USA Swimming is updating its nomenclature for major National Championship meets as soon as this winter. The most notable change for swim fans is that the 2019 Winter National Championships will be renamed the U.S. Open, while the summer championships in non-National Championship years will have a new name.
While in the long-term, swim fans will settle in to the new naming system, in the short term, fans, coaches, and athletes will have to adjust their understanding of the meets. The U.S. Open used to be a domestic summer championship meet in years where there was no closed US National Championship meet, or where the US National Championship meet was early in the summer. Past U.S. Open meets have been held in the summer in 2017, 2016, 2013, and 2012, though prior to a 2008 shift, it was previously a winter championship meet held every year as well.
In 2019, however, the meet formerly known as “Winter Nationals” will be rebranded as the “U.S. Open,” and held in long course meters (as has become tradition in the year before the Olympic Games, as athletes look for more racing experience in long course and more opportunities to hit Olympic Trials standards). Georgia Tech will host the meet at the McAuley Natatorium: site of swimming for the 1996 Summer Olympic Games.
While the nature of the meet is not changing – it’s long been an “open” championship in the sense that it allows athletes of all nationalities to compete – the name will.
Meanwhile, USA Swimming says that they are sticking with the plan to combine the meets formerly known as the U.S. Open and Junior Nationals late in the summer of 2020. They are planning to come up with a new name for that meet, but have not finalized or announced that name yet.
2019 Key National Championship Dates:
- 2019 Phillips 66 National Championships – July 31st-August 4th – Stanford, California
- 2019 U.S. Open – December 4th-7th – Atlanta, Georgia
- 2019 Speedo Winter Junior Championships – East – December 11th-14th – Atlanta, Georgia
- 2019 Speedo Winter Junior Championships – West – December 11th-14th – Federal Way, Washington
Australian swimming should lock in their Nats (age & open) near these dates. It’s clear the US and Euro and North Asian seasons have better dates for major international meets like Worlds and Olympics.
It used to be important to a National Champion in an event or two! Now what is USA swimming saying is a National Champion? Only when you win at a Trials? Curious as to their definition. They used to keep track as to who won the most National individual Championships….no more? Now a team can’t be a top 10 team at “Nationals”? They don’t score the Trials!
Team scoring went out the window long ago with all of the silly games coaches play about which athletes represent which teams. Whenever athletes and coaches are ready to have swimmers score points for the teams they train with, then I’m sure team scoring could make a bigger comeback…
I’m wondering if USASwimming management takes into account the existence of ISL SCM competitions at same time. How seriously they take ISL and is there any coordination/cooperation between them. Or they are fierce business competitors dreaming to see each other gone.
Are the cuts out for this meet yet? I hadn’t been able to find them; will they be roughly the same as previous Winter Nationals?
Edit: they seem to be up on the USA Swimming time standards page
Nah – US Open goes even further back – it used to always be the December Championship meet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Open_(swimming)
It also use to be SCM at times. I think that in 1996 they had a US Open LCM.