FINA Publishes 87 Qualifying Events for 2018 World Championships

FINA has announced the list of qualifying events for the 2018 World Short Course Championships that will be held from December 11th-16th, 2018 in Hangzhou, China. Qualifying began in November of 2017 and will continue up until the start of the meet.

There are relatively-limited opportunities to qualify, especially for those outside of Europe. Of the 87 listed qualifying events, 61 are in Europe. Only 3 are in Africa, and just 2 are in the Oceanic region. Outside of Hong Kong, there are no qualifying meets listed in China, the host country of the World Championships. The Austin, Atlanta, Mesa, Santa Clara, and Columbus stops of the TYR Pro Swim Series are also included.

FINA hasn’t publicly released the qualifying standards yet, but various reports from federation implies that they’ve received the standards, and that a standard “A” and “B” time system will be employed. In that system, countries with 2 swimmers that have “A” standards in an event can enter them both, while countries with one swimmer with an “A” or multiple swimmers with “B” standards in an event can only enter 1 swimmer in that event. Those standards could be further limited by a country’s domestic selection criteria.

We’ve asked FINA for the standards, but did not receive a response.

The United States led the medal winners at the 2016 World Short Course Championships, winning 8 gold and 30 total medals. Hungary had the 2nd-most golds with 7 (11 total), while Russia had the 2nd-most total medals with 14 (6 gold).

• View the full list of qualifying meets here.