The Federazione Italiana Nuoto (FINA), or the Italian Swimming Federation, has announced its selection criteria for December’s Short Course World Championships, which will be held in Windsor, Ontario, Canada in 2 months’ time.
4 swimmers, Gregorio Paltrinieri, Federica Pellegrini, Gabrielle Detti, and Luca Dotto, have been pre-qualified to the team based on their success at the Olympic Games where they won 3 medals combined and barely missed a 4th from Pellegrini in the 200 free.
Overall, though, Italy didn’t get as many Olympic finalists, and therefore pre-qualified swimmers, to this team as they might have expected going into the Olympics, with most of the team failing to match their best times (and in many cases, missing those best times by a great distance).
Individual events:
- Finalists athletes in individual events at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro;
- for spots still available, the winning athletes in individual events at long London 2016; bath EURO
- in non-Olympic events and Olympic events where there are no qualified athletes or empty spots, the athletes in the period November 1-19, 2016 who have swum performances that might put them into a final when compared to the recent editions of the Short Course World Championships.
- If there are still spots available, the FIN Technical Director will be able to assign them to emerging young swimmers as a part of their development plans.
Relay events:
- The relay will be selected of the best 4 individual performances, swum from November 1st-20th 2016, and relays will only be considered if the Technical Director believes the relay will place in the top 5 at the Short Course World Championships
Already qualified:
- Gregorio Paltrinieri
- Federica Pellegrini
- Luca Dotto
- Gabrielle Detti
Good summary.
That part “with most of the team failing to match their best times (and in many cases, missing those best times by a great distance)” has reminded all the discussions made in my Italian swimming forum after the Olympics, when someone pointed out the good medal’s haul and other one criticized the fact that too many performances were a lot subpar.
Just a note: Luca Dotto is pre-qualified above all because of his 100 free gold medal at Euro Champs in London at mid-May (and his great season in general). At Olympics his 100 free was a bit disappointing.