Several months after first announcing a new U23 European Swimming Championships, the sport’s governing body on the continent LEN has released more details on the event.
The meet will be held from August 11-13, 2023 in Dublin, and athletes aged 19-23 (born in the years 2000-2004) will be eligible to compete.
The meet is mainly targeted toward this ‘middle tier’ of swimmers, working on the leap between the Junior Championships and their countries’ senior teams. At the first edition in 2023, however, each federation can enter up to one swimmer aged 14-18 (born 2005-2009) per event among four allowed entries per country in each individual race.
Swimmers who hit an “A” standard for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships “shall compete in that event in Fukuoka 2023 to be eligible to compete in the equivalent event in Dublin.”
Presentation & Innovation
LEN Technical Swimming Committee chairman Craig Hunter says that the meet will be run with some “semi-non-traditional” format relating to presentation.
“We’re going to run it in a semi-non-traditional format with some of the sports presentation, medal ceremonies and post-race interviews changed for a more dynamic environment,” Hunter said.
The meet will also include a 50 freestyles ‘skins’ race, where swimmers will race multiple rounds on short rest with a certain portion of competitors being eliminated in each round until only two swimmers remain, racing head-to-head for the title.
With the skins races, a more entertaining presentation, and a compact three-day lineup, the event will take on a number of elements that fans might recognize from the International Swimming League (ISL), which has been on hiatus since 2021.
That might not be a coincidence. Apostolos Tsagkarakis was hired as LEN’s new Sports Director in November after spending 6 years as the Sports Director for the ISL.
Event Lineup
The meet will feature the complete World Championship event lineup for individual races, but won’t feature any single-gender relays. Instead, all relays will be mixed-gender (400 free relay, 400 medley relay).
The meet will also include a 50 freestyle skins race, described above.
All races will have prelims and finals except for the 400 IM, 800 free, and 1500 free, which will be timed finals with the fastest heat swum in the evening session.