FINA announced Monday the official qualifying procedure for the aquatics events at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, with just under two years to go until the Games commence in the French capital.
There will once again be 49 medal events across the five aquatics disciplines in Paris—the same number we saw in Tokyo—and the swimming competition will expand to a new nine-day schedule for the first time.
Back in April, FINA published the qualification standards for swimming on its website, but was quick to claim they were outdated and not correct (or at least not “final”).
As it turns out, the time standards published Monday mirror those released in April, though there was a key change in the relay qualification procedure (more on that below).
The qualifying period for individual events will begin on March 1, 2023 and run through June 23, 2024.
PARIS 2024 QUALIFYING STANDARDS
RELAY QUALIFICATION
The original document published in April said that the top 12 teams from the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka would qualify for the Olympic Games in the corresponding relay event, and the next four-fastest countries within the qualifying period would earn the final spots (the relay qualification period is slightly shorter, ending on May 31, 2024).
However, with the confirmation of the 2024 World Championships to be held in Doha, Qatar in February, the relay qualification process has changed.
Now just the top three countries at the 2023 World Championships will qualify for the corresponding relay event in Paris, with a tie for third meaning four teams will book their spot.
The remaining 13 spots (or 12 if there’s a tie) will come from the top 13 finishers from the 2024 Worlds in Doha, minus the countries already qualified.
Several swimmers have been critical about the timing of the 2024 World Championships, which come just over five months before the start of the Olympics, but nations will need to field a team strong enough to place in the relays if they want to race them in Paris (if they don’t medal in Fukuoka).
The pool swimming competition in Paris will kick off on July 27 and run through August 4, with finals contested in the evening.
Below, find a brief breakdown of the qualifying process for the other aquatics disciplines, courtesy of FINA.
Marathon Swimming
Marathon swimming, held in the River Seine in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, at Pont d’Iena, and will take place from 8-9 August.
A total of 44 athletes – 22 men and 22 women – will qualify to compete in the men’s and women’s Marathon Swimming events, with athletes qualifying through the 21st FINA World Championships in Doha, Qatar. Pool swimmers that achieve the automatic Olympic Qualification Time in either the 800m or 1500m freestyle will be eligible to compete for their country in the Paris 2024 Marathon Swimming event.
- Official Qualifying Procedure: Paris 2024 Qualification System – Marathon Swimming
Water Polo
Water Polo will see 12 men’s teams and 10 women’s teams, 264 athletes in total, in action at the 6,000 capacity Aquatics Centre for the Preliminaries Phase, from 27 July – 4 August, and then will continue at the Paris La Defense Arena for the Finals Phase from 5-11 August.
- Official Qualifying Procedure: Paris 2024 Qualification System – Water Polo
Diving
Diving will see 136 athletes compete at the Aquatics Centre from 27 July to 10 August. This venue will also host the world’s best artistic swimmers and water polo athletes.
Eight diving medal events per gender are on the Paris 2024 Olympic programme.
- Official Qualifying Procedure: Paris 2024 Qualification System – Diving
Artistic Swimming
In artistic swimming, 96 athletes will compete at the Aquatics Centre, the only permanent sports facility to be built for the Paris 2024 Games, from 5-10 August.
Artistic Swimming will have two medal events, the Duets and Teams, on the Paris 2024 Olympic programme.
- Official Qualifying Procedure: Paris 2024 Qualification System – Artistic Swimming
I strongly suspected they would go down this path in order to make Doha “relevant” but I drew my line at finalists; ie Top 8 in Fukoka auto-qualify, everyone else to a “last chance saloon shoot-out” in Doha. Still think that would be fairer but FINA is clearly fearing a LC Worlds minus a majority of the elite performers.
Watch the backlash when the US/Aus/GB/Can come 4th in 2023 then get DQ’d in the 2024 heats. Absolute F*****g mahem
Looks like 2024 is the bigger event for Open Water…
Fina using the relay qualification to more or less force participation at Doha. Lame.
unless you’re the US or Australia, basically
It wouldn’t be surprising for Australia to miss top 3 in some relays while the US will probably be able to act like the 2024 WCs don’t exist.
Indeed- so in 2023 (more or less) there is ONE relay qualification spot available to the whole word (minus US and AUS)…….dumb
I’d make that US only. Barring breaks or major selection misteps; its hard to see USA missing the podium in any of the 7 Olympic relays.
Whilst AUS women’s relays are certainly sound bets to all podium; MMR is always a lottery and will need as many major assets firing. However, the male relays are very rubbery. 4X100 remains extremely Chalmers reliant’ 4X200 whilst very competitive is far from a safe bet but until they can unearth a reliable front end; not even Chalmers can get 4XMED to the podium.
Maybe some AUS relays are ‘rubbery’, BUT they have been getting the job done (6 of 7 in Tokyo, better than the US, and 7 of 8 in Budapest with the B Team)!
I warned about this last week and was shunned for it
FINA once again keeps the qualifying rules as complex as humanly possible.
. . . And with a 2024 WC only months before Paris 2024, it’s going to be a ZOO!
Proof they are more interested in money than athletes
Someone predicted this in an earlier post about changing World Champs to 2024.
FINA wants money from Qatar and as such will force countries to participate by making 2024 WC a qualifying event for Paris.
Corruption at its best.