A new meet will make its début on the international short-course circuit this December, the first of its kind to be held in the Olympic city of Lausanne, Switzerland, home of both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA). Hosted by Lausanne Natation, the first annual Lausanne Swim Cup will take place on December 17 and 18, at the club’s facilities on Lake Geneva.
With FINA backing, this meet is designed to be the final stop on the European short course circuit, taking place each December just after either the World Short Course Championships or the European Short Course Championships, which alternate years. In 2016, the Lausanne Swim Cup will follow the 13th FINA World Swimming Championships in Windsor, Canada (to be held from December 6-11, 2016).
Meet director Christophe Debize told SwimSwam, “We are excited to bring the international swimming community to our Olympic city. Both the IOC and FINA are headquartered here and yet this will be the first international competition of its kind in Switzerland. We decided to focus on quality, so we have limited the number of participants to 200. The format will be about 3 hours of heats in the morning, followed by 2 hours of finals in the afternoon. We are planning a lot of surprises. This is a great city with an enthusiastic and supportive swimming community. In addition, we have had an excellent response from our sponsors, so we think this will be a fantastic meet for the athletes.”
Those sponsors (so far they include official sponsors Nestlé Health Science, Myrtha Pools, Debiopharm Group, Galderma, AMAG, Rivella, Pictet, Nestlé, Adecco, and UBS, as well as technical sponsors Nespresso, AMAG, Rivella, Hôtel Aquatis, and PowerBar) have allowed the Lausanne Swim Cup to offer 40,000 Swiss francs in prize money, with an additional budget of 40,000 Swiss francs for travel assistance. Prize money will be awarded as follows:
- CHF500 for each event winner (16 events – 50/100/200 of each stroke, plus 100/200/400 IM and 400 free)
- CFH200 for each performance in excess of 900 FINA points
- CF18,000 for the top ten FINA performances of the meet, men and women combined:
- #1 CHF4000
- #2 CHF3000
- #3 CHF2500
- #4 CHF 2000
- #5 CHF1500
- #6-10 CHF1000 each
The program will consist of:
- Saturday: 50m fly, 50m back, 400m medley, 100m breast, 100m free, 200m fly, 200m back, 100m medley
- Sunday: 200m breast, 200m free, 100m fly, 100m back, 200m medley, 50m breast, 50m free, 400m free
with A and B finals for 50s, 100s and 200s and A finals for 400s.
The weekend with conclude with an awards banquet for the top ten performers of the meet to be held at The Olympic Museum, with its scenic views of Lake Geneva and the Swiss Alps.
The qualifying standards of the meet can be found here:
| MEN | WOMEN | |
| 50 free | 22.81 | 26.17 |
| 100 free | 50.61 | 57.44 |
| 200 free | 1.51.91 | 2.04.76 |
| 400 free | 3.59.04 | 4.24.12 |
| 50 back | 25.02 | 28.91 |
| 100 back | 55.11 | 1.01.97 |
| 200 back | 1.59.50 | 2.14.28 |
| 50 breast | 28.43 | 32.43 |
| 100 breast | 1.02.63 | 1.10.23 |
| 200 breast | 2.15.69 | 2.31.55 |
| 50 fly | 24.55 | 27.45 |
| 100 fly | 54.55 | 1.01.50 |
| 200 fly | 2.02.26 | 2.14.71 |
| 100 IM | 57.05 | 1.03.85 |
| 200 IM | 2.03.47 | 2.17.24 |
| 400 IM | 4.25.23 | 4.52.66 |
For further information, click here