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With the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan less than a year away, the Italian Swimming Federation (Federnuoto) has revealed its selection policy for next year’s international competition.
Italian Swimming 2020 Olympic Games Selection Policy
Italian qualification for Tokyo occurs in two parts, with the first represented by the Italian Long Course Open Championships. The meet is slated for December 12th-14th and offers the first opportunity to punch a time to be considered for the Olympic squad. Athletes will be considered if they meet or exceed times in the first table below.
A sampling of the times below reveals that they sit anywhere from .1% to 2.6% faster than the FINA A cuts.
Although on the surface the times don’t seem too terribly out of reach, it’s worth noting the scarcity of attainment of these marks by Italian swimmers this year, a year of a World Championships. For instance, no Italian man managed to dip under the 22-second mark in the 50m free. Andrea Vergani held the fastest time for the nation at 22.02.
The same holds true for the men’s 100m free, where the fastest Italian thus far this year is represented by Alessandro Miressi and his World Championships semi-final time of 48.36.
The 200m free for the men is looking better, with Filippo Megli‘s time of 1:45.67 sitting just .1 outside of the initial QT listed below. The men’s initial QT for the 100m back of 52.8 is well ahead of the Italian National Record of 53.34, while the 200m breast initial QT of 2:07.5 is also well ahead of the NR of 2:08.50 that’s been on the books since 2009.
For the women, Federica Pellegrini‘s 200m free mark from Gwangju (1:54.22) dips under the 1:55.4 early QT, while Simona Quadarella was also able to achieve the 800m and 1500m free marks that will be needed this December with her 8:14.99 and 15:40.89 times at Worlds.
Margherita Panziera will need to replicate her national record-setting mark of 58.92 in order to qualify in December, but she has more wiggle room in the 200m back as long as she’s able to get near her 2:05.72 2019 best.
The second opportunity for qualification will come at the Italian Absolute Championships slated for March 17th-21st. There is a different qualifying time table that applies to this meet, which can be seen below. The SF and SM notations pertain to relay minimum qualification times.
Overall, the times are slower than the December meet’s QT’s. For example, men’s 50m free QT is 21.5 in December, but 21.7 in March. The women’s 200m back is 2:07.50 in December, but 2:08.50, reflecting the stiffer mark to meet in order to assure one’s qualification as early as possible.
