USA Swimming has released a statement about the postponed 2020 Olympics, promising to reschedule the U.S. Olympic Trials “to best align with Olympic Games preparation.”
USA Swimming CEO Tim Hinchey says the organization “will work with our athletes, coaches, teams and committees to shift our preparations, and schedule a calendar of events that properly readies our team for 2021.” There is no set timeline for Olympic rescheduling – the IOC has only said that the event will be rescheduled “to a date beyond 2020 but not later than summer 2021.”
The full USA Swimming statement is below:
“In this globally unprecedented time, today’s joint announcement by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 organizers was the responsible, though understandably difficult decision to make. We are incredibly thankful to have stood next to the USOPC, fellow U.S. national sports governing bodies and sport federations around the world in advocating for the health and safety of our athletes, members and their families. All athletes around the world can now focus on what is most important – safeguarding their health and being good global citizens in the wake of this extraordinary pandemic.
“We will work with our athletes, coaches, teams and committees to shift our preparations, and schedule a calendar of events that properly readies our team for 2021. We will work closely with the USOPC on rescheduling the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming to best align with Olympic Games preparations as further details become known.
“Most importantly, we will focus on finding ways to support our 400,000 members and their communities, and strategizing with our more than 3,000 clubs to ensure they are well-placed to come out of this stronger than ever.”
– Tim Hinchey, USA Swimming Chief Executive Officer
Leave Omaha… go to San Antonio… Alamo dome
Somewhat related, I’ve got to wonder why we don’t make Olympic Trials have morning finals, assuming Tokyo still follows that schedule.
I know it’s not the most important thing, but I’m curious what athletes who took an Olympic redshirt will do: give up a year of true eligibility, or swim with their collegiate teams. I was excited to see athletes like Dean back in short course.
Got to say, making Olympic Trials by a few hundredths by having the swim of my life sucks right now. Hopefully people in my position will still be able to attend the meet next year.
Depending on when they put the Olympics, this could really screw up NCAAs.
Right, even if the Games are in April-ish, Spring time. Imagine trying to manage a womens team for conference, mens team for conference, womens NCAA, mens NCAA, stragglers of post grad for Trials plus re resting the NCAA group? If this happens, we may see some tough choices on shave/taper meets.
Do they plan on changing the qualification times? Will they make them faster? Is that allowed?
Lindsay Mintenko has done a phenomenal job communicating with national team coaches and swimmers through this process. She is in a tough position, but she has shown great leadership.
Will be interesting when they schedule it. At this point we don’t know how long this will go on. I’m thinking in a few months training facilities would be open again, so that gives athletes a good 6-9 months of preparation before trials? On the extreme end if this carries on for 6-12 months then do they have enough preparation time?