Update: USA Swimming has added limited Time Trials back into the schedule.
USA Swimming has announced that they will not be holding time trials at this year’s Olympic Trials meet. The full announcement is below.
Time Trials – Due to the incredibly large entry at the Trials (believed to be the largest senior level meet that we have ever held), Time Trials will not be held at the 2012 Olympic Trials. We apologize for letting you know this at such a late date, but the size of the meet is such that Time Trials are not in the best interest of the competition. Thank you sincerely for your understanding of this.
The move is another downfall of the huge number of entries we’re seeing at this meet, where in the neighborhood of 2000 swimmers are qualified to compete. Even with changes like flyover starts and a 10-lane pool, if a full session of time trials were held each day as well, it could result in around-the-clock swimming in the competition pool in Omaha.
Coaches can use these time trials after sessions for many different things, most of which have little to do with actually qualifying for the Olympics. That includes things like swimmers shooting for a cut to make the National Team if they didn’t make it during the regular event; to try and swim a best time (as many athletes will use their best summer taper on this meet); to qualify for a regional or Zones team; for a swimmer to get a chance to swim an event they didn’t hit the qualifying time for; to replace a DQ with a good time; or perhaps to get a time in a race that is on a double (or triple) with another of a swimmer’s events.
Though the Olympic Trials are the official selection meet for the 2012 Jr. Pan Pac Championships, time trials weren’t considered in the selection as it was (only prelims, semi-finals, and finals are counted toward that qualifying). There’s a chance that it could cost a swimmer another chance to put up a time to qualify for the 18 & under squad that will be sent to the Berlin and Moscow World Cup meets in October.
This change won’t have a huge effect on the elite of USA Swimming, but will be felt much more by the next-tier of swimmers at this meet – the younger, developmental generation of athletes. Especially frustrating will be how late the decision has been made – namely after the deadline for most of the athletes to cancel hotel reservations.
At this point, I think most people have recognized that this Olympic Trials meet has gotten too big, but given that it’s too late to fix that now, everybody is trying to ride-it-out until changes can be made for 2016.
Then raise the bar for women’s qualifying. There is exponentially more women than men at this meet. And at the risk of sounding sexist, women’s qualifying times are a joke. Not to belittle those women who work hard and are incredibly fast. God knows there were women faster than me at nationals in their respective events. But there needs to be a change in how time standards are figured out.
We’ve discussed this before, but saying that there are significantly more women is categorically false. Unless the proportion of men who are qualified but don’t swim is vastly different than women, it’s about even.
Women do, on average, have more entries per swimmer however, but even that gap is close.
Coaches, Parents and Swimmers are so thankful for the officials that dedicate countless hours. However, I know there are many officials that would love the opportunity to work at Olympic Trials, even if only at time trials. Would love to know who made the decision and why they waited so long. This is….after all…supposed to be about the swimmers. Yes, it’s mostly about the top swimmers…and the Olympic Athletes – however, it’s also about every swimmer who positively contributes to make this the best meet every four years by their energy, hard work, dedication and success. Ineffective management and decision making is always a disappointment.
Joe, you miss the point. Are there going to be less than 2000 swimmers because time trials were cut? Are the stands going to be less crowded? Is the warmup pool going to be less crowded? The issue of tightening the time standards and making this a smaller and more manageable meet is moot at this point. The time standards committee will have to address the issue moving forward.
How does a time trial at this meet negatively impact the competition. Are Michael and Ryan not going to make the team because of time trials? With 3+ hours of prelims, even with a 10 AM start, it would not negatively impact the meet. Yourself and spectators would not have to… Read more »
This could not have been better said…NO ONE will be affected by having time trials except those who are at the actual time trial…REGARDLESS of how big the meet is. There seems to be plenty of time between prelims and finals…maybe I’m missing something, but the basis for their decision doesn’t add up…
I don’t know what all went into making the decision but I’m an official. I willingly volunteer my time when I work and do it for the swimmers but there is a limit physically how much deck time any official can take. I hate time trials as an official – my experience is no one (official wise) wants to stay and another couple of hours for time trials makes for an exhausting, unpaid day! Usually the number of officials for meets is limited and the time on deck for the prelims and finals is all I physically do for an eight day meet!
Sorry coach, but I believe you are wrong.. Not havng time trials frees up the competition pool for 2.5-3hrs each day for training swims for the hundreds of athletes that don’t have an event on a given day. I know I am planning on training then vs during the actual warm-up and meet times which will be extremely crowded (and no, the various off-site 25yd pools are not an equal alternative)
My really last response, really: Don’t you think that Olympic Trials should be different from the same old same old swim meet where the coaches, swimmers and parents are at the pool all day long? If I were a NORMAL parent I would be thankful there were no time trials. I can’t think of anything worse than to spend thousands of dollars to go to Omaha for a week and never leave the venue. But then maybe some parents would rather watch their kid in a time trial than watch the finals. That is what I would call a sick swim parent. But at least they would get a break in the evening.
Good Point Joe.Many young swimmers who attend this meet(possibly only as a spectator)
will get the bug to work toward their own dream of making an Olympic Team.Olympic Trials 2008 were the first ones I had ever attended and I was just a parent in the stands.It was an incredible experience and I was glued to my seat for Pre-lims and Finals each day.
Several Swimmers I spoke with who were Olympians said the Trials atmosphere was far more exciting than the Olympics.Competitions like this are what motivate young swimmers to do whatever they have to do to make it to this level and not be one of the left off the team.
It gives them a… Read more »
My last response is this: To the swim parent who is disgusted that he is not getting to watch his swimmer swim time trials–are you really spending all this money to go to the Olympic Trials just to watch your kid? Give me a break. You will get to watch Phelps, Lochte, Soni, Franklin and all the others try to qualify for London. You should be thrilled to watch all this great action and proud that your child is participating. And you will get a break between prelims and finals.
He’s not disgusted about not seeing time trials. He’s disgusted that he has worked 2 forty hour shifts to pay for his family to support his son for 5 days when they could have saved a couple of thousand dollars to watch for 2 days.
Based on Cup of Joe’s logic the only swimmers in the meet should be the top flight swimmers with international experience. Forget about the dark horse (in 2008 there was a UVA swimmer in an early heat of the 200 who semi-finaled and has since gone on to represent us internationally) just put up the for sure medalist and forget about everyone else.
Remember we are not only selecting our Olympic Team, but we are also using Trials as a critieria to select our Junior Pan Pac team as well as our National Youth Team. So an 18-un athlete like Maclin Davis (100 Fly) or Olivia Smoliga (100 Back) who have one primary event at Trials (may have a couple… Read more »
So are you saying that we should have 2000 athletes at the Olympic trials? Come on. The swimmers you mentioned surely would be in the top 1200 or so. Remember, this is an OLYMPIC trials. I am not for a small trials like when we had only 300 swimmers at Indy one year (1988 I think, correct me if I’m wron). But 2000 is boarderline unmanageable in terms of warm up, coaches and athlete seating, etc. Just cut the meet to 1000-1200 and all those young athletes you are talking about will be there. In other words, are you really special if everybody is special?
Agree Time trials not necessary; however completely irresponsible for them to be dropped at this late date. Very poor leadership and management by USASwimming.
Reason to swim Time Trials: Swimmer A could have 400 IM and 400 free cuts on day 1 – but choose to just swim 1, 200 fly on day 3 and 1500 on last day – that swimmer might want to race something in between on day 5 (like the 200 back or 200 IM to stay sharp, make a team…not because they are losers). Whose to say a swimmer with 4 cuts shouldn’t be there.
There are lots of things USA Swimming could have done differently – they could have limited each day only to… Read more »