Amanda Smith is a former swimmer at USC, and contributed this report. Follow Amanda on Twitter at @Amandakay_s
Day two provided a huge movement in regards to the roster berths for Barcelona. Before tonight the roster sat at 12 women, and 13 men. After tonight, our numbers are 15 women & 15 men, 11 spots on each team to fill.
As a reminder, here is an easy way to follow the selection process in order of preference en route to the maximum roster size of 26 men and 26 women:
1.The top 4 in the 100 & 200 freestyles and then the winner of each Olympic event will make the team
2. The second place finisher in the Olympic events will make the team
3. The winner of the NON-Olympic events will make the team (50s of the strokes, plus the W1500m FR & M800m FR) – if room
4. The 5th place finishers in 100 & 200 freestyles will earn a berth – if room
5. The 6th place finishers in 100 & 200 freestyles will earn a berth – if room
After day two, the women created the four extra doubles needed for the second place finish in the Olympic event to make it to Barcelona; the men had only three. With swims by Maya Dirado (5th double), Tyler Clary (4th double), Ryan Lochte (5th double), both men and women have allowed all second place Olympic event finishes to Barcelona, plus one ticket for Non-Olympic events.
Eugene Godsoe’s win in the men’s 100 meter butterfly locks him in to swim the 50 butterfly at Worlds. So the fifth double will allow any opening for the other 50’s of strokes, or the non-Olympic distance events. This is how they stand with the ratio to the World Record:
50 backstroke, David Plummer: 24.52/24.04 = 1.01996
50 breaststroke, Kevin Steel: 27.26/26.67 = 1.02212
With the fifth double created by Maya Dirado, that will open up the opportunity for a Non-Olympic event to swim at Barcelona. Here is how those events look comparatively to the World Record:
50 Butterfly, Christine Magnuson: 26.08/25.07 = 1.04028
50 Backstroke, Rachel Bootsma: 27.68/27.06 = 1.02291
50 Breaststroke, Jessica Hardy: 30.24/29.80 = 1.01476
That means if no more doubles were created, David Plummer & Jessica Hardy would be going to Barcelona in their 50s. Five Olympic events remain over the next two days, plus the Non-Olympic distance events.
And let’s just say the first and second place finishes of the Olympic events, plus the winners of the Non-Olympic distance are new names, all the 50s and relay alternates would be left home. It seems unlikely that will happen, but you truly never know in swimming!
| Swimmer | Event & Place |
| Cammile Adams | W 200 Butterfly (1st) |
| Maya Dirado | W 200 Butterfly (2nd), W 200 Freestyle (5th)*, W 400 IM (1st) |
| Tom Luchsinger | M 200 Butterfly (1st) |
| Tyler Clary | M 200 Butterfly (2nd), M 200 Backstroke (2nd), M 400 IM (2nd) |
| Shannon Vreeland | W 100 Freestyle (2nd), W 200 Freestyle (3rd) |
| Simone Manuel | W 100 Freestyle (3rd) |
| Megan Romano | W 100 Freestyle (4th) |
| Natalie Coughlin | W 100 Freestyle (5th) |
| Liz Pelton | W 100 Freestyle (6th)* & W 200 Backstroke (2nd) |
| Nathan Adrian | M 100 Freestyle (1st) |
| Jimmy Feigen | M 100 Freestyle (2nd) |
| Anthony Ervin | M 100 Freestyle (3rd) |
| Ryan Lochte | M 100 Freestyle (4th), M 200 Backstroke (1st), M 200 Freestyle (1st), M 100 Butterfly (2nd) |
| Ricky Berens | M 100 Freestyle (5th) |
| Matt Grevers | M 100 Freestyle (6th) |
| Katie Ledecky | W 800 Freestyle (1st), W 200 Freestyle (2nd) |
| Chloe Sutton | W 800 Freestyle (2nd) |
| Connor Jaeger | M 1500 Freestyle (1st), M 200 Freestyle (6th)* |
| Michael McBroom | M 1500 Freestyle (2nd) |
| Missy Franklin | W 100 Freestyle (1st), W 200 Freestyle (1st), W 200 Backstroke (1st) |
| Jordan Mattern | W 200 Freestyle (4th) |
| Chelsea Chenault | W 200 Freestyle (6th) |
| Conor Dwyer | M 200 Freestyle (2nd) |
| Matt McLean | M 200 Freestyle (3rd) |
| Charlie Houchin | M 200 Freestyle (4th) |
| Ricky Berens | M 200 Freestyle (5th) |
| Breeja Larson | W 200 Breaststroke (1st) |
| Micah Lawrence | W 200 Breaststroke (2nd) |
| Kevin Cordes | M 200 Breaststroke (1st) |
| BJ Johnson | M 200 Breaststroke (2nd) |
| Christine Magnuson | W 50 Butterfly (1st) |
| Eugene Godsoe | M 50 Butterfly (1st), M 100 Butterfly (1st) |
| Elizabeth Beisel | W 400 IM (2nd) |
| Chase Kalisz | M 400 IM (1st) |
| Dana Vollmer | W 100 Butterfly (1st) |
| Claire Donahue | W 100 Butterfly (2nd) |
| Jessica Hardy | 50 Breaststroke (1st) |
| Kevin Steel | 50 Breaststroke (1st) |
| Rachel Bootsma | 50 Backstroke (1st) |
-Bold athletes mean the have secured a spot to Barcelona
-Italicized athletes mean they are pending a spot based on doubles from other swimmers
-Events that are bolded with an asterisk mean they earned a berth in a different event, and will most likely the swim listed with an asterisk
I assume that if either Franklin, Pelton or Bootsma qualifies in the 100 back, it greatly increases both of their chances…along with if Hardy, Larson, or Lawrence qualify in the 100 brst. Just wondering to see if Chenault, the 6th place finishers makes it…there was a lot of discussion to the an earlier SwimSwam article on this subject.
Don’t the swimmers that have qualified in open water events count? I don’t see them on your list.
don – this list is focused on pool swimmers. USA Swimming does not distinguish between the two, but FINA considers them to be entirely separate. They don’t count toward the 26 swimmer roster limit.
Braden what is Coughlin and Chenault’s position now?
2nd-to-last and last. :-).
Things are looking pretty good. A Franklin-Pelton or Franklin-Bootsma 1-2 in the 100 back would help a lot, as would a Ledecky-Sutton 1-2. If both of those things happen, the roster limit is (and I’d have to check my math on this) about a non-issue for the women anymore.
I believe J. Hardy possesses a better chance of a medal in 50m breast than some second or even first place finishers in the Olympic events.
What’s the reasoning behind limiting a country’s total roster size? I understand only allowing two competitors from a single country in any one event, but why not allow a different person to take each of those spots? (Given they’ve hit the proper qualifying standards, of course.)
There are what, 20 events per gender? (17 individual & 3 relay?) I guess that would be kinda giant, potentially 34 individual people and 12 relay swimmers, or 46 people.
not exactly. even supposing each person only qualified in one individual event (shoot me if that ever happens) then the 1st and 2nd place people in both free relays would be covered. additionally, the individual qualifiers in the stroke 100s would satisfy the medley relay, so only a max of 8 more relay swimmers would be needed (5th and 6th for both free relays)
still that would be an ungodly large team
correction: 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th for both free relays
Oh yeah yeah, don’t know how I doubled up the relay thing, whoopsie.
One reason is number at meet as pool time is limited for use a they don’t crowd the lanes for workout before Olympics or worlds like Us does in their major meets all workout is set schedule and of course no one else takes the numbers we do and could care less. The original 18 man rule in NCAA was implemented to curtail a team on it’s entries in the Big Ten and slso they created Conso’s to dilute their results. Only the US going all the way back filled there entries no matter what the swimmers potential was.
So if Grevers places top 2 in the 100 back, will he swim the 50 Fly and 50 Back as well, since he qualified in an Olympic event and placed second in those events?
Fubar – the 2nd place finish will have no bearing on who swims it, other than if it sways a coach’s opinion when you get the “coach’s choice” step. If he wins the 100 back, he gets first choice at the other spot in the 50 back. If Plummer wins and Grevers is 2nd in 100 back, Grevers gets first choice at the 50 back. If Lochte declines the 50 fly, then the second spot in the 50 fly goes to the “fastest swimmer after January 1, 2013,” and then it becomes coach’s choice.