2023 BRITISH SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIPS
- Tuesday, April 4th – Sunday, April 9th
- Prelims at 9:30 am local (4:30 am EDT)/Finals at 6:00 pm local (1:00 pm EDT)
- Ponds Forge, Sheffield
- LCM (50m)
- World Championships Qualifier
- World Championships Original Selection Criteria
- Revised Selection Criteria
- Draft Entries
- Live Results
- Livestream
As we enter day four of the 2023 British Swimming Championships, British Swimming has updated its selection policy for this summer’s World Championships.
‘Following a meeting of the British Swimming selectors, the World Class Programme Leadership Team has decided to enact clause G14 of the Selection Policy General Conditions for the 2023 World Swimming Championships in Fukuoka, Japan,’ the organization said today.
Neither the qualifying standards nor the consideration standards from the original policy were changed. The new verbiage only applies to the discretionary selections that may be made by the upper echelons of the coaching and performance staff.
Specifically, the original policy read that up to a maximum of 8 discretionary selections may be made. However, the updated policy removes the specific number and simply reads ‘additional selections.’
The 5.3 below refers to ranking other athletes who have achieved consideration standards based on a percentage inside of those standards.
Revised 5.2. “Following the selection of athletes under 5.1, additional selections may be made at the discretion of the PD and the GB Head Coach. As well as other considerations, the PD and GB Head Coach may use the rankings compiled under 5.3 below as a guide to assist the exercise of their discretion. In the event the PD and GB Head Coach are unable to agree then the PD’s selection decision shall be final.”
Original 5.2. “Following the selection of athletes under 5.1, up to a maximum of eight (8) additional selections may be made at the discretion of the PD and the GB Head Coach. As well as other considerations, the PD and GB Head Coach may use the rankings compiled under 5.3 below as a guide to assist the exercise of their discretion. In the event the PD and GB Head Coach are unable to agree then the PD’s selection decision shall be final.”
The organization says this revision has been made in order to give the squad its best opportunity to optimize medal outcomes in Olympic individual and relay events.
Through 3 days of competition in Ponds Forge, only 3 swimmers have earned automatic qualification while 7 more have earned consideration times.
Automatic Qualification
- Freya Colbert – 400m IM
- Laura Stephens – 200m fly
- Daniel Jervis – 1500m free
Consideration Times
- Freya Anderson – 200m free
- Anna Hopkin – 50m free
- Emily Large – 200m fly
- Katie Shanahan – 400m IM
- Lewis Burras – 100m free
- Duncan Scott – 100m free
- Men’s 4x100m free relay (Matt Richards/Tom Dean)
1) Sets ridiculously fast qualifying times.
2) Hardly anyone qualifies.
3) Changes rules.
What if….they had intended to remove/not include that language originally and are now just correcting it.
You don’t change a selection policy half way through your trials, so stupid. Just make the selection times easier then wouldn’t need to make it up as you go along
I think it’s good they did because it gives swimmers a chance to compete at worlds. Not everyone has their best swims at trials.
But how far back on rankings do they go? Back to last years British Champs? Because they weren’t that quick either
Nothing screams your selection process is working more than changing that process in the middle of your trials meet.
Can someone explain like I’m 5 why the US automatically select top 2 in each event (within FINA standards) but other countries have abstractedly created time cutoffs?
Is it purely a cost/benefit thing? Otherwise it’s nonsense. Send the max every time
Some countries, like GB, have expressed the motivation factors behind tougher standards. They want swimmers whose goals are to ‘win medals,’ not just ‘make the standard,’ and in their minds, increasing the standards to ‘make the team’ will push people closer to medals. In the US, historically, every swimmer who has made the team has been a medal contender. That’s been less true more recently, but the momentum of the dream seems to matter more – and I think the differing depth sort of orients those intrinsic and extrinsic factors differently.
And, it dovetails into the cost/benefit. They don’t want to spend limited resources sending athletes who won’t medal. The US turns a profit, on average, off every swimmer they… Read more »
$$$$$ are a very real factor for nigh everyone else than USA. Corporate sponsorship $$$ are much scarcer than previously the case and such as there is primarily goes to where they get their best exposure and that is often with their domestic professional sporting codes rather than Olympic sports who often only see more “transient” $$$ closer to major events.
There are also two other very real factors in the equation.
Firstly the cold reality that no country other than the USA has the legitimate spread/depth for field a full slate (ie. 2 qualifiers in each individual event) and very few can field all 7 relays. Rather they have niche strengths and thus teams like GBR and to… Read more »
Moral of the story:
This just shows how unhelpful the status quo is. British Swimming is definitely producing some top swimmers, but I don’t think necessarily that the rigid selection times are what’s driving that quality.
It also looks really shady if the majority of the team is picked from discretionary picks. They need to lower the standards (which will still be really high) and have more of an objective and fair policy going forward.
They’ve overdone the standards, it’s obvious – when world class swimmers like Scott, Dean etc are actually struggling. Whisper it quietly, but there have been a number of ‘dropped balls’ – historically 8 extra selections were enough to allow the team to select everyone they wanted to – everyone else had got what they needed.
People are not quite getting what they need this week, and a few of the standards are clearly too tough; but the key here is also that a nuber of the key squad members are not getting the results, and British Swimming was faced with several holes in the squad – and missing out on several relays, in particular.
Tbf Scott does not look like he’s struggling, he looked great in the 100 yesterday imo considering he’s been training a higher volume than normal (according to his IG) which theoretically shouldve hindered his 100 Free. Would not be surprised with a mid 1:44 in the 2 Free and a 1:55. in the 2IM from him later this week.
It’s good that they got rid of the limit but let’s be real if they had reasonable selection criteria they would only need these subjective discretionary selections in rare circumstances rather than being the norm.