Continuing with its relatively new model of conducting trials closer to the biggest elite international meets, Swimming Australia has confirmed that the nation’s Olympic Trials for next summer will be held in June of 2020.
The organization’s plan, as we detailed back in February 2017, includes shifting Aussie Selection Trials events closer to the actual ‘Benchmark Events’, aligning Swimming Australia more with the American timing model.
As such, the Australian Swimming Championships, which serve as ‘nationals’, will take place at Perth’s HBF Stadium, Claremont Pool April 17th-21st, with the Australian Age Championships taking place just prior.
The Olympic Trials meet will then take place June 14th-19th at the South Australian Aquaic & Leisure Centre, home of Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers.
Says Swimming Australian Chief Executive Leigh Russell of the schedule, “We’re delighted to provide our athletes, coaches and fans with two high-quality events in different corners of our country next year – it’s the perfect precursor for our athletes as they strive to make the Australian Olympic and Paralympic team,” Russell said.
“I know Perth will be a terrific host for both our Hancock Prospecting Australian Age Championships and Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming Championships, and there’s no question regarding the calibre of racing we’ll witness as our athletes ramp up their preparation for trials in June.
“We know Adelaide always puts on a great show whenever swimming comes to town and all eyes will be on South Australia as they host our blue-ribbon event next year. Dreams will be made and the atmosphere will be electric, so it’s an event not to be missed.
“I would like to thank South Australian Tourism Commission and Tourism Western Australia for their support of swimming, we truly value their relationships and look forward to working with them on an exciting seven months ahead.”
This same general timeline was followed for 2019, the year of the FINA World Aquatic Championships. The Australian Age Championships and Australian Swimming Championships both took place in April, while the official Trials for Gwangju were conducted in June.
The Aussies also rolled out this same shortened lead-time between Trials and the main event with the Pan Pacific Championships. Although the Commonwealth Games served as one qualifying meet for the Pan Pacs, the actual Trials competition took place June 30th – July 4th, finishing up just about 5 weeks ahead of the quadrennial meet in Tokyo.
In Gwangju, Australia ultimately came away with 19 medals in all, including 5 gold, 9 silver and 5 bronze medals, to finish runner-up to the United States in the overall medal standings. That represented a marked improvement from the 2017 edition of the meet following the old Trials model, with the nation reaping 10 medals in total, marked by just one gold.
Aussie Meet Info for 2020:
What: 2020 Hancock Prospecting Australian Age Swimming Championships
Where: HBF Stadium, Claremont Pool
When: 7-14 April 2020
For more information, click here.
What: 2020 Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming Championships
Where: HBF Stadium, Claremont Pool
When: 17-21 April 2020
For more information, click here.
What: 2020 Hancock Prospecting Australian Swimming Trials
Where: SA Aquatic & Leisure Centre
When: 14-19 June 2020
For more information, click here.
This is a weird story- this was penciled in years ago for the swimmers and organizers to plan their schedules, it surely hasnt just been confirmed.
Anyway, this seem to have been a success the last couple of years, good luck to all the swimmers. Funnily enough Adelaide is basically (within 30mins) of being in the same time zone as Tokyo. Will they have the finals in the morning?
Having trials and a seperate nationals is silly. What is with swimming organisations and trying to squeeze every last cent out of athletes, the vast majority of which are amateur.
I hope no one tapers for nationals. There was an article earlier in the year that looked like they were demoting the usual April nationals meet and holding dual trials/nationals. I wonder why they reverted?
Horton would be out if he didn’t taper for nationals.
Trials you mean. They are separate meets.
He needed a bit of help from selectors though given that he didn’t meet any of the qualifying times.
By the skin of his teeth.
An April nationals comes after their summer. Makes sense. June-July is in the dead of their winter. Australian Trials is not what we’d see as an elite meet. Certainly, they have some great swimmers, but after the top 2-4 in most events, the quality drops precipitously. While all USA swimmers in the final at our Trials make the FINA “A” standard, sometimes the Aussies can’t fill a second spot in an event. Basically, their trials is a small meet, while nationals is larger (though still not as big as any of our top meets).
I’m pretty sure you had a few events where the A cut wasn’t met by two swimmers over the years . Also the Australian cuts are faster than FINA A cuts
I’d be interested to know if the US has ever failed to get two A cuts on an event. Anyone want to track that down?
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.
In Korea rheygot 19 medals with just 23 swimmers including a lot of relays . They did not have any super flunkies . The US won more medals with more swimmers & also had more super flunkies.
Lighten up Francis.
A wise move. There will be less time for expectations and the choke factor to grow. Chalmers, Titmus, probably McKeon and C1 on relays (only) will deliver. Larkin will be the usual bust.
Manuel will go into a major competition for the first as a favourite, lets see how she handles it.
Don’t think I would call her the favorite. Certainly a frontrunner
She’s the defending Olympic & double world champion, I think this warrants her favourtism.
I think 52.04 is what does it. Sjostrom was better only once, two years ago. Cate Campbell was better only once by 0.01sec a year ago.
You serious? She won the 100m free at 2016 Olympics, again at Worlds in 2017, then won the 50m AND 100m free at Worlds in 2019. Pretty sure she knows what it’s like to be a favorite.
Not once was she favourite, both C1 & SJ were the favourites ahead of her.
Yep, C1 was the favorite in 2016 and SJ the favorite in 2017. Manuel won both races, thus proving herself as a big meet swimmer and the favorite for 2019.
Did you really expect both of them to beat Manuel in 2019? Send your stock market buys so I know what to sell ASAP.
Imagine not knowing what the word favorite means?
I guess Masse/Seebohm would be favorite over Regan Smith in a 100 back.
She got the memo that C1 is overrated nearly 4 years ago. Sjostrom won’t beat her, in fact, she will be lucky to win the 100 fly.
Except at pan pacs where Simone wasn’t rested apparently!
Only the Aussies care about Pan-Pacs. It’s a consolation prize in an off part of the Olympic cycle to claim that laying an egg in 2012 was an aberration, but then 2016 proved it was a trend.
So true. We just can’t win with these people.
Overrated??? She has swam faster them Manuel, she consistently swims faster then Manuel, she comes over the top of Manuel in many relays. However, she cracks in big meets in the individual, this shows mental issues, choking, but overrated, ummmm…. She has won 5 Olympic medals including 2 golds & 12 World championship medals including 4 golds. You struggling today mate.
Yawn. Those pesky individual golds at the Olympics always seem to get in the way of a good narrative. Thanks for the clarification. She’s an overrated headcase.
Who earnt at least $300,000 so far in earnings this year not including appearance fees & sign on .fees.
This style of pro swimming suits her .
What’s the difference between an appearance fee and a sign on fee?
Appearance fee would be to turn up & appear eg at a a functoion or event incl corporate . A sign on fee would be pretty high both for signing on to London Roar & the Fina Champion Series & Grand Prixs.
No problems dude, I know you prefer wide sweeping statements to facts.
IMO she is a tad overrated…she has one individual gold in the 100 free from the 2013 WC and one individual olympic bronze in the 50 from 2008. Her individual performances at big meets cannot be overlooked at this point, especially compared to how much shes talked about on this site….
Lol You are a crack up are you a comedian in your day job?
Meh
Won’t matter….
Really ? Nasty and unnecessary .
@Samesame “Forget it, Jake — It’s SwimSwam.” Snark is the coin of the realm here!
https://youtu.be/cQp9RC2sfT0
I don’t know, I think a lot of the comments on this post cross the line from snarky to mean.
Oh STFU. Like that?
Just gonna be honest here. Not naming names, but there’s a ton of negativity and harshness on here toward swimmers that don’t meet expectations. The sport of swimming is about fun. I’ve seen way too many people on here talk trash of people who don’t make expectations. That’s not what this sport is about. Everyone chokes, even MP. Putting them down in certain ways such as calling them failures and losers doesn’t add anything to the swimming community. It gets tiring after a while.
Ayyy