The 2023 Australian World Trials are headed to the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Center (MSAC) spanning June 13th through June 18th. The competition represents the sole qualifying opportunity for this summer’s World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
The MSAC was the site of the 2022 Short Course World Championships, the elite international event which saw more than 20,000 spectators descend upon the facility which saw 14 World Records fall over the course of the meet.
Swimming Australia CEO, Eugénie Buckley, said of the upcoming World Trials, “The trials environment brings out the very best in our athletes and taking that platform to a state-of-the-art facility like MSAC will undoubtedly inspire some exceptional performances.
“As we saw so clearly during World Short Course, the performance lift experienced by competing in front of a passionate home crowd is tangible and we expect another typically large Melbourne turn out to spur our athletes on once again.
“We are proud to continue our strong relationship with the Victorian State Government and Visit Victoria to bring premier events and world class athletes to one of the sporting capitals of the world.”
A maximum of 28 male and 28 female athletes may be nominated for the Australian World Championships roster, with the first and second-placed eligible athletes in the open final of individual Olympic events gaining selection, provided they meet the stiff Aussie time standards.
After following the FINA time standards for the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, Swimming Australia appears to be reverting to its prior practices of setting its own qualification times which, in most cases, are faster than the FINA ‘A’ time standards.
You can read more about the Swimming Australia World Championships selection policy here.
The typically large turnout, if it happens, will only be swimmer’s families.
It is AFL season, so no one in Melbourne will care about swimming.
I don’t know how many spectators can fit in the indoor pool anyway.
Not everyone in Melbourne is into footy. And some people, believe it or not, actually like both footy and swimming. I happen to be one of them. So your sweeping statement that no one in Melbourne will care about swimming is garbage.
I’m curious as to why you’re concerned with the venue’s seating capacity when you reckon that only the swimmers’ nearest and dearest will be attendance.
Down vote from me, by the way. My favorite down vote so far this year, and I’ve down-voted Steve Nolan and Awsi Dooger.
I meant it won’t matter if the seating capacity is not huge. I wasn’t worried about it. But I apologise and am glad to know there are people who are interested who live in Melbourne. I’ve been in Melbourne a few times in winter and the newspapers have basically nothing but AFL in the sports pages. ( and even in the front pages). A tiny paragraph on the Tour de France and the comm games was all.
MSAC indoor pool’s seating capacity is 1,800; permanent seating capacity for the outdoor pool is 3,000. TBH, the indoor pool’s capacity should be sufficient for a non-Olympic year Trials meet.
It just doesn’t make sense, foremost from the perspective of maximising performance, to hold it outdoors and at night in Melbourne in mid-winter. You could potentially get away with outdoor Trials in winter in Qld but certainly not in the southern states.
I love swimming, but I agree with Joel. Swimming just doesn’t pull the crowds. When I would tell people about World SC last year, they had no idea it was on.
The capacity of the MCG is 100,000. Melbourne has a population of over 5,000,000. I don’t think football is going to have any impact on swimming numbers.
Other than the days it was raining, the stadium was pretty full for SCW even though SCM is barely swum in Aus.