USA Swimming updated its national team Quad Plan this week, showing 4-day meets for all Pro Swim Series Stops outside of Columbus, as well as Junior Pan Pacs on August 23-27, 2018 in Fiji.
The last Quad Plan update back in August showed Junior Pan Pacs with dates and a host “to be announced.” The new Quad Plan, updated on October 25, shows the Junior Pan Pacs meet taking place in Fiji from August 23-27, 2018. Open water will take place on the 27th.
When the last Quad Plan came out, it gave us hints at the expanded Pro Swim Series schedule, including a new stop in Columbus, Ohio. Our reporting was recently confirmed by USA Swimming’s full-on announcement of sweeping new format changes to the Pro Swim Series. Those changes include the addition of 50-meter stroke sprint shootouts at half the stops, the inclusion of a 200 IM with a mystery stroke order, mixed relays made up of national team members as well as a change to the title sponsor, dubbing the series the TYR Pro Swim Series.
The new Quad Plan shows the first three stops expanded from 3-day meets (on the earlier Quad Plan) to 4-day meets. The fourth and fifth stops, in Indianapolis and Santa Clara, were already listed as four days, and the final stop in Columbus, is still listed over just three days.
I think it is a great idea. I think you could do it a couple ways: Everyone chooses their own order or before the race, they tell you the random order.
the mystery order 200 im has got to be the goofiest thing i’ve ever heard of! not sure if I love it or hate it, but I definitely want to watch
If it starts with back, will it be done with a back start?
I just want to see fly as the last 50. Interesting to see who’d win.
Breast, Back, Free, Fly would be the most interesting to watch I think. No reason why I just think it would be fun to watch some free to fly turns and to see what type of underwaters people could hold for a back to free flipturn.
I got to do a “mystery medley” 17 years ago in Sydney for the Skins meet (not sure if they still do that?) – it was a ton of fun. I had breaststroke first so it was all a game of catch-up. Though, Skins was purely an exhibition event, not sure how I would have felt about adding that on top of an already packed schedule. As it was, this was a day (or 2? can’t remember) after a World Cup stop.
The fan appeal, I’d think, for the medley event is akin to the mixed relays, where the lead can change dramatically on any leg.