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Event Schedules For Both Waves of 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials

This week, USA Swimming split its 2021 Olympic Trials meet into two separate waves in order to limit athlete numbers and promote health and safety amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The current Olympic Trials qualifying standards will allow athletes into the four-day Wave I meet, while a new, tougher standard will allow athletes into the Wave II meet. The top two finishers in each event at Wave I will be able to compete in the Wave II meet the following week, with the Olympic team selected based off of Wave II results. You can read more about the full format here.

Below, we’re running through the event orders for each meet, as they differ quite a bit. The Wave II order is unchanged from the original Trials plan, but the Wave I meet is a shorter, four-day meet using a modified version of the Pan Pacs meet order.

Wave I Event Order

The Wave I schedule is a four-day meet with a prelims/finals format – no semifinals. Most pretty common event combos are fairly spread out between the days, with a few notable exceptions: the 100 free and 100 back are back-to-back on day 1, and any 400 IMers who cross over into the 200 free would have a tough double on day 2.

However, it’s also worth noting that Wave I will feature a good number of single-event qualifiers, with most of the swimmers set up for really busy Olympic Trials schedules getting under Wave II cuts in at least one event. (Any swimmer with a Wave II cut can swim any other events with a Wave I cut at the Wave II meet).

  • Prelims 10 AM (Central)
  • Finals 7 PM (Central)
 WOMEN’S EVENT #  EVENT ORDER  MEN’S EVENT #
 Friday, June 4
1 100m Freestyle 2
3 100m Backstroke 4
5 200m Butterfly 6
 7 800m Freestyle* 8
 Saturday, June 5
 9 200m Freestyle 10
 11 100m Breaststroke 12
 13 400m Individual Medley 14
 Sunday, June 6
 15 400m Freestyle 16
 17 100m Butterfly 18
 19 200m Backstroke 20
 Monday, June 7
 21 200m Individual Medley 22
 23 50m Freestyle 24
 25 200m Breaststroke 26
 27 1500m Freestyle* 28

* The 800m and 1500m freestyle events will be conducted as timed finals, with the fastest seeded heat in each of these events swimming in the Finals sessions.  All other heats of the 800m and 1500m freestyle events will swim fastest to slowest, alternating women and men following the conclusion of that  morning’s preliminary session.

Wave II Event Order

Wave II follows the traditional Olympic Trials – and Olympic – event format.

ESSION BEGINS AT 10 A.M. CT SESSION BEGINS AT 6:45 P.M. CT (ACTUAL START TIME 6:51 – 7:03 P.M. DUE TO TV)
Preliminaries Semifinals & Finals
Sunday, June 13 Sunday, June 13
Men’s 400 Individual Medley Men’s 400 Individual Medley – FINAL
Women’s 100 Butterfly Women’s 100 Butterfly – Semifinal
Men’s 400 Freestyle Men’s 400 Freestyle – FINAL
Women’s 400 Individual Medley Women’s 400 Individual Medley – FINAL
Men’s 100 Breaststroke Men’s 100 Breaststroke – Semifinal
Monday, June 14 Monday, June 14
Women’s 100 Backstroke Women’s 100 Butterfly – FINAL
Men’s 200 Freestyle Men’s 200 Freestyle – Semifinal
Women’s 100 Breaststroke Women’s 100 Breaststroke – Semifinal
Men’s 100 Backstroke Men’s 100 Breaststroke – FINAL
Women’s 400 Freestyle Women’s 400 Freestyle – FINAL
Men’s 100 Backstroke – Semifinal
Women’s 100 Backstroke – Semifinal
Tuesday, June 15 Tuesday, June 15
Women’s 200 Freestyle Women’s 200 Freestyle – Semifinal
Men’s 200 Butterfly Men’s 200 Freestyle – FINAL
Women’s 200 Individual Medley Women’s 100 Backstroke – FINAL
Women’s 1500 Freestyle Men’s 100 Backstroke – FINAL
Women’s 100 Breaststroke – FINAL
Men’s 200 Butterfly – Semifinal
Women’s 200 Individual Medley – Semifinal
Wednesday, June 16 Wednesday, June 16
Men’s 100 Freestyle Men’s 100 Freestyle – Semifinal
Women’s 200 Butterfly Women’s 200 Freestyle – FINAL
Men’s 200 Breaststroke Men’s 200 Butterfly – FINAL
Men’s 800 Freestyle Women’s 200 Butterfly – Semifinal
Men’s 200 Breaststroke – Semifinal
Women’s 200 Individual Medley – FINAL
Women’s 1500 Freestyle – FINAL
Thursday, June 17 Thursday, June 17
Women’s 100 Freestyle Men’s 800 Freestyle – FINAL
Men’s 200 Backstroke Men’s 200 Breaststroke – FINAL
Women’s 200 Breaststroke Women’s 100 Freestyle – Semifinal
Men’s 200 Individual Medley Men’s 200 Backstroke – Semifinal
Women’s 200 Butterfly – FINAL
Men’s 100 Freestyle – FINAL
Women’s 200 Breaststroke – Semifinal
Men’s 200 Individual Medley – Semifinal
Friday, June 18 Friday, June 18
Women’s 800 Freestyle Women’s 200 Breaststroke – FINAL
Men’s 100 Butterfly Men’s 200 Backstroke – FINAL
Women’s 200 Backstroke Women’s 200 Backstroke – Semifinal
Men’s 200 Individual Medley – FINAL
Women’s 100 Freestyle – FINAL
Men’s 100 Butterfly – Semifinal
Saturday, June 19 Saturday, June 19
Men’s 50 Freestyle Men’s 100 Butterfly – FINAL
Women’s 50 Freestyle Women’s 200 Backstroke – FINAL
Men’s 1500 Freestyle Women’s 800 Freestyle – FINAL
Men’s 50 Freestyle – Semifinal
Women’s 50 Freestyle – Semifinal
Sunday, June 20 Sunday, June 20
No Preliminaries Men’s 50 Freestyle – FINAL
Women’s 50 Freestyle – FINAL
Men’s 1500 Freestyle – FINAL

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Swimfan
3 years ago

Isn’t the wave 2 following the Olympics morning finals?

Last edited 3 years ago by Swimfan
Drake
3 years ago

Perfect event schedule for MA

1st class lineman
3 years ago

Is wave 1 timed finals ? A? B?

Casty
Reply to  1st class lineman
3 years ago

Nope, there’s prelims and finals for wave 1 (a and b only), but idk if you get into wave two if you place high enough tho.

Bryce
Reply to  Casty
3 years ago

You need to either get the wave 2 time or top 2 in the a heat the only way to qualify in heat b is by getting the qualification time for wave 2.

JolynnSwimmer
3 years ago

Are they allowing spectators? It seems they were still selling tickets.

Jack
Reply to  JolynnSwimmer
3 years ago

I *believe* they’re planning on like 70% capacity or something.

Aaron
3 years ago

all issues aside I read this and my number one feeling is…excited!

About Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson

Jared Anderson swam for nearly twenty years. Then, Jared Anderson stopped swimming and started writing about swimming. He's not sick of swimming yet. Swimming might be sick of him, though. Jared was a YMCA and high school swimmer in northern Minnesota, and spent his college years swimming breaststroke and occasionally pretending …

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