Swimming Australia has set its calendar for major meets leading up to Tokyo 2021, headlined by Olympic Trials. The organization has essentially mirrored its original plans from 2020.
The year will begin with the Australian Open Water Swimming Championships on January 29-31, followed by the Australian Age Swimming Championships April 5-12, then the Australian Swimming Championships April 14-18. Trials will be held June 12-17 in Adelaide – the meet was previously scheduled for June 14-19, 2020. Venues for the other events will be revealed at a later date.
Though the overall calendar is similar, Swimming Australia announced one key change to the national championship meet in April: to prep for the Tokyo schedule, finals will be swum in the morning and heats in the evening. (Before it was canceled, USA Swimming was going to do the same at the Mission Viejo Pro Swim Series stop in April).
“With the prospect of international racing still up in the air leading into Tokyo, we’ve been working really closely with our state and territory associations to make sure the complete domestic calendar provides plenty of strong, quality race practice for our athletes,” Swimming Australia High Performance Chief Strategist Alex Baumann said.
“The preparation our athletes will now experience due to the challenges they’ve all faced with COVID-19 will be vastly different to their original plans, so it was imperative that we provide them with the best possible platform to reboot and adapt as they strive to achieve their goals.
“One of those measures was scheduling finals in the morning and heats at night during the Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming Champs in April to replicate the program our athletes will encounter at the Olympics. It’s going to assist in their preparation and allow them to experience the change in race scheduling just a few months out from Tokyo.”
In addition to the early 2021 schedule, Swimming Australia also confirmed that the first national racing opportunity following the COVID-19 pandemic will be the Australian Short Course Swimming Championships from November 26-29 in Melbourne.
The current Olympic cycle marks the first since Swimming Australia shifted to the American model of holding Trials relatively close to the Olympic Games. In 2016, and in prior Olympic years, Australian timing involved Olympic Trials happening in April, 3 1/2 months ahead of the start of the Games, rather than the approximately five weeks out that they will now occur.
Swimming Australia 2021 Calendar:
Hancock Prospecting Australian Short Course Swimming Championships, Melbourne: 26-29 November 2020
Australian Open Water Swimming Championships: 29-31 January 2021
This will form part of the men’s nomination process for Tokyo.
Hancock Prospecting Australian Age Swimming Championships: 5-12 April 2021
This will form part of the selection process for the international junior benchmark events for 2021.
Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming Championships: 14-18 April 2021
This will form part of the selection process for the international junior benchmark events for 2021.
Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming Trials, Adelaide: 12-17 June 2021
Athletes will be nominated to the Australian team to compete at the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Melbourne is looking shaky as host atm with Covid spikes going on there … I’m surprised Sydney is largely ignored now for major meets
I think Verram means this November in Melbourne for short course
Is Australian Age in Perth or has location changed from 2020?
Any news on junior worlds 2021 ?
Location I meant . If it is held at all.