Budapest To Birmingham: Top Swimmers Tackle Quick Turnaround At Commonwealth Games

2022 COMMONWEALTH GAMES

• Friday, July 29 – Wednesday, August 3, 2022
• Birmingham, England
• Sandwell Aquatic Center
• Start Times
  • Prelims: 10:30 am local / 5:30 am ET
  • Finals: 7:00 pm local / 2:00 pm ET
• LCM (50m)
• Meet Central
• Event Schedule
• Entry List
• Entries (in seed order) – h/t to Troyy
• All The Links

In the international sporting calendar, the Commonwealth Games have frequently flown a bit under the radar.

In recent years, the Games have been placed in varying spots on the schedule—four years ago it was in April, in 2010 they were in October, and in 2006, the Games took place in March.

Up until this year, 2014 was the only time in the last two decades that the event has taken place in prime time, mid-summer, and although the World Championships have already come and gone, the U.S. Nationals are currently ongoing and the European Championships are still to come, there seems to be more hype than usual surrounding this year’s Commonwealth Games.

In part, this is for good reason. In addition to the timing, some of the world’s best will be racing in Birmingham after missing out on Budapest. This list includes reigning Olympic champions Adam Peaty, Emma McKeon, Ariarne Titmus and Tatjana Schoenmaker, along with the individual return of Maggie MacNeil.

We’ll also see seven recently-crowned world champions competing: Ben Proud, Elijah Winnington, Zac Stubblety-Cook, Mollie O’Callaghan, Kylie Masse, Kaylee McKeown and Summer McIntosh.

But while the top-end names will be racing and likely putting up some blazing-fast times, the competition as a whole, despite the hype, won’t compete with the times we saw in Budapest. The depth just isn’t there.

It will be interesting to see how the winning times stack up to what we saw at the World Championships, and how the swimmers that missed Budapest will fare in what will, at least for everyone except Peaty, be their target meet for the year.

Perhaps more interestingly, however, is how the World Championship swimmers manage their taper for the Games.

Particularly so in Australia, the Commonwealth Games are a big deal, and are of greater importance than say, this year’s World Championships, at least from the public’s perspective. While it’s not the Olympics, a Commonwealth gold medal goes a long way.

That’s part of the reason why swimmers like Titmus and McKeon didn’t race in Budapest, and it begs the question of if those at Worlds treated that meet as more of a tune-up for Birmingham.

We’ve seen swimmers from other countries, such as South Africa’s Matt Sates, suggest that the Commonwealth Games was his focus meet of the summer.

Someone like Kaylee McKeown didn’t appear to be in optimal form at Worlds and is likely in a similar boat, putting her focus on these Games, while a breakout star like Summer McIntosh was certainly peaking for Budapest and will have to juggle the one-month double-taper in Birmingham.

(We’ve already gotten a glimpse of how Australia and Canada are prioritizing this summer’s meets differently–McKeown dropped the 100 back at Worlds, as Olympic champion, in favor of the 200 IM to get experience racing the latter. McIntosh has done a similar thing at the Commonwealth Games, dropping the 200 fly, as world champion, to key in on the 200 IM more for developmental purposes.)

And then we can’t forget about the British swimmers, many of whom raced at Worlds, will be at the Games, and then will have to quickly shift to the European Championships in August.

How each group of athletes fares—those who missed Worlds and those juggling two or three ‘taper’ meets this summer—will be an emerging storyline to follow throughout the coming week.