US Open and Junior Nationals Will Combine into One Meet in 2020

The 2020 US Open and USA Swimming Junior National Championships will be held from August 4th-8th, 2020 at the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The meet, which will be held in its traditional post-Olympic Trials time slow will actually start 2 days after the swimming at the 2020 Olympic Games ends.

Of all the meets approved this week, these will see the biggest change in format in 2020. Specifically, the U.S. Open and Junior National Championships in 2020 will be run concurrently. USA Swimming says they’re still nailing down the naming convention for the event, but that in essence, the summer of 2020 will have two big national meets: the Olympic Trials, and this hybrid US Open/Junior Nationals event.

The reduction in national meets in the year of the Olympic Trials makes sense on some level because so much is focused on those Trials – the subsection of swimmers who don’t race at the Olympic Trials, but still have a US Open cut, is a relatively-small group. This combined solution still gives a late-summer taper opportunity for those who want it or those who have a breakthrough season at some point after its too late for Trials and still provides a developmental opportunity for junior swimmers, but does so without requiring the cost or logistical outlay for 2 additional meets at the end of the summer.

We are hoping to have comment from someone at USA Swimming to explain the specific process by which this decision was made, but have not as of yet received that comment.