LA28 and World Aquatics have released the qualifying process for the open water spots at the 2028 Olympic Games, with the time standards for the pool swimming competition also being announced this week.
There will be 44 Olympic quota spots for open water, 22 per gender, which matches what we saw at the Paris Games.
Qualifying for open water will begin at the 2027 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, where the top three men and three women in the 10km event will automatically qualify for LA28 (in the event of a tie for 3rd, both swimmers will qualify).
The 2027 World Aquatics Championships will take place from June 26 to July 18, 2027.
An additional swimmer in each gender, the highest-ranked swimmer in the World Aquatics open water rankings as of Feb. 1, 2028, will also punch their ticket to LA. If that swimmer already qualified in Budapest, the slot will go to the next-highest-ranked athlete.
All of the remaining spots will be earned at the LA28 Open Water Qualification Event, which World Aquatics says will be scheduled for spring 2028, with the host and exact dates yet to be confirmed.
Like Paris, swimmers who have qualified to compete in the 800 and 1500 free in the pool will have the opportunity to enter the open water event in Paris. This means that the number of open water swimmers can extend beyond the quota of 22 per gender, since the new additions will already be part of the 830 quota for pool swimming.
The open water competition at the LA Olympics will take place at Belmont Shore in Long Beach.
It would be cool if the Olympics also hosted 5k, 25k events. Maybe even the mile!