Thanks to our ace photographer Tim Binning for compiling easily workable lists of all swimmers entered in the meet.
If you haven’t already guessed after reading the headline, then spoiler alert is coming.
458
Though another two-or-three could theoretically tack on their names this coming weekend to the USA Swimming National Championships and World Championship Trials meet in Indianapolis, Indiana that begin next Tuesday, as of the release of the first, unofficial, psych sheet on Wednesday, there will be only 458 swimmers.
Compare that to roughly four-times as many swimmers at last year’s Olympic Trials, and it becomes clear that things will be different, and most notably quicker.
Whereas each prelims swim would last an hour or two in Omaha, the unofficial timeline shows prelims events lasting just 20 or 30 minutes in Indianapolis. That means that prelims sessions should all be completed in under two hours combined.
Events like the women’s 50 free, usually with hundreds of entries, only has 40. There will be only three heats of the men’s 1500, a near godsend.
The reasons for this are multi-fold:
- The time standards got faster.
- Lots of post-Olympic retirements and breaks from high-level swimmers who are ready to move on to a new chapter, or need a chance to recharge before a run at 2016.
- A much shorter qualifying period that began just in March of 2012.
- Swimmers trying to take a full long course season to taper for August meets. Many swimmers are instead focusing on Junior Nationals or the U.S. Open. The short turnaround from the scholastic season is the big justification for why in 2011, USA Swimming qualified for Worlds based on the previous year’s results.
This also explains why there seems to be quite a few tickets left for this year’s meet, as parents often make up a huge portion of the spectator base. As of a week ago, there are still really good, mid-pool, $20 tickets available for the meet, even on the weekend sessions. Go here to purchase, if you’re still considering making the trip.
At this point I’m honestly convinced that USA swimming is trying to make their national level meets a joke. First with the Grand Prix Series having them have to change the cuts for the Minneapolis GP (and later the Orlando GP) because their was less then 50 entries in the entire meet, then later in the series (Austin GP) not even having enough swimmers to fill an A final in multiple events? Is that really what USA Swimming wants for their meets? I understand that they are trying to make their meets faster, but not enough swimmers to fill a A final and at WCT likely not filling a 18 and under C final? That’s not good and they need… Read more »
I swam in Indiana last summer and for the Senior State Meet they had a bonus final of 15 and 16 year olds that didn’t make top 16. It wasn’t scored, but it did give the younger swimmers a second swim to get used to the kind of environment. Could that be done in some way at the national level? Maybe at the meets that don’t have semis have the C final be 18 and unders? Just a question that doesn’t necessarily pertain to the post, but I thought of it as I was reading.
Christian, that’s a good idea, and that’s exactly what’s happening at Worlds Trials this year. The C Final is reserved for 18&under swimmers.
I don’t get the mentality of “a smaller meet is better”. Back in the 80s, when Denny was our National Team Director, the Selection meets were 100% geared toward our medal athletes so you saw events like the 400 IM at the 1986 World Trials with 13 people in the event. That is a joke. Every Nationals or Junior Nationals meet that has a lot of heats – like 15 to 18 end up being very fast and very exciting meets.
Unfortunately, I see us heading back in that same direction. All you need to do is look at our Gran Prix meets – what a joke!
some of those C finals are going to look pretty silly. limited to 18U they wont even be full. there’s an excitement killer.
All I know is the pool and atmosphere is going to be empty in comparison to other meets. Looks like it will be similar to NCAAs with hardly anyone there to watch. Probably the point I suppose.
I think its fantastic! The numbers will come back up some over the next year or so. But we owe it to our elite swimmers to have a safe and comfortable facility to warm-up in and be able to perform at their best. The qualifying meet is stressful enough. We shouldn’t add more anxiety to the process. Officials can pace the meet to allow for adequate rest between swims for the athletes.
We’re previous WCT allowing SCY times? If so, I would think this is also a factor.