The 2020 Olympic Marathon (Open Water) Swimming Qualifying event will take place in Fukuoka, Japan, as awarded at the latest meeting of the FINA Bureau.
FINA announced the news in a press release this week. The Bureau awarded a number of events, most of them in water polo, artistic swimming (formerly synchronized swimming) and diving:
- FINA World Junior Artistic Swimming Championships 2020 – Quebec City (CAN)
- FINA World Junior Diving Championships 2020 – Kiev (UKR)
- FINA Marathon Swimming OG Qualification 2020 – Fukuoka (JPN)
- FINA Men’s WP Qualification Tournament 2020 – Rotterdam (NED)
- FINA Women’s WP Qualification Tournament 2020 – Italy (city tbc)
- FINA World Women’s Youth WP Championships (18&U) 2020 – Netanya (ISR)
- FINA World Men’s Youth WP Championships (18&U) 2020 – Istanbul (TUR)
- FINA World WP Age Group Championships 2020 (16&U) – Volos (GRE)
The open water Olympic qualifier is one of two ways athletes can qualify for the 2020 Olympics. The top 10 male and female finishers in the 10K at this summer’s World Championships will earn Olympic spots. The Fukuoka event will be the second round of qualifying – the top 9 finishers will qualify, but only one athlete per nation can qualify through that event. Then the next-best finisher from each continent will also qualify to ensure continental representation.
The date of the Olympic Open Water Qualifier has not been revealed yet. In the last Olympic cycle, the event took place in June of 2016, about two months out of the Olympic Games.