USA Swimming Announces 9 Sites That Will Host the 2020 U.S. Open

USA Swimming has announced the 9 sites that will host the 2020 U.S. Open Swimming Championships.

As part of a reimagined calendar amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, USA Swimming announced in September that the U.S. Open would be held at multiple sites around the country, instead of the traditional single-site setup. Specifically, 9 venues around the country will host the meet. Rather than the traditional 700-800 athletes in one location, this means that that there will be around 1,800 athletes competing around the country.

In order to further reduce crowding at any one time, the format will be:

• 4 timed-final sessions for each meet
• A male and female flight for each session

This means that, on average, there will be 100, or fewer, athletes in any given session.

Daily Event Schedule:

The U.S. Open, which has replaced the former Winter Nationals as the mid-season championship meet in the United States, is being held in long course again this year, much as it was last year. It’s unclear yet if this will become the new normal for the event, or if that choice is simply being rolled forward in the pre-Olympic year.

Results from the meet will be combined by USA Swimming and put into a collective results report.

The event in Irvine, California will be live-streamed on usaswimming.org and a one-hour broadcast package will air on NBC on Sunday, November 15, from 3-4 p.m. ET.

While many of the top American swimmers will be away at the International Swimming League competition in Budapest, Hungary, others among America’s top swimmers will still be in the U.S. and able to compete if they choose to. That includes the Stanford women’s group (Katie Ledecky, Simone Manuel, Katie Drabot, Ella Eastin), 8-time Olympic medalist Nathan Adrian, and the United States’ newest World Record holder teenage phenom Regan Smith.

Like Smith, amateur athletes who are not eligible for ISL competition will all be available. With a very quiet and controlled start to the NCAA season, that means a number of college swimmers will likely participate.

2020 U.S. Open 9-Site Venues

*pending approval from Indiana University

The list of hosting locations features a few sites that are new to the USA Swimming national-level rotation, likely afforded by the smaller sessions and fewer spectators that will be present.

That includes places like the new Huntsville Aquatics Center in Alabama, the Selby Aquatic Center in Sarasota, Florida, and the Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center in Beaverton, Oregon.

While most of these facilities have auxiliary pools for warmup and cool down, at least one, the Tualatin Hills Aquatic Center, does not.

With the exception of Indiana University Natatorium on the IUPUI campus in Indianapolis, which is pending approval, most of these facilities are also not college facilities. While colleges are home to many of the biggest and best aquatics centers in the country, use of those facilities by outside groups continues to be limited in many parts of the country.

Last week, USA Swimming announced its scheme for the 2020 Winter Junior Championships, which will be far less structured than the U.S. Open.

Time Standards

The Qualification period for the meet is July 1, 2019 through the entry deadline.