After coming in a bit stingy with their Olympic roster in 2012, where only 13 swimmers made the trip to London, things have opened up a bit in Spain as the host team of the 2013 World Championships that will run from the end of July through early August.
In total, the Spaniards have a roster of 20 destined for the pool in Barcelona, with the notable difference coming in a much deeper men’s roster that includes two relays (they didn’t qualify for any at the Olympics, though relay qualifying standards for that meet are significantly stingier.)
The star of the team will again be Mireia Belmonte-Garcia, who now with all of her training questions answered is swimming well again. She’s swimming basically the same schedule that she tackled in London, including the 800 free and 200 fly where she won silver medals, and adding to it the non-Olympic 1500 meter freestyle.
Her toughest part of the meet will be the first two days; on Sunday, she’ll swim a double with the 200 IM semifinal before the 400 free final, and then the next day will have the 1500 free prelims in the morning and the 200 IM final in the evening.
Melania Costa-Schmid will be her partner in the hotly-contested women’s middle distance freestyles, while Erika Villaecija-Garcia will focus on the longest race on the pool schedule, the 1500 free, to which she’ll likely add another open water appearance. She pulled a similar double at the Olympics, though it was the 800 there (she was 10th in prelims) plus an 8th-place finish in the 10km open water race. Keep in mind that there are more open water races at Worlds than at the Olympics (a 5km swim and 25km swim are added.)
On the men’s side, Rafael Munoz, who remains the World Record holder in the 50 fly, will be on the team in the 50 and 100 butterfly races after missing the Olympics by an excruciating .12 seconds last year.
Also on the men’s team is Aschwin Wildeboer, who is on a month-long trial with the South African Players’ Club. He has once again dropped the 200 back for the World Championships. He swam the race at the Olympics (without much luck), but hasn’t swum it at Worlds now since 2009 (he entered in 2011 but scratched.)
Women’s Team
Mireia Belmonte-Garcia- 200 IM, 400 Free, 1500 Free, 200 Fly, 800 Free, 400 IM
Patricia Castro-Ortega- 200 Free
Melania Costa-Schmid- 400 Free, 200 Free, 100 Free
Duana Da Rocha-Marce- 100 Back, 50 Back, 200 Back
Marina Garcia-Urzainqui- 100 Fly, 200 Fly, 50 Fly
Beatriz Gomez-Cortes- 200 IM
Judith Ignacio Sorribes – 100 Fly, 200 Fly
Merche Peris-Minguet- 100 Back, 50 Back
Jessica Vall-Montero- 50 Fly
Erika Villaecija-Garcia- 1500 Free
RELAYS – 400 Free, 200 Free, 400 Medley8
Men’s Team
Markel Alberdi-Sarobe- 400 Free Relay Only
Victor Martin- 200 Free
Aitor Martinez-Rodriguez- 100 Free
Rafael Munoz Perez- 50 Fly, 100 Fly
Albert Puig Garrich- 200 IM
Juan Miguel Rando Galvez- 50 Back
Gerard Rodriguez- 800 Free Relay Only
Marc Sanchez-Torrens- 800 Free, 1500 Free
Aschwin Wildeboer- 100 Back, 50 Back
RELAYS – 400 Free, 800 free