2019 U.S. WINTER NATIONALS
- Georgia Tech (McCauley Aquatic Center)
- December 4th-7th, 2019
- Detailed meet info: TBA
USA Swimming has announced the location and time frame for the 2019 U.S. Winter Nationals. The meet will take place over four days, from December 4th to December 7th, 2019, and it will be held at Georgia Tech‘s McCauley Aquatic Center. Georgia Tech‘s state-of-the-art facility is a regular host for prime-time national and international meets, and it was originally built for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
It isn’t yet known if the meet will be contested in long course meters, but it’s very likely that it will be, as it will be less than a year out from the 2020 Tokyo Games. Winter Nationals are often held in yards, but the 2018 Winter Nationals in Greensboro is going to be contested in LCM, even more reason to suspect another LCM Winter Nationals for 2019.
Qualification for the 2020 Olympic Trials will begin on November 28th, the start of the 2018 Winter Nationals. Since the 2018 Summer Nationals did not count for 2020 OT qualification, this year’s Winter Nationals will hold special significance to Olympic hopefuls and those seeking to compete at OTs. This differs from the last Olympic cycle, where qualification for the 2016 Trials began at the start of the 2014 Summer Nationals. After 1,700+ swimmers competed at the 2012 and 2016 trials, USA Swimming has set their target at 1200-1400 participants for 2020. That means swimmers should expect significantly-faster standards than in 2016.
2015 was the last year in which Winter Nationals ran in long course, but 2014 Winter Nationals were in short course yards. This year’s Winter Nationals being in LCM is new for a mid-cycle Winter Nationals — 2010 and 2014 were both SCY.