Australian news outlet The Advertiser is reporting that Adelaide, South Australia, home of the just-concluded Australian Short Course Championships, looks to be the top candidate to host the national championships for the next 3 years. That plan would include the 2020 Olympic Trials to determine the green and gold roster headed to the Tokyo Games.
Although no official comment was given by Swimming Australia, the South Australian state government reportedly has widespread support for the bid, which will be decided at the end of November. Not only are the Olympic Trials at stake, but also the 2018 edition of the national championships, which will double as selection trials for the Aussie-hosted Commonwealth Games set for the Gold Coast. Pan Pacific Trials would be next, slated for July 2018.
In the past, Australian championships timing involved Olympic Trials happening in April, a good 3 1/2 months ahead of the start of the Games. However, given the fact that the United States carried away so much success from Rio with their team trials occurring just a month out from the start of the Games, some down under began looking to that model as one to apply to Australia. After months of review, we reported how Swimming Australia decided to pull the trigger on the change, moving its Trials for benchmark events, such as World Championships and the Olympics, to be just 5 weeks away from the main events.
The SA Aquatic & Leisure Center in Adelaide is home to 2016 Olympic champion Kyle Chalmers and training partners Travis Mahoney, Andrew Abood and Josh Palmer.
I am moving to Adelaide in 3 weeks- hope this is true!!
Radelaide
The commonwealth Games trials are already marked in the calendar for Feb 28th – March 2nd at the commonwealth games pool at Southport .
That is correct. They are also titled as “Australian Swimming Trials” whereas National Championships are clearly stated as such. There is nothing anywhere stating that these Trials ARE also doubling as “Nationals” for 2018; given the intended switch perhaps the July meet will double as Nationals. What IS fairly certain is that the full roll-out of the switch of the AUS competition season will occur in 2019 with the state meets moving from summer/early autumn to later autumn/winter. Ideally it should’ve been rolled out over 2018 but the obsession with CG will set it back a year.
This is ONLY for able bodied swimmers. Disabled swimmers had their (quiet, away from mainstream media) trials already. Just an awful & disgusting organisation, will be staying well clear that’s for sure.
Absolute rubbish LMA. Once again, never let the truth get in the way of pushing your agenda.
Trials for CG Para events will be held at this event. The same as they did for the 2014 CG trials.
However, there won’t be any non-CG Para events swum, which is different.
The number of ‘slots’ available to each country for each Para event has already been determined. The results at these CG trials will determine who fills those slots for Australia.
Here’s the event program for the CG trials:
https://www.swimming.org.au/Assets/Events-docs/2018/2018-Hancock-Prospecting-Australian-Swimming-Trial/Australian-Swimming-Trials-Program.aspx
Of course, for TV viewing purposes, Para events typically don’t get shown live, if at all.
Flash is correct; these ARE a limited number of Para Events on the program but this mirrors the CG swimming program. This gets back to my core point; these are Trials specifically for CG rather than a National Championships hence the program being condensed into 4 days.