Jessica Campbell will be live on deck at the Indiana Relay Rally for SwimSwam, taking pictures, videos, and Tweeting the outcomes. Follow us on @swimswamnews on Twitter and Instagram to keep up with the records as they fall.
As we wrote about on Tuesday, the new FINA rules kicked in on September 25th, and among them were the new recognition of FINA World records.
The Indiana Hoosiers men’s and women’s swimming teams will try and take advantage of these new rules and beat the rest of the world to the punch on Thursday, as they will be gunning for new World Records at the Counsilman-Billingsley Aquatic Center in Bloomington.
The “Relay Rally” will begin at 3:45 Eastern Time on Thursday, and the meet has been fully sanctioned by Indiana Swimming Inc., which is a unit of USA Swimming, which is a division of United States Aquatic Sports, which is a recognized member of FINA. A civil engineering firm, Bledsoe Riggert & Guerrettaz, Inc. will measure the pool before and after all races. Jen Hamilton will coordinate doping controls under the direction of the USADA, which will be on-site. All suits will be checked to be in compliance with FINA rules.
In other words: with Lucy Duncan serving as coordinator of officials, and all FINA rules being enforced, and full assurances being given that any swims at this meet will count: the World Record hunt is on.
There are 8 new relays in which World Records can be set:
- Mixed 400 free relay (long course)
- Mixed 400 medley relay (long course)
- 200 mixed medley relay (short course)
- 200 mixed free relay (short course)
- Men’s/Women’s 200 medley relay (short course)
- Men’s/Women’s 200 free relay (short course)
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to set World Records” said head coach Ray Looze. “This competition symbolizes IU’s unwavering commitment to international swimming and our coaching staff’s resolve to always place IU swimmers in positions to enhance their world-class swimming experiences.
Note that relay World Records belong to countries, not clubs, so in accordance with FINA rules, all swimmer must be of the same nationality and possess the same sporting citizenships, meaning that these records will belong to the United States, rather than “Indiana” per se.
That also means some of the Hoosiers’ top swimmers, like Eric Ress (a dual citizen that represents France) and Brooklynn Snodgrass (a Canadian) won’t be able to swim in the relays.
Swimming for Indiana in the event will be senior Lindsay Vrooman, senior Kait Flederbach, junior Steve Schmuhl, freshman Jackson Miller, junior Matt Gerth, freshman Max Irwin, senior Stephanie Armstrong, freshman Olivia Barker, sophomore John Winck, freshman Logan Jastremski, freshman Audrey Scott, freshman Claudia DiCapua, senior James Wells, senior Cody Miller, freshman Gia Dalesandro, junior Allie Day, sophomore Tanner Kurz, sophomore Shelby Carroll, freshman Blaine Nichols, freshman Bailey Pressey, sophomore Haley Lips, junior Mike Hurley, sophomore Kyle Johnson, freshman Luke Lete, freshman Sam Lorentz, freshman Stephanie Marchuk, freshman Heather Hayes, freshman Grace Padgett, senior Guinevere Vanden Noort, sophomore Grayson Smith, and senior Michael Mohler.
There’s plenty of big names in that group, including swimmers like Lindsay Vrooman, Kait Flederbach, Olivia Barker, Steve Schmuhl, Cody Miller, and James Wells, who either already have international experience or on the verge of it.
To our knowledge, nobody in the world has swum these races, in accordance with FINA rules, since the new regulations went into effect on Wednesday, and after a pretty thorough web search leaves us confident that nobody has publicized such a feat yet. Odds are these records won’t last all that long – after all, the Hoosiers are ramping up to their typically heavy training loads, and they’re sure to not be the only ones with this idea.
For a few moments, though, this will be a really special experience for these swimmers. In 30 years, when they tell people that they were once a World Record holder in swimming, it won’t matter the circumstances. When they tell people they were the first to hold a World Record in an event, the circumstances will matter even less.
Congratulations to the Indiana coaching and media staff for putting together this event and creating a truly unique and special experience for their athletes, and taking advantage of this unique moment in swimming history.
It was great because they let the local clubs join in the fun. I spoke with the officials and it sounds like that means there were new NAG records set as well.
Sounds like a great way to kick off the NCAA season and pump up the team spirit to me.
Figures it would be IU to game the system.
Awesome. I love these out of the box ideas. Have a great meet today, and best of luck to the cream and crimson!
I believe this will be a tall task because, unlike what the article states, (most of) these relays have all been contested at a high-level already. Short course relays were swum at both stops of the FINA World Cup series following World Championships in July. Long Course relays were swum at FINA World Youth Championships in August. I don’t have time to do the research on the winners, but there are already benchmarks for these events in existence.
I believe technical rules (like the relays) went into effect immediately (i.e. July) thus allowing the events’ inclusion in World Cups and Youth Championships, not September like the general congress rules, but could be mistaken.
tallswimmer – again, these rules recognizing World Records in these events did not go into effect until Wednesday. They may have been swum at those other meets, but those times are not recognized as World Records, as you can see from clicking the appropriate links on this page:
http://www.fina.org/H2O/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1271&Itemid=200
tallswimmer – there are benchmarks, however they are not recognized as FINA World Records, and thus these swims would qualify.
Doesn’t USA Swimming have to give okay for individuals to represent USA in a competition?