Australia Releases their 2024 Short Course Worlds Selection Procedure

The 2024 World Aquatics Short Course Swimming Championships, scheduled to be held at the Duna Arena in Budapest, Hungary, from December 10th to 15th of this year, will be the 17th edition of these championships, which were first held in Palma, Spain, in 1993.

Swimming Australia has published its selection criteria for the meet after playing host in 2022. In Melbourne, the Australians left the pool with the second-most medals (26) as well as the second-most gold medals (13). They also set four world records, all from relays, in addition to four individual Championships Records.

The full selection criteria can be found below, but much like with the article regarding the USA’s procedure, we have pulled out the pertinent details and highlighted them below.

Swimming Australia Selection Policy

Selection Procedures

The document states that the team will consist of a maximum of 24 athletes selected via their results at the Olympic Games, the upcoming 2024 Australian Short Course National Championships (9/26-9/29), or on a discretionary basis.

Swimming Australia has laid out four Priorities for their Selection Policy.

Priority 1: Up to ten swimmers who were individual medalists at the 2024 Olympic Games can qualify via Priority 1 as long as they have a suitable Qualifying Time. If there are more than ten, then those swimmers will be ranked according to Swimming Australia’s ranking system (it should be noted that Australia did not have more than ten individual medalists at the Olympics)

Priority 2: The first and second-ranked swimmers at the 2024 Australian Short Course National Championships in individual Olympic Events will be selected for the team if they have equaled or bettered the Qualifying time.

Priority 3: If there are any remaining spots out of the maximum team size of 24, then the National Head Coach can add swimmers on a discretionary basis to fill relays.

Priority 4: Additional athletes may be added by the National Head Coach on a discretionary basis for non-Olympic individual events. (Both Priorities 3 and 4 make note of medal potential and quota positions in the relays and Non-Olympic Events)

What does this mean?

The eight individual medalists for Paris (Meg Harris, Mollie O’Callaghan, Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown, Cameron McEvoy, Kyle Chalmers, Elijah Winnington, and Zac Stubblety-Cook) have all qualified for the team via priority #1 if they wish to participate, assuming they have a suitable Qualifying time for the event.

It should be noted that the selection policy makes no mention of events, but based on priority 2’s wording, it would seem as if these eight swimmers only have a spot in their medal-winning event, e.g. Harris and O’Callaghan would have to swim the 100 free at the upcoming meet, or add the event after the team roster has been finalized. (In looking at the prelims heat sheet, neither appears to be entered in the meet).

If those eight choose to swim in Budapest at Worlds, then the remaining 16 spots would be up for grabs via priorities 2-4. It should be noted that in early August, Swimswam reported that Ariarne Titmus would take a break from swimming after the Paris Olympics, so there are likely more than 16 open spots.

In a podcast with SwimSwam’s own Coleman Hodges, Kaylee McKeown mentioned that she may take on some off-events at either Short Course Worlds or Queensland’s States, which are slated to run from the 14th to the 20th of December.