Canadian Olympic Trials Pushed To April 7-11, 2021, Condensed To 5 Days

Swimming Canada will push its Olympic and Paralympic Trials meet to April 7-11, 2021, and condense the meet from seven days to five days, key stakeholders were told on a phone call Wednesday.

Swimming Canada revealed the move in a press release this afternoon. The meet was originally scheduled for March 30 – April 5, 2020, but was one of the first major events postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 Olympics have since been postponed to the year 2021, and Swimming Canada’s selection meet will follow suit, just like the U.S. Olympic Trials did.

The location will remain the same, with the city of Toronto hosting the meet at the Pan Am Sports Centre venue.

But the meet has been compressed and moved slightly later than its original plan. Swimming Canada will hold the meet from April 7-11, about a week later than the original dates. (The Olympics were pushed almost exactly a year forward, beginning on July 23, 2021, so Canada’s new dates will leave one less week between Trials and the Olympics. That’s the opposite of U.S. Olympic Trials, which actually moved a week earlier and will now give one extra week between selection and competition for the Olympics.)

The original 7-day event plan will be compressed to five days. Canadian Olympic Trials typically do not run semifinals, but the meet does serve as the nation’s selection event for both the Olympics and Paralympics. We’ve asked Swimming Canada about an updated event schedule, but we have not yet received a response.

More event updates from the Swimming Canada press release:

• Canadian Open Water Swimming Trials will run on April 17-18 on Grand Cayman
• The Eastern and Western Championships meets are being adapted to a “virtual championships format.” They were scheduled for April of 2021. Swimming Canada says it plans to return to the old format after 2021.
• The Canadian Swimming Championships and Canadian Junior Swimming Championships for 2021 will be combined into a single event from July 26 to August 2, 2021. The meet will be in Calgary.
• The Can Am Para Swimming Open remains on-schedule for its Dec. 11-13 dates in Vancouver.
• The 2021 Canada Summer Games also remain on-schedule, with swimming scheduled for August 6-13, 2021.
• Canadian Masters Championships are still up in the air with an announcement to come later.