USA Swimming has canceled the second Pro Swim Series meet of 2022, the Des Moines stop, which was originally scheduled for March 2-5.
When announcing the decision, USA Swimming said that the cancellation came because of the postponement of the World Championships to 2023.
“Given the movements on the international calendar, USA Swimming is reviewing its domestic calendar to ensure it provides the best competitive opportunities at the most impactful times,” USA Swimming said in a statement.
The official announcement of cancelation did not include any mention of COVID-19.
This is the second of four stops in the series that have been cancelled so far, with January’s stop in Knoxville, Tennessee being called off amid a spike of COVID-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant.
2022 PRO SWIM SERIES DATES & LOCATIONS
January 12-15, 2022: Knoxville, TNMarch 2-5, 2022: Des Moines, IA- March 30-April 2: San Antonio, TX
- June 29-July 2: Mission Viejo, CA
The cancellation comes amid falling case counts in the U.S. and most of the world. The current daily average of new infections across the United States is 107 cases per 100,000 per day. Every U.S. state aside from Maine has seen a drop in cases over the last two weeks, with the Northeastern U.S. seeing the most dramatic drops.
Across the country, the last 14 days have seen a 52% decrease in rate of infections, though deaths attributed to COVID-19 continue to rise.
With the postponement of the 2022 World Aquatics Championships to July 2023, these meets have become less significant for U.S. swimmers in terms of specific preparations. While the USA Swimming season plan still lists an International Team Trials from April 26-30, the U.S. won’t have to select for two of the three meets that the meet was intended to choose. Besides the Worlds postponement, USA Swimming has chosen not to send a roster to the World University Games.
That leaves just the World Junior Championships as a major international championship meet for the United States in 2022.
Des Moines was the site of the last Pro Swim Series meet that happened before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down swimming in March 2020. That meet featured a lot of very fast times, even by Pro Swim standards.
The silence is deafening from Colorado Springs about the last remaining major meets through summer …..
April Trials (for the juniors)?
TYR Pro meets (remaining)?
Meet information for TYR 18/Under Cup?
Meet information for, well, EVERYTHING?
Oh but thankfully, we have lots of info, weekly, about the same programs over and over again.
Is this official?
spending too much time on this…
But is the meet really cancelled if USA Swimming still has a count down clock going for this meet on its own website? LOL
https://www.usaswimming.org/event/2022/03/02/default-calendar/tyr-pro-swim-series-des-moines
From a business point of view, probably. No meet means a lot less article (pre-meet info, psyche sheets, live update, post-race analysis, interview topics, etc.) opportunity to engage readers.
As a swim fan,I am upset of all these cancellations, too!
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I think the USA Swimming statement means –
“USA Swimming is reviewing its domestic calendar to ensure it provides NO competitive opportunities at the most impactful times,”
Lol
Professional swimmers can’t be at NCAA or conference meets. So what are their racing options?
USA swimming has really lost themselves with this. They are giving elite swimmers the middle finger right now. How about some prize money for these meets? How about fully funding a WUGs team and facilitate its selection. How about planning an alternative to worlds for this summer? Knock Knock is anyone home?
“We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas!!”
-USA Swimming
Maybe despite all the doubt and payment issue, ISL is till the best hope for US professional swimmers. Or maybe pro swimmers should move base to east coast/Europe for racing opportunities.
It is a very sad state that USA Swimming cannot keep one long running swimming series going on US soil. Did TYR as the title sponsor posted a press release about the cancellation of the meet? Is TYR only writing checks and the meets are actually “owned” by USA Swimming (meaning it has unilateral power to schedule or cancel meet)? Does USA Swimming think that there is no reason to have meets or provide racing opportunities for US swimmers if there is no WC or Olympics happening in that… Read more »
USA Swimming has the power to schedule or cancel the meet. In the “COVID world,” I wonder if they have given some room for the meet hosts to call off events depending on local numbers/restrictions.
They really need to announce the plan for April at least. Just cancel it and run a real LC Nationals in Irvine this summer. Great location, outdoor, and will allow elite athletes to coordinate their schedules; right now, it seems like they are just swimming into the void!
Did SwimSwam ask Usa swimming why Des Moines or everyone can just guess and assume it is for their particular agenda?
I agree uSA swimming should put out a statement and be transparent. Same with WUGs, etc and what the plan forward is going to be?