2024 BRITISH SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS (OLYMPIC TRIALS)
- Tuesday, April 2nd – Sunday, April 7th
- Prelims at 10am local (5am ET), Finals at 7pm local (2pm ET)
- London Aquatics Centre
- LCM (50m)
- British Swimming Olympic Selection Policy
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview
- Entries
- Live Results
- Livestream: Channel 4 Sport
This morning we saw the day-one heats unfold at the 2024 British Swimming Championships. The meet represents the sole opportunity for swimmers to clock qualification times in the hopes of making the nation’s Olympic team for Paris.
Finishing off this morning’s prelims was the men’s 100m breaststroke where we saw world record holder Adam Peaty post a big-time swim to put not only British swimmers but also competitors worldwide on notice.
29-year-old Peaty touched in a quick time of 58.53 to easily land lane 4 for tonight’s final. He represented the only racer of the heats to get under the minute barrier. The next-closest swimmer was Greg Butler who notched 1:00.29.
Peaty opened in 27.09 and closed in 31.44 to stake his claim on this event. The Aquatics GB (formerly British Swimming)-mandated selection standard sits at 59.45 so the Olympic champion is already well beneath that.
His 58.53 prelim swim represents the Loughborough ace’s fastest performance in 12 months, surpassing the 58.60 he logged in the semi-finals of the event at this year’s World Championships. There in Doha, Peaty ultimately settled for bronze in 59.10.
After this morning’s race, Peaty relayed how his performance is encouraging for what he wants to do in tonight’s final.
“Honestly it was the easiest swim I’ve done in a long time,” he said in his on-deck interview. “It might be because my mustache is gone (laughs).
“Gives me a lot of hope for tonight. The speed feels really good. Now it’s just about matching that with the emotion which is my strength.”
Indeed this performance bodes well for Peaty’s comeback journey after having withdrawn from last year’s British Championships due to mental health reasons.
Peaty now ranks as the #1 men’s 100m breaststroke in the world for 2024 and #2 on the season with only China’s dynamo Qin Haiyang ranked ahead of him.
2023-2024 LCM Men 100 Breast
QIN
57.69
| 2 | Adam PEATY | GBR | 57.94 | 04/02 |
| 3 | Nic FINK | USA | 58.57 | 02/12 |
| 4 | Arno KAMMINGA | NED | 58.68 | 10/20 |
| 5 | Evgenii Somov | RUS | 58.72 | 05/16 |
Meanwhile, the male contingent from USA Swimming may not even win one individual gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
Dressel 100 fly is a decent bet if he continues his upwards momentum in this event
Caeleb Dressel will need to be on World Record form. That’s a tough ask.
random….
MY GLORIOUS KING IS BACK
The battles at these Olympics will be insane
My wish for Paris is for Peaty, Dressel and Milak to all defend at least one of their individual titles and celebrate the same way as Chalmers did in Comm Games 2022 (finger silence gesture)
Dressel would never celebrate like that but Peaty would…and maybe Milak.
Dressel went 21.29 in the 50 free at 2022 Trials in greensboro and almost displaced the entire pools worth of water celebrating
I’m seeing a 58 low/57 high for Peaty at Paris. Peaty v Qin will be fun to watch.
Great to read. Looking forward to Paris
Love it
Can someone explain why British Swimming doesn’t use the Olympic qualifying standards and how they determine the nomination standards?
The nomination standards are what they consider to make a final. It’s to make sure swimmers work hard and don’t get complacent. (Also it gives more power for selectors to bring who they want).
It began as a “we don’t want Olympic tourists, we want people who are there to win medals” thing. I think it’s morphed into a “we want the flexibility to give spots to stars who had a bad meet or got sick” sort of thing.
I wonder how often there are “Olympic tourists” – I would think people trained so hard for so long, they wouldn’t take their foot off the gas right at the figurative finish line. Not to mention there would be some at-home embarrassment if they didn’t perform near expectation. I’m thinking Zach Efron in the semi-recent Baywatch movie, who threw up during the 4×200 because he was hungover.
I don’t think “Olympic tourist” is meant to criticize effort, but instead results. GB doesn’t want to send someone–even someone who will give it their all and drop personal best times–if they aren’t going to be top-8. I disagree with this philosophy, but a several countries follow it.
As someone who can be called a national team tourist, I was best in the country in my event, but not good enough at my first international meet to get a medal (although did make A final). People in charge didn’t think that was sufficient, and since then, despite making multiple national teams after, never got access to national training centers and resources that come with it. Never had money for a training camp, while others, enjoyed all that for free, despite having lower world rankings in their respective events. If you never give an Olympic tourist the necessary support, they won’t become anything more. Self-fulfilling prophesy, at least from my experience.
Pierre de Coubertin said in London in 1908:” the most important thing at the Olympic Games is not to win but to participate, because the important thing in life is not the triumph but the fight; the main thing is not to have won but to have fought well”
He sure did, but in the 118 years since, most of the most powerful nations, administrators, and athletes have said “nah” to that idea.
What a comment
So much for grab a lane, have a chance.