FINA has released its qualifying times for the 2015 World Championships to take place in Kazan, Russia beginning July 24, 2015.
The standards once again include an “A” cut and a “B” cut. Any federation can enter 1 swimmer in each event given that swimmer has hit a “B” cut in the event. To enter two swimmers in the same event, both have to have “A” times.
A federation with no qualifying swimmers can still be represented at the World Champs by entering 4 unqualified swimmers, up to two men and two women. A federation with only 1 or 2 qualified swimmers can also bring 4 unqualified swimmers, once again, two male and two female. A federation with just 3 qualified swimmers can bring one unqualified athlete as long as their final team represents both genders. You can read more about the qualifying procedures here.
New to these qualifying procedures are the mixed relays, now a part of the World Championships schedule – each federation is allowed to enter 1 mixed 4×100 Medley Relay and 1 mixed 4×100 Free Relay in addition to the 1 entry in each of the traditional relays (4×100 medley, 4×100 free, 4×200 free).
The standards themselves have changed up quite a bit. While the 2013 standards all got slower or stayed the same compared to their earlier counterparts (the 2012 Olympic qualifying times), the 2015 list varies greatly event to event and gender to gender. Qualifying times in 7 men’s events have gotten slower compared to 9 that have gotten faster (the 200 IM stayed the same). The women flipped that ratio, with 9 slower event times and 8 faster ones.
Below are the “A” and “B” standards. The number in parenthesis tells how much the standards changed from 2013, with a “+” symbol meaning a time standard got slower and a “-” indicating a faster 2015 time. (You can find the 2013 standards and qualifying procedures here).
| Men’s Standards | Women’s Standards | |||
| A Standard | B Standard | A Standard | B Standard | |
| 22.25 (-.08) | 23.03 (-.08) | 50 free | 25.23 (-.11) | 26.11 (-.18)` |
| 49.39 (+.46) | 51.12 (+.58) | 100 free | 55.05 (+.19) | 56.98 (+.20) |
| 1:48.37 (-.05) | 1:52.16 (-.05) | 200 free | 1:58.93 (+.19) | 2:03.09 (+.19) |
| 3:50.87 (+1.32) | 3:58.95 (+1.37) | 400 free | 4:12.47 (+2.66) | 4:21.31 (+2.76) |
| 7:57.69 (-1.37) | 8:14.41 (-1.42) | 800 free | 8:35.99 (+1.66) | 8:54.05 (+1.72) |
| 15:13.98 (-.40) | 15:45.97 (-.41) | 1500 free | 16:33.61 (+7.25) | 17:08.39 (+7.51) |
| 25.52 (+.09) | 26.41 (+.09) | 50 back | 28.60 (-.24) | 29.60 (-.25) |
| 54.72 (+.29) | 56.64 (+.34) | 100 back | 1:01.25 (-.14) | 1:03.39 (-.15) |
| 1:59.19 (+.71) | 2:03.36 (+.73) | 200 back | 2:12.14 (+1.05) | 2:16.76 (+1.08) |
| 27.58 (-.42) | 28.55 (-.43) | 50 breast | 31.50 (-.50) | 32.60 (-.52) |
| 1:00.44 (-.42) | 1:02.56 (-.43) | 100 breast | 1:08.36 (-.27) | 1:10.75 (-.28) |
| 2:11.71 (-1.07) | 2:16.32 (-1.11) | 200 breast | 2:28.12 (+.24) | 2:33.30 (+.24) |
| 23.53 (-.43) | 24.35 (-.45) | 50 fly | 26.54 (-.29) | 27.47 (-.30) |
| 52.52 (-.05) | 54.36 (-.05) | 100 fly | 59.18 (+.29) | 1:01.25 (+.30) |
| 1:57.37 (+.34) | 2:01.48 (+.35) | 200 fly | 2:11.14 (+1.76) | 2:15.73 (+1.82) |
| 1:59.99 (same) | 2:04.19 (same) | 200 IM | 2:13.98 (-.99) | 2:18.67 (-1.02) |
| 4:19.21 (+.22) | 4:28.28 (+.23) | 400 IM | 4:44.50 (-.03) | 4:54.46 (-.03) |
| Relays: | ||||
| 1 per federation | 4 x 100 m Freestyle | 1 per federation | ||
| 1 per federation | 4 x 200 m Freestyle | 1 per federation | ||
| 1 per federation | 4 x 100 m Medley | 1 per federation | ||
| 1 per federation | 4 x 100 m Mixed Medley | 1 per federation | ||
| 1 per federation | 4 x 100 m Mixed Freesytle | 1 per federation | ||
I like the 4×200 IM Relay idea, but I would love to see a 4×100 IM Relay – yds or mtrs … Now that would be a fun fast race. Yes I realize that it couldn’t be an Olympic event, but could you imagine that race at NCAA’s ?
Man oh man ….
When is the 4×200 medley relay going to be given its moment in the sun?? With the mixed relays getting onto the fina line up it’s got to be just a matter of time right?
I’d rather see the 200 free relay and 200 Medley relay…can you imagine a 200 free relay between team USA, France, Brazil, Russia, and Australia…would bring excitement level to a new high.
I can understand people not wanting to see the 200 relays in the olympics but since the 50s of the strokes are included at world champs the relays should be as well. All it would do is make for a more exciting meet.
I’m with you, adding 4×200 medley would add a lot of excitement not only to high level international meets but also to even sectional level meets in the US.
NOOOO IT WOUDLN’T!
Ya know what swimming doesn’t need more of to increase excitement and pull in more fans from the general population? 8 minute long races.
He is talking about a 50 for each stroke…
That would be a different story, and an idea I could get behind! There’s been a lot of talk about 4×200 medleys (Japan) on here, so I took what he wrote at face value.