FINA has announced the initial qualifying standards for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan**, including the new men’s 800m and women’s 1500m freestyle cuts. A maximum of 28 men and 28 women can be selected from each nation, with 878 Universality Places designated for 2020 edition of the Games.
**The standards still need to be officially ratified by FINA in December of this year before they are distributed to all National Olympic Committees.
The qualification period is March 1st, 2019 through June 29th, 2020.
The priority order for qualification places will be as they have been in the past as follows:
1. All athletes with Olympic Qualifying Times (OQT / “A” Time)
2. Athletes in relays
3. Universality Places
4. Invited athletes who have achieved an Olympic Selection Time (OST / “B” time)
Swimmers will be able to achieve the time standards at a to-be-published FINA-approved qualification event. The calendar of approved meets is set to be published on February 28, 2019.
Additionally, a maximum of 16 teams in each relay event will qualify, with each NOC entering one team in each relay event. The top 12 teams from the 2019 World Championships will be selected, while the remaining 4 to be determined based on times produced between March 1, 2019 and March 31, 2020.
Look for a qualification time analysis post to follow. You can also see the entire FINA Olympic qualification explanation here.
How many people typically get invited for a ‘B’ Cut time? Does anyone have numbers from past olympics?
Hi! Thank you for this only have to shave 20 secs!
Thought I had to shave 30
You mean we won’t get to see this anymore!?
https://youtu.be/y2teSx5xiRk
There have always been cuts. That was a wild card heat with swimmers from developing countries.
where is the 50fly time at?
This is the 14th place of the heats in Rio for the A cut. For London, they used the 16th place from London, ending up with only 20 invited swimmers which are not from countries using universality places and which did not have an A-Cut. With now 22 swimmers less allowed to participate in total (878 instead of 900) and more races (even though the men’s 800 and women’s 1500 will not add too many swimmers), with the 16th place as A-cut FINA would have run into the risk of not even being able to accomodate every A-Cut swimmer the national federations send…
16th place of the last olympics is already a very steep cut imho, potentially thinning out… Read more »
Thanks for the explanation. It makes sense and doesn’t make sense 😉
lol
That’s world swimming for you!
Sorry, I meant for Rio they used the 16th place from London…
Had these A cuts been in place for 2017 Worlds, then the United States would not have been able to send 2 athletes in the Men’s 1500, correct?
Going to be a small field 🙂
Only 16 women swam under 57.92 in 100 fly last year, while 57 women were faster than 16:32.04 in 1500 free.?
Remember these are just the proposed QTs. They’ll undoubtedly use Euros and Pan Pacs this year and worlds next year to adjust the times.
How many countries were represented by the 16 flyers? How many countries were represented by the 57 milers? Looking at those numbers may level things out a bit.
Why? Why 100 fly?