FINA Confirms 50 Participants for Olympic Marathon Swimming

FINA has confirmed the 25 men and 25 women who will participate in the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in the Marathon Open Water 10km swim. The lists have been released now that all invited federations have confirmed their intent to send qualified swimmers.

The first 10 spots  on the list were awarded on the basis of the results of the 2015 World Aquatics Championships 10k race. Notably, American Jordan Wilimovsky and France’s Aurelie Mueller lead the way as the defending World Champions (though 2012 proved that this isn’t necessarily as valuable in open water as one might expect).

Also of significance is that Brazil earned invites in both the men’s and the women’s field based on their placing at the World Championships, meaning that no further spots needed to be held for the host country.

That meant that the top 10 finishers (of each gender) at the Open Water Qualifier in Setubal, Portugal in early June, plus the next-best swimmers from each of the FINA-defined 5 continents, also earned a bid.

There was some drama in New Zealand, who initially declined to send either of their qualifiers, Kane Radford or Charlotte Webby, on the basis of them not being competitive. Upon appeal and public outcry, Radford’s spot was reinstated (only after FINA claims to have offered the spot to another swimmer), but Webby was held out. Her spot then went to the next-fastest swimmer overall who was not already qualified, which wound up being Portugal’s Vania Neves. Neves didn’t even swim at last year’s World Championships in open water, but earned her spot with a 16th place finish at the qualifier in Portugal.

While defending Olympic gold medalist Ous Mellouli and defending Olympic bronze medalist Richard Weinberger both return to defend their positions from the 2012 Olympics, there is huge turnover in the overall field on the men’s side – in a side of the sport that historically allows swimmers to extend careers longer than in the pool. The 2nd place finisher Thomas Lurz, as well as the 5th-through-12th place finishers, from London won’t compete in Rio.

The women’s side is also dented: defending Olympic bronze medalist Martina Grimaldi will be absent absent. That leaves defending gold medalist Eva Risztov and defending silver medalist Haley Anderson as returning medalists from London. They placed 9th and 10th, respectively, at Worlds last year.

MEN
USA WILIMOVSKY Jordan
NED WEERTMAN Ferry
GRE GIANNIOTIS Spyridon
USA RYAN Sean
GBR BURNELL Jack Rex David
FRA OLIVIER Marc-Antoine Daniel Frede
ITA RUFFINI Simone
CAN WEINBERGER Richard
BRA DO CARMO Allan
ITA VANELLI Federico
CHN ZU Lijun
GER REICHERT Christian
ECU ENDERICA OCHOA Ivan
RUS DRATTCEV Evgenii
TUN MELLOULI Oussama
SVK NAGY Richard
AUS POORT Jarrod
JPN HIRAI Yasunari
RSA HO Chad
BUL AYDARSKI Ventsislav
HUN PAPP Mark
VEN MALDONADO Erwin
NZL RADFORD Kane Rae Francis
KAZ KHUDYAKOV Vitaliy
EGY ELAMRAWY Marwan Ahmed Aly Morsy
WOMEN
FRA MULLER Aurelie
NED VAN ROUWENDAAL Sharon
BRA CUNHA Ana Marcela
ITA BRUNI Rachele
RUS KRAPIVINA Anastasiia
BRA OKIMOTO Poliana
GER HARLE Isabelle
GRE ARAOUZOU Kalliopi
USA ANDERSON Haley
HUN RISZTOV Eva
CHN XIN Xin
GBR PAYNE Keri-Anne
ECU AREVALO Samantha
AUS GUBECKA Chelsea
JPN KIDA Yumi
RSA WEBER Michelle
POL ZACHOSZCZ Joanna
VEN PEREZ Paola
SLO PERSE Spela
CZE PECHANOVA Jana
ESP VILLAECIJA Erika
CAN HORNER Stephanie
POR NEVES Vania
MAS GAN Heidi
EGY KASEEM Reem Mohamed Hussein Elsayed

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Concerned Citizen
8 years ago

Have they done any testing of the water quality recently? I hope there will be safe water for these elite athletes.

Argentine swimmer
8 years ago

Sorry, does anyone know when FINA will release the list on invited swimmers with a B cut?
Thank you for any response!!!!

Brownish
8 years ago

Braden, Eva Risztov is there.

atento
8 years ago

Eva Riztov is on the list…

Brownish
Reply to  atento
8 years ago

She will swim it and also the 800m in the pool.

Brownish
Reply to  Braden Keith
8 years ago

Thanks.

About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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