As the 900-swimmer cap continues to throttle Olympic qualifying, Venezuela earned only two Olympic invites, despite 6 with FINA ‘B’ Times, and Colombia earned only a single invite, despite 4 with FINA ‘B’ Times.
This is a huge downturn as compared to the 18 (13 for Venezuela, 5 for Colombia) swimmers each country sent in individual events in 2008.
One observer, who is close to many of the Olympians, has estimated that FINA only invited the first 6 eligible (aka, from countries without ‘A’ times) swimmers from each event in the first round of invitations, meaning 156 (6 x 26) swimmers have received notes in the first round.
Venezuela’s invites go to Albert Subirats in the 100 fly, where he was an automatic qualifier, and USC’s Christian Quintero in the 200 and 400 freestyles. They will, additionally, have a men’s 400 free relay as well.
Colombia’s lone invite thus far belongs to Carolina Colorado in the women’s 100 backstroke with a 1:01.28. This means that swimmers like Mateo de Angulo and Octavio Alesi are not yet booking flights to London.
There is still hope; as invites are turned down, the next swimmer on the list will get a call-up. But for now, there are a ton of swimmers likely counting on invitations where none came. These later rounds of invites will continue until Monday.
The real mess comes in Puerto Rico. Vanessa Garcia earned an invite in the 50 free, after already receiving a “Universatlity” invite. Her FINA invitation under the “B” time regulations means that Raul Martinez, who was without a cut, lost his Universality selection.
When an athlete has OQT in an event, and OST in another event (but with lower ranking), this person should be invited in the second envento automatically, since it does not increase the quota of 900. Likewise, when a swimmer has admitted for respite care, and has OST and is 1st in the ranking of your country, you should automatically go in that event, as also in the previous case, does not increase the 900 swimmers.
FINA at the first invitation did not invite athletes with these cases.
What is your oppinion?
Hey Braden,
Don’t you think it’s kinda pessimistic to keep putting “only” in these titles. How many swimmers do Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia usually send? Seems like typical numbers.
Swimming on American resumes itself to USA, Brazil and Canada mostly.. all other countries have at most 4 or 5 swimmers at most who have some depth and sometimes only one medal or final contender..
Chris – Venezuela had 13 swimmers in Beijing, and Colombia 5. 18>3?
Part of it is also expectations. I don’t think that anybody had a good idea of where the cuts were going to land, and there were a whole lot more athletes who expected they were going to get in.