At the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, the Russians had a solid performance with 9 total medals, including two golds. By the golds-first methodology, that put them 6th overall.
In 2014, however, the Russians could be a dominant force and battle the deep Australians and Chinese for top spots on the medals table after naming a powerful 8 (the maximum allowed) for the event.
Of those 8 swimmers, all can reasonably be expected to walk away with one medal, and almost all of them could take a gold based on the times from 2010 (though, the meet will surely get at least deeper, if not faster).
The Russians have a lot of great young talent, and after absolute domination of the European Junior Championships last year (they took 22 out of 42 gold medals), they’ll be hungry to prove it on a world stage as well. With Evgeny Sedov, one of the fastest junior sprinters in history, and a swimmer already a bona-fide world-class swimmer compared to any age, leading the way, this should be a successful meet as well.
Note that the Daria Ustinova below, while a great backstroker as well, is not the really well-known backstroke that recently broke the 200 back Junior World Record.
Girls (14-17)
Rozaliya Nasretdinova (50 free/24.95; 100 free/55.05; 50 back/29.88; 50 fly/26.56)
Daria Ustinova (From St. Petersburg – 100 free/55.90; 200 free/2:01.84; 100 back 1:01.69
Irina Prikhodko (200 back/2:11.72)
Daria Mullakaeva (200 free/2:00.85)
Boys (15-18)
Evgeny Sedov (50 free/21.98; 100 free/49.23; 50 back 25.47; 50 fly/23.28; 100 fly/54.16)
Filipp Shopin (50 back/26.06; 100 back/56.54; 50 fly/24.69)
Evgeny Rylov (200 back/1:58.85; 100 back/55.35; 50 back/26.30)
Anton Chupkov (100 breast/1:02.00; 50 breast/28.77; 200 breast/2:13.73
The YOG are restricted in numbers & age in all sports because that’s how the cookie crumbles & someone has to pay for them .
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@Braden Keith: Sorry, but i dont understand why you say that kind of competition would attract more fans? In my mind the logic is the following: More versatile means less specialized, means lower level of quality. I dont see how that attracts more fans (Do you mean that this rule will attract more fans, because the swimmers who swim in many events will become some kind of ”brand” like Phelps?). You are right that senseless is the wrong word, i just think that the level of quality will suffer due to that rule. You are also right when you say that more versatile swimmers profit from that rule. On the other hand i dont know if that… Read more »
Many countries will probably send their best swimmers.. regardless is they are versatile or not..
And would be a shame if US does not put their best.. probably the YOG level will be much higher than the Pan Pacs Jr this year.. from the World class swimmers that can go the only one who is not on the list by now is Ustinova..
The fewer people a country fields, the easier it is to keep track of people for the average fan. It also means that there is a bigger team element: instead of swimming every event, someone has to be selected to swim, say the 200 fly, even if they aren’t a specialist. A swimmer like Yannick Agnel would be very valuable in this kind of meet, because he could swim the 100, 200, 400 and maybe 1500. By limiting the number of people on a team it can put the emphasis on team scoring: the goal is not to excel in your speciality events necessarily, but to swim as well in as many events as possible to help your country. In… Read more »
Do the countries choose who goes? If so, is Michael Andrew on top of the list?
bob the builder – every country can have its own requirements, yes. The IOC has certain time standards…but in most of the major swimming countries, those time standards are of little-to-no concern.
Countries that placed in the top 16 in team scoring at the prior World Championship meet get 4 and 4. Everyone else gets 2 and 2, assuming they hit the IOC standards. There are coed relays, so 2 and 2 still lets a country enter relays.
Turns out, that team scoring at Worlds that nobody pays attention to actually DOES matter.
Michael Andrew is not at the top of the list, but he is in contention. In the U.S., it depends a lot on how things fall in… Read more »
I dont like the rule that you can only send 4 swimmers of each gender, that actually makes most of the relays pretty senseless, since no country will probably send 4 freestyle specialists or 4 100m specialists. I think it would be better if for example every country can only send 4 swimmers of each gender for individual events and some other swimmers to fill up the relays.
thomaslurzfan – it’s senseless in the typical swimming mindset of “put together the fastest relay and fastest swim you can.” However, to me it’s intriguing on a different level, a level that swimming needs to embrace more, which is “put together the best team of athletes who can satisfy multiple needs.” I think that mindset attracts more fans.
But most countries send the “Best” times (Points) of all swimmers.. So it is pretty much to luck.. you can have a team where you have a backstroker, a flyer, a breast and a freestyler or end up with 2 3 freestylers..
Rafael – that particular problem would be up to the countries to correct.
I’d like to see a format of 6 and 6. I think that would be a good number to still limit teams from just sending a different swimmer to enter in each event, but it would allow them to build better relays and such.
I agree, I think they should consider doubling it (8 for each gender). It would make the meet faster and deeper.
Wait, this is a thing? At what level or swimming are teams limited to 8 people total? Not the Olympics, Worlds, NCAAs, Europeans, SC Worlds, World Cup, Grand Prix, Pan Pacs, Commonwealths, Asian Games or any other high level swim meet I can think of.
How is it in any way indicative of the best young swimmers in each event? Lots of qualified people couldn’t swim. For the US or Australia, where it’s possible that they could be sporting five or six potential individual champs, that means that over the course of the meet, potential events winners and multiple medallist will be left out, and those that win will have their achievements cheapened b the fact that the meet… Read more »
Anyone know the lineup and times of australia? Looking forward to the medley relay.. 56:01, 1:02:33, 55:06 and 48:31 (bra Times)
And Of course.. the US Team..