Tom Decent of the Sydney Morning Herald says that World Aquatics has formally requested the addition of the 50m fly, 50m back, and 50m breast to the schedule for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, citing anonymous sources.
The events are present at the World Aquatics Championships, the (typically) every-other year, multi-discipline aquatics event. The only 50 meter race at the Olympics, though, is the 50 freestyle.
Adding more events to swimming, which already has 37 medal events including the men’s 800 free and women’s 1500 free that were added in Tokyo, adds extra complications. Beside critiques about ‘medal inflation,’ the Olympics already had an issue in 2024 with small fields in certain events because of new lower athlete caps for the Games instituted by the IOC.
Adding these stroke 50s may require creativity from World Aquatics to not dramatically expand the number of athletes invited while somehow justifying the events as distinct enough from existing races to be worth the expansion.
They could also create roster cap challenges for countries like the United States, which are already bumping up against the cap of 26 per gender.
The extra events could also risk extending a meet that has already moved to 9 days. Aside from any concerns that might create over the watchability and presentation of swimming, that becomes an issue in LA when swimming is the second week of the Olympics. Traditionally a week 1 sport, it was moved for Los Angeles (flipped with athletics) so that it could be hosted in So-Fi Stadium, which will also host the opening ceremony of the Games. Making the meet even longer would shorten the time that organizers have to turn the pool around from opening ceremony mode to swimming mode.
But more events wouldn’t necessarily mean a longer meet: the World Championships host a full contingent of 42 medals in just 8 days of competition.
One prominent swimming figure, Ian Thorpe, who rarely-if-ever swam 50 meter races, is in favor of the addition.
“The 50s need to be in … they’re important,” Thorpe told SMH. “It’s almost a unique event in itself that we should be acknowledging. They are exciting. I actually think it balances the program perfectly between sprint races and middle distance.
“I hope every swimmer is for it. Every fan of swimming should be for it. I don’t understand why there would be controversy around adding six swimming events to the program as swimming is a significant component to the Olympics.”
I don’t know about this. Too many swims already, but the 50 FR makes sense because it’s truly the fastest person over 1 length. Pare down. 800 is unnecessary. MMR too. Ideally they’d scrap all semis and do prelim/final format. The best could swim more events. Semis are not true semis – they’re another round of swimming hard and wearing out the athletes.
I like the off events at WCs, but the Olympic program can be a lot cleaner.
Meh. 50s. Only event you have to look at the scoreboard to see who won. There is a reason we once upon a time, stopped doing these when we turned 11. Please no.
Please add the 50s and remove the confusing mixed relays. Please, please, please.
Michael Phelps is saying “Noooooo!”
No!!! That’s what the world championships are for!
You know it’s a bad idea when Thorpe likes it.
Looking forward to USA swimming choosing the 50’s participants by who wins the 100’s!
Or some BS like that
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but I personally believe that what the average non swimmer wants to see at the olympics is sprinting. Just like in track the most viewed events are the 100, 200, 110 hurdles. The average sport enjoyer wants to see how fast people can run or swim and they don’t necessarily want to see someone swim a mile or run a 10k. I believe that 50s of stroke will bring viewership up significantly and hopefully bring more exposure to our sport.