(Thanks to coach Alex Pussieldi, the leading voice in Brazilian swimming, for contributing to this report).
FINA has released the full list of relays that have been invited and accepted for the 2012 London Summer Olympics, which is listed below. These relays were selected from the top 12 relays at last year’s World Championships (finals DQ’s eliminated an automatic berth), plus the next four best in each event from March of 2011 through the June 1, 2012 deadline.
The Canadian men, despite having not hit their self-imposed entry times at their own Olympic Trials, will send a full contingent of three relays to the event; as will the South African men. Iceland has their first ever Olympic relay qualifier thanks to the 400 medley that crushed the National Record at this year’s European Championships.
Also of note, the Polish women snuck their 800 free relay into the meet, thanks to declines by both the Netherlands (who would’ve been one of the last four in) and Sweden (who would have earned an automatic berth from their finish at the World Championships, but declined). That means the Polish women will have more than one swimmer at the Olympics.
There was some confusion in the Men’s 400 Medley as Kazakhistan and Brazil were thought to be tied for the 16th spot, but the Brazilians winning time from Pan Ams, 3:34.58 clearly makes them the 16th team in. (Kazkhstan’s 3:36.99 would have tied the Brazilians’ best time outside of the Pan American Games). We’ll now await word on what FINA will do about this unfortunate error.
The following countries will each take a full contingent of 6 relays to the Olympics:
USA
Australia
Russia
Canada
Germany
Italy
Japan
China
Hungary
Great Britain
| Men | Women | |||||||
| 4×100 Free | 4×200 Free | 4×100 Medley | 4×100 Free | 4×200 Free | 4×100 Medley | |||
| 1 | Australia | United States | United States | 1 | Netherlands | United States | United States | |
| 2 | France | France | Australia | 2 | United States | Australia | China | |
| 3 | United States | China | Germany | 3 | Germany | China | Australia | |
| 4 | Italy | Germany | Italy | 4 | China | Canada | Russia | |
| 5 | Russia | Australia | Japan | 5 | Australia | Hungary | Japan | |
| 6 | South Africa | Japan | Netherlands | 6 | Sweden | France | Germany | |
| 7 | Germany | Great Britain | Hungary | 7 | Canada | Italy | Great Britain | |
| 8 | Great Britain | Italy | New Zealand | 8 | Japan | Great Britain | Canada | |
| 9 | Belgium | Austria | Canada | 9 | Denmark | New Zealand | Denmark | |
| 10 | Brazil | Hungary | France | 10 | Great Britain | Japan | Italy | |
| 11 | Japan | Canada | Russia | 11 | Italy | Germany | Sweden | |
| 12 | Hungary | New Zealand | Poland | 12 | Russia | Russia | Netherlands | |
| 13 | Canada | Russia | Great Britain | 13 | New Zealand | Slovenia | Spain | |
| 14 | China | Denmark | South Africa | 14 | Hungary | Spain | France | |
| 15 | Venezuela | Belgium | China | 15 | Greece | Poland | Iceland | |
| 16 | Serbia | South Africa | Kazkahstan | 16 | Belarus | Ukraine | Hungary | |
| Brazil | ||||||||
“Round 2 of British Trials kicks of Wednesday”. Glad to see a national swim federation aiming to fill its roster and working towards the best interest of its country’s swimming.
“The Brits have left themselves a whole lot of wiggle room, however, with the word “discretion” appearing dozens of times in the qualification procedures. For example, if nobody hits a FINA ‘A” time, the coaches may take a swimmer with a B-time”.
Any comparison and contrast here to the Canadian 4 x 200 freestyle relay situation?
My apologies to those outside the USA. I was referring to the 2012 US Olympic Swim Trials in Omaha next week. Guess I could have posted my question after a more appropriate article!
🙂
Will this help…
http://www.usaswimming.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabId=2124&Alias=Rainbow&Lang
or this one
http://www.nbcolympics.com/news-blogs/swimming/live-coverage-of-swimming-olympic-trials.html
With reference to streaming online:
http://nickbrunelli.wordpress.com/2012/06/18/updated-television-broadcast-schedule-for-usa-swimming-olympic-trials/
The caveat being:
“All but the fastest heats of preliminaries will be webcast live at usaswimming.org June 25-July 1. The fastest 2-4 heats of preliminaries will be broadcast on tape delay by NBC Sports.”
Sorry if I missed this somewhere, but does anybody know if the Trials are going to be streamed online anywhere? I’m in Asia, but I’d reeeeeally love to watch them. In 2008, I was able to watch them on the computer while sitting in my office in Seoul, Korea. It was fantastic! I think it was Universal Sports, but I haven’t seen anything about the Trials this time around. If anybody has any input, it’d be appreciated!
Why is swim Canada keeping the relay members a secret? The web page does not list anyone swimming the 4×200.
Why don’t you two(Fair and Go Canada) share phone numbers or meet over coffee?It sounds like you both have valid points.Firm up those points and then present them to the Canadian Swim Federation and The Canadian Olympic Committee.I am sure many of the people in a position to make these decisions have only been shown one side of the issue.If you work together, you may be able to open someone’s eyes and possibly have the right decision made.Of course, I don’t know what the right decision is, just that all sides should be heard before a decision affecting so many is made.Then, please let us know how it works out.
@ Red & white It seems like you are in the know with SNC so can you please explain what you mean by your statement . “SNC set the criteria for the relays so we would be competitive at the meet. Whether or not our fastest 4×200 will suit up is a mute point, they did not meet the standard deemed as competitive.” I really want to know whay it is not important to you that the fastest swimmers are in the relay.
Since you seem to agree that we shouldn’t be sending a relay that is not competitive I am unclear as to why you what do you think is the right thing to do?
1) Use existing members… Read more »
@ Red and White
1) It is inappropriate to refer to former, or current, Olympians as “Olympic tourists”. Granted reference is not regarding the two swimmers in question here, Chad and Hassan, since it’s been proven that their presence on the team is needed for the relay to be competitive at the Olympics. Yet, this kind of language (and attitude) is uncalled for.
2) Objective, rational, factual, moral and ethical arguments from one side should be met by the same from the other.
3) Since this is the first time such a criteria is applied in Canada, it is a civic and patriotic dtuy to analyze it.
4) An important chapter in Canadian swimming is being written as we… Read more »
Why not send 6 relay swimmers across the board? Give Canada the best opportunity to select those swimmers that will race fastest . Develop the younger swimmers like Funk ( 2nd Breast) Swanston (2nd back) Ahani (2nd fly) or Peddie who were also left off the team…. Build for 2016… follow the example of other swimming power houses like the Aussies. Our young men have historically missed team selection because they cannot compete with the young women when team selection is based on FINA scores that derive from fully developed male athletes.
@ Go Canada
The Olympics is limited to 900 swimmers world-wide so Canada can not send that many swimmers. In regards to the 4 x 200 relay, sending Chad and Hassan will not be at the expense of other Canadian swimmers, who are waiting on the FINA invitation, or other swimmers from other countries. It’s the morally and technically correct course of action.
While selection is limited to 900 swimmers, I understand that the order of selection is 1. OQT 2. Relay only up to 6 swimmers 3. Universality 4. OST. The 200 free swimmers did NOT meet the nomination criteria set by Swim Canada. Should an exception be made for them it could be made for others on the same principal.
Canada should nominate all swimmers who met its criteria but who may only have the OST as relay swimmers to help ensure their selection. Secondly, Canada could reconsider the opportunity to develop athletes by extending invitations to those athletes that met the Olympic standards but missed the Canadian team imposed standards.
This situation is unique because it deals with an event (4 x 200 relay) for which we prequalified at World 2011. Sending our best to swim to our best potential is the main point in this technial and moral dilemma.
It’s a shame for those guys who didn’t qualify for the Canadian relay because they are certainly capable, but I’m sure the standards were set for a reason and they didn’t meet them.
And it definitely seems like it’s discrimination against their swimmers going to the States, it’s not like there was a black/white qualification time for the relay………
As for more Canadians staying in Canada making the team, I wonder if competing at NCAA’s in Seattle 4 days before the start of their Olympic Trials in Montreal had a factor in skewing those numbers? Just a thought.
All questions that I’m sure Swim Canada will be thinking about next time around.
The qualification time to enter a relay was black & white but as you can see, there IS a 4×200 relay being entered anyways. That is the whole point. If they are going to enter a relay then it only makes sense that they should enter the top four swimmers.
Does it? Those relay team members would get selected over the swimmers who are waiting for their FINA invitation. Would it be ‘Fair’ if those swimmers got into the team and ended up taking the spot of one of those swimmers who qualified under the criteria?
This does not make sense. These relay spots will be taken by either Canada or if Canada declined they would be taken by another countries team so the same number of spots are available to those who are awaiting their nominations. The only way this helps the other nominated swimmers is if they are put onto the relay. Other than Blake or Tobias who swam the 200 free at trials and came top four you would then be putting on members who did not swim the 200 at trials and would be a member of the relay. The crtieria had two parts for the relay swimmers, come top four and make the time. There were also two parts for the… Read more »
That’s not true. Doesn’t the meet have a limited number this time around? Canada sent the two relay swimmers that would take 2 of those spots. If Canada swims the relay and uses swimmers who made the team in other events they don’t take the spots, which would allow for more FINA invites at the bottom of the list, one of which could realistically be a Canadian.
Again, is it ‘fair’ to send relay swimmers who didn’t make the qualification over someone who did?
See the post above from JEAH about who they are considering for the relay. None of the swimmers have made the team at this point.
Swim Canada is trying to manipulate FINA’s quota rule by not sending two extra swimmers. The only problem with this is that these are the Olympics and countries are sending their best possible representation. It isn’t morally right for Canada to try and manipulate FINA’s quota by cutting out two swimmers and sending a 2nd tier team to help its own swimmers.
For next time, FINA should add a rule ensuring that the best swimmers per event/relay are selected if a country is to be represented in that event/relay.
Sure, Hassan and Chad should have swam faster, but what do you say to the 17th place team that will actually send its best team forth?
It’s an international moral… Read more »
2nd tier 4 x 200 relay team*
So basically what you are saying is that if Canada gave up the relay they would lose 4-6 spots to another country and that would leave less spots for individual swimmers to get in so instead they are putting together a non-competitive relay using swimmers that don’t swim the 200 free? Hayden and Russel no longer swim the 200, Cochrane doesn’t train for it and that leaves a back stroker (Francis), a butterflyer( Bartoch) and two sprinters ( Hortness and Gossland) to swim the relay? Wonder what their add up time would be? I doubt anywhere near what was imposed on the relay at trials.
It was actually only 3 days from the end of men’s NCAA’s until the start of Canadian Trials, and this was with a 3 hour time difference.
@ Logical Canadian
As per the SNC document, the standards are set up to send the best team to the Olympics. How is this team, as it stands now, the “best” team? An objective, technical and clear answer is needed, please.