The German Swimming Federation (DSV) only sent small teams to the 2017 World Championships in Budapest and also to the European Short Course Championships. German head coach Henning Lambertz announced on Wednesday, that he lowered the qualifiying times for the relays and explained: “We want to set a sign towards 2020 (Olympic Games in Tokyo). If you look at the results of the 2014 and 2016 European Championships, especially of the top eight relay teams, then the additon of the times of our four best swimmers minus the usual second for the relay changes show that German relays should be able to make it into every final at the 2018 European Championships. The swimming competion will be held during the European multi sport event 2018 and an intensive television coverage is expected. So we also hope to get, with the participation of our relays, more public attention for the sports of swimming in Germany.”
Lambertz won’t lower the nomination standards for the individual events. The German Swimming Federation (DSV) has changed the qualifiying process for the big events in 2018 which are: the European LC Championships in Glasgow (GBR) in August, the World SC Championships in Hangzhou (CHN) in December: In contrast to the 2017 qualifying procedure, the swimmers could reach the nomination standards during a qualilification period, which will last from January 22nd to April 29th, 2018. The qualifying procedure in 2017 only allowed the athletes to qualify for the LC World Championships and European SC World Championships at the German National Championships in June.
The official nomination guideline 2018 says that the swimmers can choose between “internationally accepted” competitions and they must inform the German head coach Henning Lambertz until December 31st, 2017, via email about their choice, they can select a maximum of three swim meets. The “internationally accepted” competions are not described in detail.
The nominations times are the same in 2018 as in 2017, which means that swimmers must reach again in a final the time of the 8th fastest swimmer at the 2016 Olympic Games after semi finals. It was really difficult for the German top swimmers to stay under these times in 2017 to qualify for Budapest and only an exceptional regulation for swimmers born 1995 or later allowed many swimmers to join the 2017 World Championships Team.
Henning Lambertz expects a team of about 30 up to 35 athletes for the European LC Championships 2018 because of the additional relay swimmers who also will get a chance to start in individiual events (the fastest of them). He added: “”More swimmers will be able to qualify for the European Championships because of the lowered relay standards. I hope that the athletes will try their absolutely best to reach a spot in a relay.”
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