SwimSwam will be providing a weekly rundown of the top stories in Olympic sports (outside of swimming) in the lead-up to the 2024 Games in Paris.
Team USA Bringing 592 Athletes To Paris, Largest Delegation
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) has announced a 592-member roster of athletes that will compete at the 2024 Olympic Games, making Team USA the biggest squad in Paris.
The U.S. team, which includes over 250 returning Olympians and 122 Olympic medalists, is made up of 278 men and 314 women. It is the third-largest U.S. Olympic team ever, trailing Atlanta 1996 (646) and Tokyo 2021 (621). American athletes qualified in all but one sport: Team Handball.
The home nation of France will have the second-largest team at the Games with 571 announced athletes, while Australia is sending 460.
IOC OKs 16 Russian, 16 Belarusian Neutrals For Paris
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially invited and confirmed 32 individual neutral athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete at the Paris Games.
There will be 16 Russians and 16 Belarusians competing across 12 sports at the Olympics. The IOC extended 53 total invites (30 Russians and 23 Belarusian), but several athletes declined to participate.
Tennis will have seven Russians competing—the most independent neutrals of any sport—while swimming will have one Russian and three Belarusians.
200-Meter World Champion Shericka Jackson Has Injury Scare In Hungary
Jamaican sprinter Shericka Jackson pulled up in pain while racing the women’s 200 meters at the Hungarian Athletics Grand Prix on Tuesday.
Jackson, the 2023 world champion and owner of the #2 time ever in the event, was leading the race late before abruptly shutting things down before the finish, walking off the track in discomfort.
Although there was initially concern that Jackson might have a serious injury that would impact her status at the Olympics, her physiotherapist said it was just a “cramp in the hamstring” and all should be OK.
Taliban Won’t Recognize Women On Aghan Olympic Team
Afghanistan’s Taliban government won’t recognize the women who have qualified to represent the nation at the upcoming Paris Games.
The IOC invited Afghani six athletes to the Olympics, three men and three women, but a spokesman of the Taliban government’s sports director refused to acknowledge the female athletes.
“Only three athletes are representing Afghanistan,” said Atal Mashwani, referring to the male competitors.
“Currently, in Afghanistan girls’ sports have been stopped. When girls’ sport isn’t practiced, how can they go on the national team?” he told AFP.
The IOC said it has not consulted Taliban officials and noted they were only in contact with Afghanistan’s National Olympic Committee regarding which athletes will be in attendance at the Games.
On an unrelated note, the swimming entries are out on the World Aquatics website (https://www.worldaquatics.com/competitions/2943/olympic-games-paris-2024/athletes?gender=&discipline=SW&countryId=).
A confusing entry, Kaii Winkler is registered as a German and will be competing in 100 fly for them? He just swam at the US Olympic Trials a few weeks ago.
Looks like Hafnaoui is entered.
He has the German citizenship as well.
I guess it’s true – Rafael Miroslaw also posted a picture yesterday with him in Germany.
But he has not been announced by the German swimming federation or olympic committee yet, that’s why I found it confusing, since his addition is definitely not in line with their selection procedure.
Also I guess that’s why he is not on the Junior Pan Pac team.
That’s pretty big for Germany; They’d been developing decent men’s freestyle relays and Winkler will come in very handy for them.
GB give Cohoon a 50fr entry, Whittle a 100fr entry, Guy a 100fl entry and Bird a 400fr entry – Presumably to limit relay-only swimmers after what happened in Tokyo.
Some other notable entries
AUS: Anderson in 100 back (instead of Mollie), Jamie Perkins in 400 free (Pallister focusing on 800/1500)
USA: Gretchen in 100 free (Douglass focusing on 200 IM/Breast)
Sweden: Sjostrom in 100 free
Also shows Maggie in the 100 Free for CAN, which is weird because I didn’t think she has the A cut…
Confirmed no Summer in the 200 Free. MSH dropped 100 Fly (Rebecca Smith gets the second spot) and added the 400 Free. Other than that, Canada’s entries look as expected.
How many coaches, Drs, other hangers on? 800?
Easily thousands if you include USOPC invitees.
I would easily pay $250 or more for a digest that had all the top 8 results stats for swimming competitions of the Olympics, Pan Am Games, European Championships and Commonwealth Games.
Will China win more Gold medals than the USA this time around?
Yes, of course
The Chinese team strives to win all the gold medals in table tennis and diving, while shooting and swimming are the key factors determining more gold medals
💔💔💔 for the Afghani women.
Sometimes I forget what life is like in other parts of the globe. What a crazy reminder.
Taliban – such a progressive organization LOL
592 COWBELLS RAHHH🔔🔔🔔🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Interesting. You would think that the host team, who as I recall gets an automatic entry in all team sports, would have the most qualifiers. Is it just a matter of the U.S. having so many more individual qualifiers in sports like swimming and track than France does?
It’s becoming more the case that, whilst host nations DO have the right of automatic entry for all sports inlc team sports, host nations are becoming more judicious as to which they actually take up. If the sport has little/no “footprint”/market presence in a country; some are now waiving the right on the basis that a host team being utterly uncompetitive is not something they want shown to the world.
Huh. You would think that giving your citizens the opportunity to have an Olympic experience would override such nationalistic concerns. I’m assuming that our handball team will get trounced in Los Angeles four years from now, but I still think it would be great to give a bunch of guys the chance to be Olympians.
Do you honestly believe any of these bodies would care in the slightest about giving someone an Olympic experience?
I’m sure you are correct. I had a YouTube channel for a decade with roughly 300 sports videos, including swimming and track and field from Los Angeles 1984. The greatest thanks I received was from the United States team handball community. I posted one video of that competition. It wasn’t much because ABC didn’t show much. But after I uploaded it I got one very positive private message after another. They said they had been looking for that footage for years.
Unfortunately the IOC and NFL combined to zap my channel due to copyright complaints. The first thing the IOC demanded was removal of a Janet Evans video from 1988. I complied. After that they just sent strikes without warning… Read more »
It’s not that uncommon for countries to not send qualified athletes to the games. In track and field there were a bunch of athletes from the UK left home with no one going in their places.
Once upon a time, even as recent as 20 years ago, this would’ve been the case but you are overlooking the key reality ……$$$$$$$$$
You may have an Olympic invitation but it still costs money to prepare your athletes/team. Where’s that money coming from ?
- Public sector $$$ is generally far less than in past and public opinion far more in favour of spending elsewhere.
- Commercial money in sport is heavily weighted towards the professional sports that give the sponsor the greatest market exposure and that doesn’t favour most Olympic sports
- Longer term commercial deals do still exist but they’re far fewer on the ground
- Most other deals are transient.
- A sport with neglible public profile is
… Read more »There are many sports that are so U.S.-centric we get very bloated. Events you have to wonder, are they Olympics worthy?
3-on-3 Basketball, Break dancing, BMX, Skateboard, “Sport” climbing?
I mean come on. In the Olympics?
And then obviously we have the population to field every team.