FINA Confirms 50 Participants for Olympic Marathon Swimming

FINA has confirmed the 25 men and 25 women who will participate in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in the Marathon Open Water 10km swim. The lists have been released now that all invited federations have confirmed their intent to send qualified swimmers.

The first 10 spots  on the list were awarded on the basis of the results of the 2015 World Aquatics Championships 10k race. Notably, American Jordan Wilimovsky and France’s Aurelie Mueller lead the way as the defending World Champions (though 2012 proved that this isn’t necessarily as valuable in open water as one might expect).

Also of significance is that Brazil earned invites in both the men’s and the women’s field based on their placing at the World Championships, meaning that no further spots needed to be held for the host country.

That meant that the top 10 finishers (of each gender) at the Open Water Qualifier in Setubal, Portugal in early June, plus the next-best swimmers from each of the FINA-defined 5 continents, also earned a bid.

• Qualifying breakdown (men)
• Qualifying breakdown (women)

There was some drama in New Zealand, who initially declined to send either of their qualifiers, Kane Radford or Charlotte Webby, on the basis of them not being competitive. Upon appeal and public outcry, Radford’s spot was reinstated (only after FINA claims to have offered the spot to another swimmer), but Webby was held out. Her spot then went to the next-fastest swimmer overall who was not already qualified, which wound up being Portugal’s Vania Neves. Neves didn’t even swim at last year’s World Championships in open water, but earned her spot with a 16th place finish at the qualifier in Portugal.

While defending Olympic gold medalist Ous Mellouli and defending Olympic bronze medalist Richard Weinberger both return to defend their positions from the 2012 Olympics, there is huge turnover in the overall field on the men’s side – in a side of the sport that historically allows swimmers to extend careers longer than in the pool. The 2nd place finisher Thomas Lurz, as well as the 5th-through-12th place finishers, from London won’t compete in Rio.

The women’s side is also dented: defending Olympic bronze medalist Martina Grimaldi will be absent absent. That leaves defending gold medalist Eva Risztov and defending silver medalist Haley Anderson as returning medalists from London. They placed 9th and 10th, respectively, at Worlds last year.

MEN
USA	WILIMOVSKY Jordan
NED	WEERTMAN Ferry
GRE	GIANNIOTIS Spyridon
USA	RYAN Sean
GBR	BURNELL Jack Rex David
FRA	OLIVIER Marc-Antoine Daniel Frede
ITA	RUFFINI Simone
CAN	WEINBERGER Richard
BRA	DO CARMO Allan
ITA	VANELLI Federico
CHN	ZU Lijun
GER	REICHERT Christian
ECU	ENDERICA OCHOA Ivan
RUS	DRATTCEV Evgenii
TUN	MELLOULI Oussama
SVK	NAGY Richard
AUS	POORT Jarrod
JPN	HIRAI Yasunari
RSA	HO Chad
BUL	AYDARSKI Ventsislav
HUN	PAPP Mark
VEN	MALDONADO Erwin
NZL	RADFORD Kane Rae Francis
KAZ	KHUDYAKOV Vitaliy
EGY	ELAMRAWY Marwan Ahmed Aly Morsy

WOMEN
FRA	MULLER Aurelie
NED	VAN ROUWENDAAL Sharon
BRA	CUNHA Ana Marcela
ITA	BRUNI Rachele
RUS	KRAPIVINA Anastasiia
BRA	OKIMOTO Poliana
GER	HARLE Isabelle
GRE	ARAOUZOU Kalliopi
USA	ANDERSON Haley
HUN	RISZTOV Eva
CHN	XIN Xin
GBR	PAYNE Keri-Anne
ECU	AREVALO Samantha
AUS	GUBECKA Chelsea
JPN	KIDA Yumi
RSA	WEBER Michelle
POL	ZACHOSZCZ Joanna
VEN	PEREZ Paola
SLO	PERSE Spela
CZE	PECHANOVA Jana
ESP	VILLAECIJA Erika
CAN	HORNER Stephanie
POR	NEVES Vania
MAS	GAN Heidi
EGY	KASEEM Reem Mohamed Hussein Elsayed