Canadian Selection Criteria For The 2018 Pan Pacific Championships

2018 Canadian Swimming Trials

• July 18-22, 2018
• Edmonton, Alberta
• Kinsmen Sports Centre
• Full Selection Criteria
• Psych Sheets

Team Canada will use their upcoming Pan Pac Trials meet as the sole way for swimmers to qualify for the Championships later this summer in Tokyo, electing not to use the Commonwealth Games as a means of qualifying like Australia did.

The qualifying criteria is fairly simple, with the winner of each Olympic event automatically making their way onto the team, followed by the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers in both the 100 and 200 freestyles for relay purposes.

After that, High Performance Director John Atkinson will have the sole discretion to add any additional swimmers for the medley relays (which will likely only be necessary if a swimmer wins multiple 100m events), and then swimmers who placed 2nd in Olympic events and achieved the 2017 FINA ‘A’ standard will be added based on world rankings until the team reaches a maximum of 32.

PAN PACIFIC QUALIFYING PRIORITIES

1. All swimmers finishing 1st in an Olympic event will be selected.
2. The top four finishers in the 100 and 200 freestyle will be selected.
3. After those two criteria are complete, the High Performance Director has the sole discretion to choose any additional swimmers required for the medley relays.
4. If positions remain vacant after priorities 1-3 are completed, 2nd place finishers in Olympic events who attained the FINA ‘A’ standard will be added (in order of world ranking up until the maximum team size of 32).
5. If the team still hasn’t hit full capacity, the same will go for 3rd place finishers who achieve the FINA ‘A’ standard.
6. At the end of the Trials, the High Performance Director may select additional swimmers to the team which may result in a team exceeding 32 swimmers.

The full selection criteria can be found here.

The FINA ‘A’ standards that will be in effect for the meet are as follows:

If we strictly go off Canada’s performance at the Commonwealth Games, 15 swimmers swam under the FINA ‘A’ standard, excluding the now retired Hilary Caldwell. Take a look at the list of swimmers below, who will be the front runners to book their ticket to Pan Pacs next week in Edmonton.

Men (3):

• Mack Darragh – 200 fly
• Yuri Kisil – 50 free, 100 free
• Markus Thormeyer – 100 back, 200 back

Women (12):

• Sarah Darcel – 200 IM, 400 IM
• Jade Hannah – 100 back
• Faith Knelson – 100 breast
• Kylie Masse – 100 back, 200 back
• Penny Oleksiak – 100 free, 200 free, 100 fly
• Taylor Ruck – 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 100 back, 200 back
• Kayla Sanchez – 50 free, 100 free
• Erika Seltenreich-Hodgson – 200 IM, 400 IM
• Kierra Smith – 100 breast, 200 breast
• Rebecca Smith – 100 fly
• Mabel Zavaros – 200 fly
• Alexia Zevnik – 100 free

Some of the other performances from in-season meets (or Canadian Nationals in April) that have been under the standard this year include Rebecca Smith in the 100 and 200 free, Kayla Sanchez in the 200 free and 200 IM, Taylor Ruck in the 200 IM, and Sydney Pickrem, who didn’t compete at the Commonwealth Games, in the 200 breast and both medley events.

As has been the story for the past number of years, it looks like the Canadian women will be sending an elite squad to Tokyo that will challenge for a number of medals, while the men have their work cut out for them to be competitive.