the first swimmer hitting the 50m turn. Whoever wins an event with a Flag Frenzy will earn double points, regardless of which team throws the flag.
Broken Freestyle Bonus
First place on each leg of the broken freestyle events will score 1 bonus point.
Egregious lack of fin swimming…
YASSSSS. That would’ve been so smart. Would’ve been incredible context for how good the world’s best finswimmers are.
Well… it’s an end-of-summer-meet. Fitting that they included every crazy nonsense they could think of. Blindfolded mixed doggy paddle relay is missing. With T-shirts.
Is the winner of the broken individual events based on who touches the wall first in the last 100?
Cos that person could feasibly have a much slower cumulative time if they sacrifice points in the opening legs, and take the whole 3 mins and 2 mins and then just blast the last 100 as a sprint to get 4 points.
I presumed that the final order of the final leg determines the 4-3-2-1 points and that swimming faster earlier only gets you 1 bonus point for winning but nothing else. So unless you win an earlier round, there is no benefit to swimming fast other than getting slightly more rest time.
Exactly. So it will end up being 300 easy with a sprint at the end.
Very fitting that this madness of “Duel in the Pool” starts in open water.
And in winter…..brrrrr…..
So what was the outcome of the open water relay?
Australia won…. Don’t know anything else except the Aussies are winning 8-6 now.
I reckon we might need that lead by the end of the weekend.
So the entirety of the open water event was a single relay with a 2 point difference between winning and losing. Oof. Why even include it?
They should’ve brought athletes in who actually swim open water. (IE: Anna Auld, Kensey McMahon, David Herron, and Dylan Gravely). Sending a roster in open water that is based on pool times isn’t always the best idea. I’ve never heard of Tylor Mathieu swimming open water, and Bella Sims says she “hates it”. So it’s a bit strange.
Australia had actual open water swimmers, but I guess that’s a lot easier for them. I can understand USA not wanting to bring 4 actual open water swimmers for a single race that wasn’t even live-streamed.
I will be surprised if there is much interest from spectators it’s moving into football finals time Down Under and we have had our fill of WC and Comm Games in recent months
So the open water relay was supposed to start an hour ago. Presumably it’s finished now?
Do we know how many points it’s worth? Hopefully more than the pool relays considering it’s the only event for the open water swimmers.
8-6 in favour of Australia according to USA swimming. Don’t know any other details.
I wasn’t gonna watch this but the schedule is so bonkers I might have to