If USA Swimming was hoping that toughening the standards for the 2016 Olympic Trials might tighten the qualifying numbers and shorten sessions a bit, the country’s swimming populations have risen to the challenge.
As of the latest lists of Olympic Trials Qualifiers released on August 12th, 1420 swimmers have already stamped a ticket for Omaha in at least one event. That’s already approaching the 1850+ swimmers that participated at the 2012 Olympic Trials in Omaha, and while not every qualified swimmer will race, that means that almost 700 new swimmers have qualified in the last year. 756 were qualified through the 2014 Summer National Championships.
These lists are updated through the World Championships and U.S. Nationals, but before the World Cup meets.
The next list of qualifiers are due out sometime in the 4th quarter of 2015.
2016 MEN’S OLYMPIC TRIALS QUALIFIERS (AS OF 6/23/2015)
2016 WOMEN’S OLYMPIC TRIALS QUALIFIERS (AS OF 6/23/2015)
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this article should answer a lot of questions everyone is raising
http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=1&itemid=6373&mid=14491
Again, the Olympic Trials ought to be about giving all legitimate USA Olympic Team contenders the best possible opportunity to swim as fast as possible at the event that determines who will represent the United States of America at the Olympic Games. It’s not a developmental meet, and rationalizing 1800 plus entrants with the argument that it’s a wonderful “experience” is kind of like giving students A’s for B work because it’ll improve their self image and make more parents proud. If inviting a smaller number of athletes to the Trials makes it a better meet, then that’s a powerful argument for doing just that.
on the other hand, if having 1800 or 2000 entrants doesn’t harm the quality of… Read more »
the bottom line is OT Cuts is will make National Team at 90% rest of world,
Lets Kids enjoy fast swimming and best Swim meet in US.
and may they dreams become true in a future!
see you in Omaha.
I have to agree with JMAN – US Swimming wants a huge crowd of swimmers so they can rake in money and brag about filling the arena with thousands of fans – largely family, friends, and teammates of those who made the Trials cuts but realistically have little to no chance of making the ‘team’. Yes, it is nice that someone may surprise the experts and enter the meet ranked 23rd or 33rd and miraculously make the team, but what about the folks ranked 3rd or 4th in the world who get left off the team because only the top 2 swimmers per event are chosen? Life isn’t always fair. Crowding perhaps 1800+ swimmers into the Trials is similar to… Read more »
just FOLLOW THE $! think of what it takes to fill that stadium, the hotels, the entry fees, the apparel sales, etc. Its a financial windfall beyond anything they would get with the top 100, or 450, or even 1,000.
I’ll say it once more. All you have to do to understand why so many qualify based on the time standards is to FOLLOW THE MONEY!! This is such a huge $ maker for USA swimming. They fill a huge stadium vs. Indy (never would fill this without the parents and grandparents of the other 1800 qualifiers coming to God-forsaken Omaha). They get all those entry fees. They get a cut from the local hotels. Etc.
It will likely get bigger in the future.
Keep in mind that many qualified swimmers do not have the funds to have ANY family go with them to the Oly Trials, or maybe even most meets on the road. Not all swimmers are fortunate enough to have a parent, let alone grandparent present to provide moral support, nutrition support, comfort, etc. Anyway, yep, families will be present in Omaha, but not for everyone. There are MANY swimmers without funds and if they qualified for the Oly trials, GOOD FOR THEM!! Way to go!!!! Well done!!! You bootstrapped it! Also, I hope the families that do go to Omaha have a GREAT TIME! Yep, USA Swimming cares about money. But the swimmers care about SWIMMIMG FAST and having a… Read more »
God forsaken Omaha . Not at all . America can thank forever the dour dutiful Scandinavian settlers clans of Willa Cather’s novels for putting up the roadblock for slavery . Democrats stumped by equal Obstinence .
Fun fact . Democrats hold just one seat of all state & federal districts & that guy spent 80% of his career as a R or Ind .. Nebraskans have loooooooong memories .
They could have used something like setting a limit number for each event like 60 or 80 or 100 or something lowere. Then on May 1 2016 that is the time set at that time relating to that number. Anyone making that time after could still enter but you would control the numbers better. You would have to be privy to the actual people’s thoughts who set the standards.
Allowing times from 2013 is not needed if you can’t do it 2015 or 2016 you don’t belong there.
In 1972 at Chicago Trials it was 32 nd time and you called in to get a rcording. With modern electronics it would be easy to keep track. And there… Read more »
Keep in mind that the majority of participants probably only have one or two qualifying times. This isn’t a big deal.
1800 swimmers with 1 cut is still 1800 swimmers. That means hotel rooms for swimmer and coach, lane space, family members looking for tickets and hotels. It’s just a lot for that venue and Omaha to handle. Especially if it’s the same time as the College World Series like 2012.
Read my article of how we should race in a new 12 lane pool. (Shouts From The Stands World Championships 2017) against USA swimming not having the Courage to try and host the meet with an open afordable bid. Everyone crying about money and FINA.
There is not 50 athletes on Team USA. There is over 350,000 athletes on Team USA. Those coaches at the top don’t ever make it by their self. The athletes that make a team primarily come from a wealthy family background and good club team with assets that other teams don’t have. The good college teams recruite primarily from these kinds of clubs and families and have multi million dollar pools as their leverage… Read more »