This story has since been updated from its original version. Please see below.
It was announced on Tuesday that the 2020 YMCA Short Course Nationals would be cancelled for the first time since 1947 due to the spread of COVID-19 (the coronavirus), but currently, there are talks about a potential replacement that would mirror the dates, location and format of the meet.
Jon Jolley, the Director of Competitive Swimming for the Hickory Foundation YMCA Seahorse Swim Team, offered the following statement to SwimSwam on the matter:
“Serious discussions are occurring right now to offer an alternate meet to teams that were planning on attending YMCA Nationals. The meet would closely follow the same format and dates as the 2020 YMCA Short Course Nationals, and the location would be the Greensboro Aquatic Center. We hope to have details finalized and announced as quickly as possible.”
In addition to dates and location, the qualifying times are also expected to remain the same.
The YMCA Short Course Nationals were originally scheduled to run March 30-April 3 at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. The cancellation of the competition came after YMCA of the USA staff was informed in an email that it must cancel all Y-hosted in-person events through April 30.
UPDATE
On Thursday, after seemingly every sporting event was cancelled due to COVID-19, Jolley published the following statement on Facebook saying the alternate meet is off.
“Due to all of the cancellations over the last 48 hours and the statement from USA Swimming today, we are unable to continue the pursuit of offering an alternate meet for YMCA Nationals. I know not all will have the option, but we are putting pads in, suiting up, and swimming fast for our own season ending swims in our home pool. I tried my best to make this work, but it is what it is. Best of luck to all. Stay safe. Pray that the craziness ends soon.”
Among the major cancellations in the swimming universe were all NCAA Championship meets, and USA Swimming issuing a 30-day cancellation of all of its meets.
Probably not a good idea IMO
If the NBA is suspending their season… it has to be serious…I think it’s a good idea because somethingb
I think when they are canceling in person schools and not allowing fans to watch ACC in Greensboro they need to cancel the meet. Why are they allowing 500-1000 people to come together for a swim meet from all across the US- regardless if it is YNATS or another meet? It is awful that the kids don’t get to swim but is it worth the possibility of spreading this virus? At what cost? There are limited hospital beds in the area. I can appreciate how devastating it is for the swimmers and their families but we need to slow the progression so that the hospitals don’t become overwhelmed.
This is starting to seem like a bad idea that should not be followed through. Will be interesting to see what decisions are made in the next 24 hours.
Will coaches be able to attend this meet if it happens? All business related travel has been suspended by the YMCA, so will coaches be allowed to travel and work this meet?
May depend on who formally employs the coaches.
I would suspect that, if this meet does happen, it will be on a much smaller scale than the typical YNats.
We have been informed our Y coach cannot take our national level swimmers to any meets. We are in CT.
If it is safe to have a meet, hold YNats.
If it isn’t, this idea is horrendous
agreed. we should wait and see what happens with the virus, and IF things get better, simply have it rescheduled
Make the cuts faster. It’s a national meet yet the cuts are comparable to sectional times for USA swimming.
Dude it’s Y nats
You compete against/with kids from all over the nation, not the very best in the nation.
And it’s a blast!
Last I checked, many of the “best” come from this meet.
Racing people from all over makes you better, and best
The cuts are fine! It’s the relay swimmer rules that need to be addressed.
Y Nats has good top end swimming and a whole lot of fluff
This is wonderful, but we cannot deny the spread of coronavirus is serious… this meet should only be held if conditions get better, not if they get worse. I am a swimmer who was planing to swim at Nats and even didn’t fully taper for state because of it, but I don’t think it’s very smart to just create a new meet that is essentially the same and ignore the precautions that were going to be taken because the disease IS spreading…
I’m just saying we are at a point in time where we can’t really be selfish right now. We have to think of the better of the world and the older generation and elderly.
At this point in time the fear of coronavirus is blown way out of proportion. It is not selfish that many kids want to swim out their season in hopes of getting recruited by colleges. It is clear that the virus effects the older generation and it would be up to them to attend as spectators(though not recommended). If any person at this meet gets it since most are athletes its effects will be similar to a common cold and they would just have to be mindful of who they interact with. Also the CDC has said there is no proof that it can spread through chlorinated pools.
You are right, it isn’t selfish I shouldn’t have used that word… I just personally feel it should be RESCHEDULED to a later date, not a new meet created to be swam the same time and same place. I just think we should wait to see how bad it gets?
Big Dog Swims – you surely don’t know anything about this pandemic. Have you been watching Fox News or listening to Limbaugh ?
These days you don’t need to ask affiliation or ideology. Just read or listen to one or two sentences. He already answered.
Guy is entitled to an opinion and if we take him at his word he’s listening to the CDC, however even according to the CDC in the absence of a vaccine the best treatment is non-pharmaceutical interventions which is the same as protecting from the flu. I don’t see any guidance from them to bypass 2020 as King James suggests, but they do outline the steps that #45 and his administration took starting in January and are just starting to ramp up an effective test.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/summary.html
https://www.cdc.gov/nonpharmaceutical-interventions/index.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/testing-in-us.html
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
Have the seen the officials at meets anymore? You wouldn’t get any officials that are not “older”.
It doesn’t bother you that every major public health body disagrees with you?
Assuming things get better and not worse (which is highly unlikely), this is great.
What’s so great about it and why is it highly unlikely things won’t get better? Virus has leveled off in China and is beginning to slow down elsewhere according to the data. Tests are beginning to be distributed widely and co-pays have been waved. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html