FINA, the governing body for aquatic associations around the world, has announced the qualifying times for the 2022 World Championships, which are set to occur in Fukuoka, Japan from May 13-29, 2022.
The meet was originally supposed to occur in August 2021. However, it was pushed back to accommodate the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. As a result of the Olympics delay, swimmers around the world are in-store for a crammed schedule over the next Olympic “quad” that includes several major international competitions in 2022:
- 2022 FINA World Aquatics Championships – Fukuoka, Japan – May 13th-29th
- 2022 Commonwealth Games – Birmingham, England – July 27th-August 7th, 2022
- 2022 LEN European Aquatics Championships – Rome, Italy – August 11th-21st, 2022
- 2022 Jr. Pan Pacific Swimming Championships – Location and Dates TBD, usually August
- 2022 Asian Games – Hangzhou, China – September 10th-25th, 2022
- 2022 World Short Course Swimming Championships – Kazan, Russia* – Dates TBD, Usually in December
In order to qualify for the meet, an athlete must hit either the FINA “A” or “B” cut in a certain event. Countries may only enter 2 athletes per event if they both have the FINA “A” cut, with only one athlete allowed if that athlete only has the FINA “B” cut. All cuts must be achieved during the qualifying window, which runs from March 1, 2020 until May 1, 2022.
The 2022 qualifying standards were derived from a mix of the 2019 World Championships qualifying standards and the time of the 16th place finisher at those championships, with the faster of the two times being selected. This differs from previous years, where all of the time standards were based on the 16th place finisher’s time at the previous championships. In addition, all countries automatically can enter one relay team per relay event into the meet.
In the women’s events, 7 events saw their time standards get faster than in 2019, while in the men’s events, 12 of the qualifying times got faster.
All of the B standards for the 2022 meeting were derived by multiplying the A standard by 3.5%.
Official Explanation from FINA:
“Explanation:
1. The “A” standards for the 2022 Worlds were created by using the faster of two times from:
-
- The 2019 “A” qualifying time standard; and
- The 16th place time from the 2019 World Championships
For this meet, the standards broke down as follows:
Women: 10 of the 2022 “A” time standards were the 2019 “A” time standard, and 7 of the 2022 “A” time standards were the 16th place time from the 2019 Worlds.
Men: 5 of the 2022 “A” time standards were the 2019 “A” time standard, and 12 of the 2022 “A” time standards were the 16th place time from the 2019 Worlds.
- All “B” time standards were derived by multiplying the “A” time standard by 3.5%.
FINA “A” Time Standards
| Women | Event | Men | ||
| 2019 “A-cut” | 25.04 | 50 Free | 22.18 | 2019 “A-cut” |
| 2019 16th Place | 54.25 | 100 Free | 48.77 | 2019 16th Place |
| 2019 “A-cut” | 1:58.66 | 200 Free | 1:47.06 | 2019 16th Place |
| 2019 “A-cut” | 4:10.57 | 400 Free | 3:48.15 | 2019 “A-cut” |
| 2019 16th Place | 8:37.90 | 800 Free | 7:53.11 | 2019 16th Place |
| 2019 16th Place | 16:29.57 | 1500 Free | 15:04.64 | 2019 16th Place |
| 2019 “A-cut” | 28.22 | 50 Back | 25.17 | 2019 “A-cut” |
| 2019 “A-cut” | 1:00.59 | 100 Back | 54.03 | 2019 16th Place |
| 2019 16th Place | 2:11.08 | 200 Back | 1:58.07 | 2019 16th Place |
| 2019 “A-cut” | 31.22 | 50 Breast | 27.33 | 2019 16th Place |
| 2019 “A-cut” | 1:07.43 | 100 Breast | 59.75 | 2019 16th Place |
| 2019 “A-cut” | 2:25.91 | 200 Breast | 2:10.32 | 2019 16th Place |
| 2019 16th Place | 26.32 | 50 Fly | 23.63 | 2019 16th Place |
| 2019 16th Place | 58.33 | 100 Fly | 51.96 | 2019 “A-cut” |
| 2019 “A-cut” | 2:09.21 | 200 Fly | 1:56.71 | 2019 “A-cut” |
| 2019 16th Place | 2:12.98 | 200 IM | 1:59.76 | 2019 16th Place |
| 2019 “A-cut” | 4:43.06 | 400 IM | 4:17.48 | 2019 16th Place |
Complete List of “A” and “B” Qualifying Times
I think that these standards will be more relevant in 2024…swimmers are starting to for more individual glory than relay glory…if you have a cut, I don’t understand why you would roll the dice at US Olympic trials…most countries would gladly naturalize someone to send someone to a major meet
How do you qualify for the World Masters swim meet as a 65 year old male US master swimmer.? Thanks
So will more than 16 women qualify for the 200 fly this time?
Is everyone too exhausted to think about this yet? 🙂
Most of us also live in countries where they don’t matter, as the top 2 placing is the harder thing to achieve generally.
The only Countries where the Qualifying Standards don’t matter are USA and Australia.
Yes, and most commenters live in America with Australia being probably the second largest group.
I don’t think other countries are unimportant. Just commenting on why this article has pretty much no discussion/engagement.