Press Release courtesy of USA Swimming, with edit to clarify Mallory Comerford‘s medals.
A strong field of Team USA Olympians, world champions and USA Swimming National Team members will kick off 2018 at next week’s TYR Pro Swim Series at Austin, set for Jan. 11-14 at the University of Texas’ Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
The four-day meet opens Thursday, Jan. 11 and continues through Sunday, Jan. 14. Thursday through Saturday, daily prelims open at 9 a.m. CT followed by finals at 6 p.m. The meet concludes Sunday with timed finals for the 1500-meter freestyle at 8 a.m. CT. Single- and all-session tickets are on sale now online.
Nearly 20 U.S. Olympians, including individual gold medalists Nathan Adrian (Bremerton, Wash./California Aquatics), Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill./Tucson Ford Dealers Aquatics), Ryan Murphy (Jacksonville, Fla./California Aquatics) and Dana Vollmer (Granbury, Texas/California Aquatics), are among the standouts expected to compete in Austin.
Stars of the 2017 FINA World Championships slated to swim include double individual medley gold medalist Chase Kalisz (Bel Air, Md./ Athens Bulldog Swim Club) and five-time 2017 World Championship gold medalist Mallory Comerford (Kalamazoo, Mich./University of Louisville).
On the local front, Austin-based National Team members expected to compete include Olympian Jack Conger (Rockville, Md./Nation’s Capital Swim Club), Madisyn Cox (Lubbock, Texas/Longhorn Aquatics),Will Licon (El Paso, Texas/Longhorn Aquatics), Dakota Luther (Austin, Texas/Austin Swim Club), Olympian Clark Smith (Denver, Colo./Longhorn Aquatics) and Andrew Wilson (Bethesda, Md./Longhorn Aquatics).
NBC Sports will provide extensive coverage from Austin with live action on Thursday, Jan. 11 via the NBC Sports App, live television Friday, Jan. 12 on NBC Sports Network and Saturday, Jan. 13 on the Olympic Channel – all at 7 p.m. ET. Saturday’s coverage also will air on same-day delay on NBC Sports Network at midnight ET. All three finals session will also be streamed via NBC Sports, while a live webcast of prelims also will be available at usaswimming.org.
This meet is the first of six stops of the 2018 TYR Pro Swim Series, which features exciting adjustments to the Austin, Mesa and Santa Clara meets, including:
- Addition of 50-meter events for each of the strokes, culminating in a “shootout-style final,” as well as an 800m freestyle for men and 1500m free for women
- Mixed 400m medley relay featuring members of the National Team and a 200m “mystery” individual medley final in which stroke order will be determined immediately prior to the event
- Finals will feature A and B finals only
Also making its debut in Austin is USA Swim Squads, a new feature for 2018 that allows USA Swimming National Team members to compete for team points and a grand prize throughout this year’s events. Four teams, captained by Olympic legends Natalie Coughlin, Lenny Krayzelburg, Jason Lezak and Kaitlin Sandeno, will feature six active athletes designated across six event categories (one athlete per team per category) who are eligible to score points in a maximum of two events from that category – free, back, breast, fly, IM or flex.
In the 2018 TYR Pro Swim Series, swimmers may earn awards for top-three finishes in all individual Olympic events. At each meet, $1,000 will be provided for a first-place finish, $600 for second and $200 for third. Participants will be awarded points in each individual Olympic event throughout the duration of the series (Five points for first, three for second, one point for third place).
At 2018 Phillips 66 Nationals, the point totals will double to 10 points for first place, six for second and two points for third place. The final series tally will be computed after the 2018 Phillips 66 National Championships, slated for July 25-29 in Irvine, California, and the prizes will be awarded at that time.
The top eligible male and female overall point total winners in the series will earn a one-year lease of a BMW vehicle, as well as a $10,000 series bonus.
About USA Swimming
As the National Governing Body for the sport of swimming in the United States, USA Swimming is a 400,000-member service organization that promotes the culture of swimming by creating opportunities for swimmers and coaches of all backgrounds to participate and advance in the sport through clubs, events and education. Our membership is comprised of swimmers from the age group level to the Olympic Team, as well as coaches and volunteers. USA Swimming is responsible for selecting and training teams for international competition including the Olympic Games, and strives to serve the sport through its core objectives: Build the base, Promote the sport, Achieve competitive success. For more information, visit www.usaswimming.org.
Looks like Ryan Lochte is putting off his comeback. I’m about to win my 10 bucks.
Probably “ancient inside”, but I find pretty absurd that there are 5 relays at Worlds and so it’s possible to win 5 gold-medals also swimming just in the heats (not the case of Comerford at last Worlds, who swam 3 relay finals) #World medals inflation
It’s World Champs it’s so selective to get there I don’t think it’s a big deal
Mallory Comerford had 5 relay gold medals from last World Championships. Missy Franklin has 7 relay gold medals from three world championships. Why the reaction to Mallory’s achievements is quite different than in Missy’s case?
In fact it wasn’t a reaction (reaction?) to Comerford’s achievement (“en passant”: I’m pretty enthusiastic about Comerford’s season and her perspective in next years), but a general/generic issue (of little importance, I know, because the number of medals increase in the big events is convenient to everybody, both nations and athletes) regarding the number of relays at Worlds.
Nothing else.
I wasn’t trying to be offensive. You just brought to the discussion the relays issue and I replied to it but not to you personally. Simone Manuel could have as many relays gold medal as Mallory Comerford had. She’s chosen not to. Probably focusing on individual races. Should Mallory did the same she may had a great chance to medal at 100free race. So should we praise Mallory for such sacrifice because of importance of relays in swimming competition or should we say that relays take too much place in swimming meets.
five time olympic gold medalist mallory comerford??? hmm
It actually says “five time gold medalist,” no Olympics. It’s referring to her LC World Championship medals from last summer, though I agree, USA Swimming’s release could’ve provided more clarity there. We’ll update to make it more obvious what they mean.
I read the updated phrasing and was still surprised. But, apparently, it is true. Comerford, with no individual medals, won five relay golds.
Makes me think there are too many relay opportunities. Comerford is awesome, but how does she out-medal Sjostrom? (and almost Ledecky!)
very misleading
So, is Missy ever coming back or do we really know? Just curious.
Always check the little round pictures
What???
that doesn’t answer the question of “is missy ever coming back”
800 free for men and 1500 free for women? Hope this is true.