Swimming at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games will begin Sunday, August 17th, 2014 and run through August 22nd in Nanjing, China.
In addition to broadcasters around the world, the International Olympic Committee will be streaming the entire Youth Olympic Games live on several different platforms.
Watch Live
- In China – Click here.
- Rest of the world – see streaming videos here.
- On your phone: Download the Olympic TV App on iOS and Android
Schedule/Results
- Live Results here: Results Link.
- Event Schedule Here (see page 10).
- Boys Entries List
- Girls Entries List
- Entry List by event
Session Start Times
Prelims begin at 10AM local time and finals begin at 6PM local time. Around the world that’s:
- 7PM/3AM U.S. West Coast Time
- 8PM/4AM U.S. Mountain Time
- 9PM/5AM U.S. Central Time
- 10PM/6AM U.S. East Coast Time
- 11PM/7AM Rio de Janeiro Time
- 3AM/11AM London Time
- 4AM/Noon Berlin/South Africa Time
- 6AM/2PM Moscow Time
- 11AM/7PM Tokyo Time
- Noon/8PM Sydney Time
5 Storylines to Watch at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games
The storylines at the Youth Olympic Games aren’t as obvious as other major international meets, simply because not every top 15-18 year old boy or 14-17 year old girl is at the meet.
Still, upon further inspection, there are still some very interesting possible results – including a couple from the Brazilians, who had the meet’s biggest male star skip Pan Pacs for this event.
1. Matheus Santana Sprint Star – There were high hopes for the men’s sprint freestyles coming into this meet and the battle that it could be. Santana versus American star Caeleb Dressel versus Russian star Evgeny Sedov. Dressel missed the selection meets (the first few Grand Prix meets), but the battle between the 50 free Junior World Record holder Sedov and the 100 free Junior World Record holder Santana was still tantalizing.
Sanatana is skipping Pan Pacs to be at this meet, and Sedov was going to skip Euros to be here as well. That was torpedo’ed as well, once Sedov pulled out of the meet with a back injury.
Santana now becomes the big favorite. He won’t be swimming entirely alone – there is still a very good list of swimmers behind him. That includes Poland’s Jan Holub, Australia’s brightest young star Kyle Chalmers, and USC/collegiate swimmer Dylan Carter – a USA National Age Group Record holder who represents Trinidad & Tobago internationally. That’s still a lot of good talent in the field to challenge Santana.
2. Southeast Asian Sprinters Looking For Repeat of Fantastic 2013 Seasons – There’ are two very talented young sprinters coming out of Southeast Asia in the next few years, and they’ll both be at this meet. On the women’s side, that is Hong Kong’s Siobhan Bernadette Haughey, who won the Junior World title in the 100 free last year in a new Meet Record of 54.47. On the boys’ side, it’s 15-year old Darren Lim from Singapore – the highest-ranked 15-year old sprinter in the meet. While neither swimmer has the traditional sprinter height – Haughey is listed at 5’7″, and Lim is listed at 5’8″, they can both move some water.
3. Brazilian Girls Making Waves – Every year, it seems, there is a new impressive young male Brazilian, often a sprinter, who is going to be the next Cesar Cielo or Thiago Pereira. Rarely, though, is there a lot of young female talent to excite those masses, because of several reasons, including what some have pegged as a culture problem within the sport in that country. That’s all changing, though, and this meet is a good representation of how. 17-year old Giovanna Tomanik has a couple of chances at medals with a 1:00.25 in the 100 fly and a 2:01.16 in the 200 free; and Natalia de Luccas is the South American Record holder in the 200 back and could medal in any of the three backstroke distances. Those backstroke races, especially the 100 with de Luccas, American Clara Smiddy, and Britain’s Jessica Fullalove, will be one of the best races of the meet.
4. Ruta Meilutyte Sacrificing Euros for Youth Olympics – Ruta Meilutyte made a tough decision to go after the Youth Olympic Games instead of the European Championships this year. We, for one, applaud both her choice and her rationale – the Youth Olympics age brackets are specifically designed so that everyone gets just one crack at it. Meilutyte will have many, many more opportunities to win European titles, but just as she chose for last year’s Junior Worlds, she would have a missing link in her progression to not have a Youth Olympics medal. She had originally planned to make the flight and do both, but Youth Olympics organizers highly encourage athletes to stay for the closing ceremonies. The fact that Meilutyte will win medals is almost foregone. If she can come close to, or even break, her own World Records in either the 50 or 100 breaststroke, it would bring a lot of credibility to this event that is still struggling to gain traction in certain corners of sport.
The 17-year old British trained star will be a big favorite in the 50 and 100 breaststrokes, and a fairly strong one in the 200 IM as well. The American Meaghan Small, after a 2:12 in the 200 IM at U.S. Nationals last week, will give her a bigger challenge in the 200 IM than expected based on entry lists. The 100 free, though, will be an interesting challenge, as she’s only the 4th seed. Before finding her breaststroke rhythm, Meilutyte was lined up to be a sprinter, so she has the capability there. We just haven’t seen it at full-strength yet to find out just how much she has to give.
5. Can the Americans Medal in Any Relays? – American swimmers are used to placing high on medals tables at international meets. On the rare instances where they don’t dominate the final tally, they’re at least near the top. In 2010, however, the Americans ranked just 10th with 1 gold and 2 silvers, behind leaders China (11 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze) and Australia (4 gold, 6 silver, 6 bronze).
The Americans again have a team with talented swimmers, but who might be limited in medals. Clara Smiddy is in position to pick up some hardware in the backstroke races. Meaghan Small in the 200 IM and Justin Wright, who’s saved his full taper for Nanjing, could be on podiums as well. But the American relays are in trouble. The Youth Olympics can make for some very interesting relays, because each country is limited to either 2 or 4 athletes (depending on their finish in team scoring at the last World Championships). The Americans get 4 boys and 4 girls, and because of the selection methodology used to choose the team, they wound up with a whole lot of backstrokers and distance freestylers.
There’s certainly capable freestylers on both rosters, and the men have Wright to swim their butterfly leg, but the Americans didn’t wind up with the big anchor leg on either side that could bring them home to medals. They’re not the only country in that boat, so there’s always a chance, but a breaststroker and a sprinter finding their way onto these relays would have lifted the Americans’ hopes. Expect the Chinese and Brazilians instead to do very well on those relays.
Hong Kong sprinter
Singapore sprinter
Brazil’s new youth women’s movement
He will probably need a 47; high 48 flat to do that.
Carter can definitely win the hundred free
Good to know about Justin Wright. It’s always hard to tell with the jr. Swimmers where they are in the training session. His Nationals swims seemed a bit lacking; hope to see a breakout swim back in the sub-2 minute range.
Ruta 2 seconds faster than the second one on 100 breast, and Santana 1 second faster than the second one on 100 free, that on % are the highest differences (Sheet) between 1st and 2nd seed right?
*Damian
Jan Holub is from Poland, but maybe you want to add Damien Wierling (Germany) to that list. He came second at EuroJrs this year in a 49.3x (100m Free)