USA Swimming says that they will set new Olympic Trials qualifying time standards by the time an anticipated return to competition is expected around August, but that these new standards won’t impact the 1,213 swimmers who are already qualified for the meet.
The new dates for the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, which will now be held from June 13th-20th, 2021 in Omaha, Nebraska, were announced on Friday. The meet was originally scheduled for June 21st-28th, 2020.
USA Swimming says that all swimmers who are qualified under the original standards now will remain qualified (though some will choose to end their careers before then – we’ve already heard from one such swimmer).
Since the original standards were announced, USA Swimming has been making an effort to shrink the size of the meet, which in past years has been almost 2,000 swimmers. That included a shortening of the qualifying period, with a stated target of between 1,200 and 1,400 swimmers. An extra year could risk pushing that number above 2,000 swimmers, so the new standards for any swims between April of 2020 and June of 2021 are anticipated to be faster than the existing standards and to capture swimmers who have a higher probability of qualifying for the Olympic Team.
These new standards will be announced before the return to competition, which is still an unclear timeline, and all of the above is pending the ability to have that many people (17,000+ spectators and 1,500+ competitors) in the same place at the same time.
You can find the 2020 Trials cuts below:
2020 U.S. Olympic Trial Cuts
The event is one of a number of sporting events that has been rescheduled as a result of the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic. The virus and its resultant COVID-19 disease have seen at least 1.6 million cases and almost 100,000 deaths globally, including over 466,000 confirmed cases in the U.S. – more than any other country on earth.
This is a really stupid decision. Most swimmers are not able to train right now. If everyone was still training then yes, an extra year would mean a lot more swimmers would make their trial cuts. But this next year is gonna be a lot of catching up because going months without being in the water will put people back quite a ways
First of all, “qualified” doesn’t mean they planned on attending. I’m guessing somewhere between 5 and 8% who qualified, weren’t going to attend. USA swimming can look at the past meets and figure that out. Usually it’s college seniors who made it last summer, but retire after their final college season. But now, those who might have said they’ll train for 3 more months to wrap up their career at trials, are a lot more likely to hang up their towel. So my guess would be that at least 10%, maybe as high as 15% who have current cuts will not attend a year from now. There are a lot of people who were gunning for meets in April and… Read more »
United States Swimming is trash. The ignorance that runs USA Swimming will eventually run the program into the ground.
Like always, USA Swimming does not consider the “base” of the sport of swimming. They fail to notice the parents, athletes, and coaches that drive and fund the sport. A majority of swimmers do not become elite, per say. A very very small number of swimmers make the Olympic Team and a very small number (when compared to all registered in USA Swimming) make the Olympic Trial Standards. This decision perfeclty exemplifies USA Swimming’s continual decision to disregard how a masive decision negatively effects swimmers in smaller LSC’s that truly participate in the sport for the absolute true love of… Read more »
Don’t like the idea of old vs new cuts. How about adopting the NCAA invite system? For example, swimmers has the FINA B cuts are automatically qualified, and those between FINA B and OT cuts by invitation only. This way, the meet size is controlled and everyone is on the same playing field.
I don’t know the end result that goal of having fewer swimmers was trying to achieve. Not sure if it was just “too easy” to make cuts. A desire to get closer simply 3 final heats and not a semi-final round… or what… But, money had to be a part of it. In which case, money has to be a part of this new cut decision as well. They figured they already sold the seats once, they won’t need more new families to fill it again.
I say they are sorely mistaken. With 16 million out of work right now, there is no way that every swimmer who qualified is going to be in a position to go to… Read more »
I’ll jump in and say that keeping the standards the same is effectively making them faster due to the suspension of training. So my vote would be to keep the standards the same. I think the effect on the numbers will be negligible and by that I think less than 100 extra swimmers than if the meet were held this June under normal circumstances.
What if USA Swimming kept the cuts the same, but instead suspended the qualifying period until next March and resumed it leading up to 2021 Trials? I understand that this is far from a perfect solution, but theoretically speaking, people would be in roughly the same shape as they were around the same time this year. And the people who retire will be replaced with new blood as a result of younger kids getting an extra year to develop.
Just have A,B,and C flights and call it a day. Just let everyone who can make the old cuts make the cuts!