USA Swimming Won’t Sanction Meets Through at Least May 31st

After it extended its moratorium on sanctioned events through April 30 last month, USA Swimming is now saying it will not sanction any events until at least May 31 and revoke any existing sanctions through that date in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

USA Swimming Board Chair Bob Vincent and President/CEO Tim Hinchey informed LSCs of the decision in a letter Thursday. The policy will be reevaluated before the end of May.

“While we are cautiously planning for our eventual return to pools, we are also acutely aware of the current environment and the ongoing safety measures still in place in many jurisdictions across the country,” the letter says. In an effort to ensure that our community continues to play a positive role in this nationwide public health effort, and to ensure an even and level playing field among all our LSC’s, the USA Swimming Board of Directors has made the decision to revoke all existing USA Swimming sanctions and suspend granting sanctions through May 31, 2020 . Prior to the end of May 2020, the Board will evaluate whether to extend the suspension period. This will be continuously reassessed based on health and governmental authorities’ information.”

In March, the organization initially “strongly recommended” a 30-day cancellation of all USA Swimming hosted events, then made that policy mandatory.

The new announcement means that even if some states reopen on May 1 or May 15, as is currently being considered by a handful, USA Swimming events would not restart at that point.

USA Swimming already canceled what would have been the final stop of the 2019-20 Pro Swim Series, scheduled for May 6-9 at the IUPUI Natatorim, last month (prior to that, it also canceled the Mission Viejo stop, originally scheduled for April 16-19). The organization was among the first to publicly call for postponement of the 2020 Olympics.