With roughly 1400 athletes qualified to compete at the 2016 US Olympic Swim Team Trials in Omaha this summer, we wanted to break each event down by the numbers. Six athletes qualified for the first time this weekend at the Minneapolis Arena Pro Swim.
The Olympic Trials qualifier information was updated yesterday. Taking a deeper look at these events, we can see which standards are a little tougher, and with standards were a little slower than anticipated.
In 2012, the girl’s 200 backstroke was one of the most entered events at the Olympic Trials with 190 entries. USA swimming made that time standard 1.40 seconds faster this year, and it is easy to tell that the standard got quicker for this cycle. With six months remaining before the 2016 Olympic Trials, there are currently only 123 athletes qualified for the women’s 200 backstroke.
Currently, the time standards in the 50 freestyle and 100 backstroke have been easier to achieve than the standards for the other events. Currently, 138 women and 143 men have qualified for the 50 freestyle while 140 women and 163 men have qualified for the 100 backstroke. Those numbers are significantly higher than the men’s average of 110.2 swimmers per event and the women’s average of 111.7 swimmers per event.
From 2012 to 2016, the time standards in the 50 freestyle each got .20 seconds fasters, the women’s 100 backstroke time standard got .60 seconds faster, and the men’s 100 backstroke got .40 seconds faster. Although each event did improve anywhere from .69% to .94%, it probably could have been a little faster to put it on track with the other events.
Take a look at the number of qualifiers in each event in the chart below:
|
Women’s |
Events |
Men’s |
|
138 |
50 Free |
143 |
|
84 |
100 Free |
88 |
|
111 |
200 Free |
102 |
|
113 |
400 Free |
109 |
|
85 |
800 Free |
x |
| x |
1500 Free |
97 |
|
140 |
100 Back |
164 |
|
123 |
200 Back |
113 |
|
103 |
100 Breast |
113 |
|
111 |
200 Breast |
96 |
|
115 |
100 Fly |
114 |
|
95 |
200 Fly |
84 |
|
119 |
200 IM |
110 |
|
116 |
400 IM |
100 |
|
1453 |
<–Totals–> |
1433 |
2016 MEN’S OLYMPIC TRIALS QUALIFIERS (AS OF 11/15/2015)
2016 WOMEN’S OLYMPIC TRIALS QUALIFIERS (AS OF 11/15/2015)
|
|
Track and field limits their trials fields to 32 even for the events the us is the most competitive in such as the sprints and hurdles. I agree that it is absurd to have so many athletes competing in this meet when the overwhelming majority (90 %) have zero chance of making the team.
To put on this kind of event with the amenities that are expected, the seats have to be filled. You need athletes with families and friends to fill the seats! Swimmers will have an optimum opportunity with a great atmosphere to achieve their very best. Yes, we had numbers in 2012. Yes, the warm-up/warm-down area was a little crowded at certain times. Yes, 1400 at 6 months out is a little scary. But we will rise to the challenge, welcome every swimmer and their family and friends to Omaha, roll out the red carpet for all who attend the event, and raise the competition bar as high as humanly possible!
I totally disagree. We need to provide our next generation of swimmers the opportunity to experience this event so they are ready four years later. For some older swimmers this is the pinnacle of their careers. So to try to over- elite this event is a bad idea. The NCAA limits entries because they don’t want to pay for it. Money goes to revenue sports. This event is our Super Bowl and to dumb it down to a bad example event is just dumb.
This is getting absurdly big. Time for the USOC to initiate an A time/B time process like the NCAA, but perhaps not with such small numbers. 1,400 athletes means the pool and the practice pool will effectively be too crowded for meaningful warm-up, warm-downs, and the sessions will be extremely long, They should set a time for an A standard that allows perhaps 50 per event, then let in B times until the total number of swimmers in the meet caps out at a number (500, 750 still makes it pretty wide open, but 1,400 swimmers is too many. They also should consider running the top 6-8 heats of each event first, then running the remaining heats so swimmers in… Read more »
I completely agree. This is a team USA ELITE selection meet. There is no reason for there to be more than 8 heats of any of the races. I’ve felt for the last few trials that setting a percentage of the previous olympic qualifying time in the event is a good marker. For hypothetical example a swim 95% of the 21.60 that it took Ervin to get second in the 50 in 2012 would mean the qualifying time for Trials this time around would be 22.74(37 swimmers currently under). This sort of system, if properly calibrated should provide a finite qualification time, while limiting participants, and offering “fill in” opportunities if USA swimming wanted to swim 48 swimmers per event.… Read more »