In a Saturday afternoon press conference, USA Swimming National Team Director Frank Busch specifically addressed questions about the two-year selection process that USA Swimming uses in the two years leading up to an Olympic Games. Specifically, that means that 2014 will see the selection of both the 2014 Pan Pac Championships and the 2015 World Championships.
For some swimmers, that will mean opportunistic results can keep them at the forefront for a long time, while for others, that means one bad meet can sink a career. There will almost certainly be swimmers, with potential to make the Olympic Team, who are going to be retiring after this week’s National Championships because they simply can’t afford to wait two years to make an operation gold team.
In the press conference, Busch acknowledged that the plan has both strengths and weaknesses, including the admission that there would be Americans in 2015 who will beat the World Championship team members.
In Busch’s opinion, though, the two-year selection is a key to the Americans’ Olympic success.
“When you look at the quad (four-year training plan), you have two years with championship meets in early July,” Busch iterated. “The year after the Olympics and then the year of the Olympics. In the middle years, we want our athletes to be able to train all the way through the end of summer into August. It’s important that swimmers get the most long course training out of the middle two years as they can. There are coaches that agree and disagree with that opinion, but it is what we believe is best.”
This rationalization is an admission that USA Swimming relies on many college and high school-aged swimmers to fill out their championship teams; for the ever-growing post grad ranks, the freedom exists to push through a solid 11 months of training even in those early July championship seasons.
The Pan Pac coaches, Bob Bowman and Teri McKeever, made the point during their press conference this afternoon that this will be a good opportunity for the older stars to re-evaluate where they are as athletes. With younger swimmers nipping at their toes, this is a good time for them to make some changes in regards to how they are training, or to choose to retire.
I think the qualifying system changes the way coaches tailor the taper for pan pac trials. A lot them seem to not taper at all, gambling that their athlete makes the roster in one event, with the opportunity to swim faster fully tapered in a few weeks, and therefore improving their chances to be on the 2015 worlds team. Unfortunately, that only works for some athletes who are very dominant and can essentially win without the need to taper. But other athletes may not. So then there’s an imbalance because everyone is at a different point in their taper and the times posted may not best reflect how someone will perform at Worlds.
This qualifying process is NOTHING new. it was exactly the same format in the previous quadrenium leading to london 2012. just like this week the national meet was held in irvine and the times again were very lackluster, in some events slow. the pan pacs were held that same period in mid august again in irvine and most of the team improved. most of the elites that qualified for worlds and e able to train from september to next july for the worlds. by all accounts the 2011 worlds in shanghai were very successful for the us team. That paved the way for even more success in london.
Braden, Busch is the National Team director, and as such is the face of the organization. But I quite distinctly remember him expressing strong disagreement with this very process at the 2011 Worlds when he was new to the job, even stating that his wouldn’t be done again. I wonder if keeping this selection criteria structure is just the reflection of a plurality (if not quite a consensus) of what coaches want?
I really don’t like the provision in the selection guidelines that says the Worlds team will be selected from performances from the A and B final at Pan Pacs. First of all, only the top two from any country can make the A final at Pan Pacs, so it mimics conditions at Worlds where you cannot coast to get a lane at night. By allowing people to qualify from the B final, you’re now rewarding mediocre prelim swims. Aside from pride, what is my incentive to swim fast in the morning if I can chill out and let the A finalists work harder in the morning and just come out at night guns blazing?
Well considering you still have to be the 3rd best American to even make the B Finals, I doubt most swimmers could coast in the prelims.
That’s not the point. Only 2 swimmers from each country can make Worlds, and only two swimmers from each country can make finals at Worlds, so your qualifications should mimic the meet conditions. Let’s say you have two guys that get stuck in a fast heat at Pan Pacs against Hagino or Seto and end up going 4:13 in prelims. This is now the time to beat to make the A final. The American in the final heat knows this, but has seen the times posted and now has a choice between going a hard 4:12 and making the A final, or coasting to a 4:16 and making the B final. The two guys who went 4:13 in prelims end… Read more »
seems like another, “if it aint broke, lets fix it anyway” decision. imo, selection should be done by best time swum through a qualifying period, not necessarily a specific meet. cant prevent sickness, injury, or just a “bad” meet. just because swimmers get picked at nationals, doesnt guarantee they will be in best condition for next 2 years of international champs. just my opinion.
Is it due to World Champs in 2015 being a little earlier than our normal summer LC nationals? If so, why not be flexible and bump up the summer LC nationals by a couple weeks, rather than just sticking our collective heads in the sand? Or are they worried about losing out on $$ due to timing of that meet and juniors and the trickle down effect that that would cause from a domestic meet approach?
What is the injury rule? If a swimmer becomes injured and can’t compete next summer, who receives the slot? The 3rd place finisher or highest ranked?
These people can go to pan am and other champs still