The 2024 US Olympic Swimming Trials are around the corner, and this weekend’s meets in Irvine, Indianapolis, Austin, Atlanta, and Tempe are serving as a final tune-up for many of the contenders to make the US Olympic Team.
While USA Swimming doesn’t want to discuss session lengths for the upcoming US Olympic Trials in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, we’ve done some math to estimate how long each session of the meet will take.
We hope that this will help coaches and athletes plan their sessions and spectators plan their days.
Note that these session lengths are unofficial and are based on some extrapolation of session lengths of past Trials meets, expected number of competitors this year, and a little bit of voodoo math.
Heats each day are scheduled to begin at 11:00 AM, with finals scheduled for first dive at 7:45 PM (though this often varies by 1-10 minutes depending on television schedules).
The shortest of the 8 prelims sessions ins on Days 1 and 6, where we estimate the sessions will take about an hour and 40 minutes. The longest is expected to be Day 4 on June 18th, where the women’s 1500 free mid-session means we expect about a 3 hour and 45 minute session (that’s with an estimated 6-or-7 heats, with 1 more or less heat than that dramatically changing the timeline).
Our math expects the average prelims length to be about 2 hours and 15 minutes with the average finals session projecting to be 1 hour and 15 minutes of racing plus some awards ceremonies and stuff afterwards.
The math is an inexact science, because this Trials are different than any past Trials. For one, it is 9 days long instead of 8, mirroring the increase in the Olympic schedule; for two, there is no “Wave 1/Wave 2” system like we saw in 2021 (which incidentally was the first with a men’s and women’s 1500 free on the schedule, making estimating from 2016 a challenge).
These, and other things, have driven a pretty significant rewrite of the schedule for 2024, and USA Swimming has targeted a lower qualifier number than we’ve seen in the past, so the meet doesn’t quite fit into any perfect parallels This should be pretty close though.
That means that these are just estimates. Official timelines will probably be put out shortly before the meet starts.
| Prelims | Event length (Minutes) | Finals |
Event length (Minutes)
|
|
| June 15/Day 1 | Session Length (Minutes) | 100 | 61 | |
| W 100 fly | 26 | W 100 fly semi | 15 | |
| W 400 free | 24 | M 400 free final | 18 | |
| M 100 breast | 26 | W 400 free final | 13 | |
| M 400 free | 24 | M 100 breast semi | 15 | |
| June 16/Day 2 | Session Length (Minutes) | 154 | 88 | |
| M 200 free | 29 | M 400 IM final | 14 | |
| M 400 IM | 24 | W 100 fly final | 10 | |
| W 100 breast | 26 | M 200 free semi | 14 | |
| M 100 back | 43 | W 100 breast semi | 13 | |
| W 200 free | 32 | M 100 back semi | 14 | |
| M 100 breast final | 9 | |||
| W 200 free semi | 14 | |||
| June 17/Day 3 | Session Length (Minutes) | 124 | 76 | |
| W 400 IM | 27 | W 400 IM final | 17 | |
| W 100 back | 37 | M 200 free final | 11 | |
| M 800 free | 60 | W 100 back semi | 14 | |
| M 100 back final | 10 | |||
| W 100 breast final | 13 | |||
| W 200 free final | 11 | |||
| June 18/Day 4 | Session Length (Minutes) | 225 | 91 | |
| M 200 fly | 28 | M 100 free semi | 11 | |
| M 100 free | 19 | M 200 fly semi | 20 | |
| W 1500 free | 120 | W 100 back final | 9 | |
| W 100 free | 25 | M 800 free final | 17 | |
| M 200 breast | 33 | W 100 free semi | 17 | |
| M 200 breast semi | 17 | |||
| June 19/Day 5 | Session Length (Minutes) | 117 | 120 | |
| W 200 breast | 47 | W 100 free final | 17 | |
| M 200 back | 37 | M 200 fly final | 10 | |
| W 200 fly | 33 | W 200 fly semi | 13 | |
| W 1500 free final | 25 | |||
| M 200 back semi | 19 | |||
| W 200 breast semi | 17 | |||
| M 200 breast final | 11 | |||
| M 100 free final | 8 | |||
| June 20/Day 6 | Session Length (Minutes) | 100 | 72 | |
| W 200 back | 37 | W 200 fly final | 10 | |
| M 50 free | 30 | M 200 back final | 11 | |
| M 200 IM | 33 | M 50 free semi | 12 | |
| W 200 breast final | 11 | |||
| W 200 back semi | 18 | |||
| M 200 IM semi | 10 | |||
| June 21/Day 7 | Session Length (Minutes) | 131 | 66 | |
| M 100 fly | 34 | M 50 free final | 12 | |
| W 200 IM | 37 | W 200 back final | 13 | |
| W 800 free | 60 | M 200 IM final | 11 | |
| M 100 fly semi | 17 | |||
| W 200 IM semi | 13 | |||
| June 22/Day 8 | Session Length (Minutes) | 140 | 58 | |
| W 50 free | 30 | M 100 fly final | 10 | |
| M 1500 free | 110 | W 50 free semi | 17 | |
| W 200 IM final | 11 | |||
| W 800 free final | 20 | |||
| June 23/Day 9 | Session Length (Minutes) | N/A | 28 | |
| W 50 free final | 8 | |||
| M 1500 free final | 20 |
I have tickets for both sessions on Friday
So in the morning it looks to be around 1 1/2 hours long give or take, and the evening session doesn’t start till 7:45? So in between times, you leave the stadium, or walk downtown,or hang out there? What are the options? I have limited mobility issues so I’m a little concerned about about walking long distances.
Stadium is cleared between sessions. You can walk around downtown, get something to eat, go to Georgia Street for the concerts and activities, and then return to the stadium with the doors opening for the night session at 6:30 p.m.
How many swimmers qualify for Semis? Then how many for Finals? For the under 200M events. Thx.
They’re using 10 lanes in prelims, but only 8 qualify to semis and finals.
So top 16 is semis? Then it goes to 8 for finals? Just trying to figure out how many swimmers move forward to semis really. Thx.
Yes that’s correct.
Where can I find a list of the athletes competing?
Sophie is going to do an update of qualifiers next week. Here was the last update from April: https://swimswam.com/796-swimmers-have-qualified-for-2024-u-s-olympic-trials-ahead-of-san-antonio-pss/
The list of swimmers actually competing won’t be available until a couple of days before the meet.
Thanks!
Does anyone know if the heats will go fastest to slowest or vice versa?
11:00 seems late to start heats.
Is this Eastern Time Zone or what?
Indianapolis is in the Eastern time zone
Instead of 9 am prelims and 6 pm finals like you might see at a Pro Swim Series meet they’re doing 11 am prelims and 8 pm finals. So I think it still makes sense.
I think they are mirroring Paris
I thought that the goal for USA swimming was for the meet to be about 1000-1200 swimmers, how far away will we be (200-300 swimmers)? I wonder how that would have changed the timeline?