A Total of 19 German Swimmers Undercut the German Olympic Standards

by Daniela Kapser 1

April 18th, 2021 Europe, International, News

2021 GERMAN OLYMPIC TRIALS – BERLIN

Christian Diener and Jacob Heidtmann were the last two swimmers who ducked under the German Olympic standards on the last day of the German Olympic Trials. Both succeeded in the morning heats, Christian Diener in the 200m backstroke and Jacob Heidtmann in the 200m IM. Heidtmann already is qualified for Tokyo in the 400m IM and pre-qualified for the men’s 4×200 m freestyle.

The qualification period is now closed. The German Swimming Federation (DSV) and the German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB) will now decide together with the German head coaches which swimmers will finally receive the tickets to Tokyo.

At the moment, the swimmers are divided in three clusters: Eight swimmers already have the Olympic participation under their belt because they reached the standards in the previous qualifying period in 2020 or were among the top four at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju. These are:

Current German Olympic Roster (Tokyo 2020)

Among them are some who could add more individual events to their program: Sarah Köhler and Florian Wellbrock hit the Olympic target times in the 400m freestyle. Jacob Heidtmann will get another chance to compete on the Olympic stage in the 200m IM.

Apart from these swimmers, 11 other swimmers were successful with an eye on the Olympics. 18-year-old Isabel Gose succeeded  in the 200, 400 and 800 freestyle, her programm will also include a participation in the women’s 4x200m freestyle. Her teammate at the Magdeburg traininig base, Lukas Märtens, dipped under the norms in the 200, 400 and 1500 freestyle. Annika Bruhn is the fastest German freestyle lady in the 100m and 200m. David Thomasberger set a new German record en route to get an Olmypic spot in the 200 butterfly. So did Fabian Schwingenschloegl in the 100 breaststroke.

After the exciting last three weeks of the qualification period, these swimmers can have justified hopes to represent the German colors in Tokyo:

German swimmers having achieved national Olympic qualifying times

A total of 19 German swimmers undercut the standards.

And in addition, a number of swimmers were able to stake their claim  for a spot in a German relay at the Olympics. The rules for the selection of the relay swimmers were that only the fastest performances achieved in a final will be used. Preliminary performances didn’t count. In a long-distance duel Eric Friese could get a starting place in the 4×100 m freestyle relay. He swam a time of 49.05 in the final of the 100m freestyle at the Pro Swim Series in Mission Viejo, USA.  In addition to swimmers who cracked the standard in a relay relevant event, these swimmers are on the  consideration list:

Swimmers who have earned consideration for relay swims

As a refresher, the Olympic standards, German records, and already qualified swimmers in each Olympic event are as follows:

Women Men
Already qualified for Tokyo German Record German Olympic norm Event German Olympic norm German Record Already qualified for Tokyo
23.73 24.75 50 freestyle 21.95 21.81
52.07 54.10 100 freestyle 48.50 48.24
1:55.68 1:57.20 200 freestyle 1:46.70 1:42.00
4:03.96 4:07.50 400 freestyle 3:46.40 3:40.07
Sarah Köhler 8:16.43 8:30.00 800 freestyle 7:50.00 7:43.03 Florian Wellbrock
Sarah Köhler 15:48.83 16:16.00 1500 freestyle 14:59.00 14:36.15 Florian Wellbrock
1:07.01 1:07.00 100 breaststroke 59.80 58,95
2:25.00 2:24.90 200 breaststroke 2:09.90 2:07.47 Marco Koch
Laura Riedemann 59.77 1:00.00 100 backstroke 53.70 52.27
2:07.63 2:09.50 200 backstroke 1:57.00 1:55.87
57.70 57.90 100 butterfly 51.80 51.19 Marius Kusch
Franziska Hentke 2:05.26 2:08.20 200 butterfly 1:56,30 1:55,04
2:11.33 2:11.90 200 IM 1:59.40 1:55.76 Philip Heintz
4:36.10 4:38.40 400 IM 4:15.00 4:12.08 Jacob Heidtmannn

 

 

In This Story

1
Leave a Reply

Subscribe
Notify of

1 Comment
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Dan
2 years ago

With the German qualifying times being under the FINA A cuts although maybe not as fast as some other countries I hope that if any of the swimmers that make the team for Relays can have a chance to swim individually in events were they have the A cut and there is an open spot – if they would like to do that. I know that could open up for people complaining that it is not fair but from a roster point of view, they still count towards the maximum number of athletes allowed under the number that FINA/aquatics are allowed.