According to the German Swimming Federation, the standards for swimmers to make the nation’s top elite team will be more difficult in the coming year thanks to the DOSB, the German Olympic Sports Federation.
That’s because DOSB has changed the nomination criteria for the German swimmers to make the A squad, which is Germany’s most prestigious and selective team.
The full announcement comes from the German Swimming Federation’s website. A quick translation:
“The DOSB (German Olympic Sports Federation) has changed its A-squad criteria for the appointment of the DSV national squad (A-squad). These changes will be incorporated in the appointment criteria of the DSV immediately. The A-Team criteria are defined solely and exclusively by the DOSB (German Olympic Sports Federation). As usual, we will make our DSV federal squad decision in the next few weeks and publish it on October 1st on our website (www.dsv.de).”
There are different squads in Germany:
- A-squad, the best German swimmers who compete on world class level – the DOSB (German Olympic Sports Federation) defines the criteria for the A-squad.
- B-squad, athletes who have a recognizable and traceable performance development and may ascend into the A-squad in the medium term.
- C-squad, the squad for the next generation, the athletes with the highest medium to long-term success perspective to international elite sport and promising participants in international competition highlights at youth level.
The major changes concern only the A squad. Belonging to a squad always covers a period of about a year, then the teams will be renamed based on two qualification periods. For the 2015-2016 squads, these periods are from November 24, 2014 to April 12, 2015 and from June 2, 2015 to August 6, 2015. The A-squad has well-defined criteria, which have now been changed: Swimmers must reach a place of 1-8 at World Championships or Olympic Games in an individual event or a relay (this also applies for the athletes who swim in prelims) OR in years without World Championships/Olympics, German swimmers must finish on the podium in a single or relay event.
For the 2014/2015 season, swimmers reached the A-squad with place 1-10 at World Championships or Olympic games or a 1-6 place finish at European Championships.
Belonging to the A squad of course brings more financial support in addition to opportunities to participate in training camps or in international competitions. With the new criteria, it seems that some long term A squad members could lose their status: Dorothea Brandt finished 10th in the 50 m freestyle in Kazan and Christian Diener 9th in the 200 m backstroke. Other swimmers will jump into the A squad with their perfomances in Russia at World Championships because they participated in Kazan in a final, swimmers like Hendrik Feldwehr (100 m breaststroke).
The 2014/2015 A squad (with birth years): Dorothea Brandt (1984), Lisa Graf (1992), Franziska Hentke (1989), Isabelle Härle (1988, Open Water), Robin Backhaus (1989), Paul Biedermann (1986), Steffen Deibler (1987), Christian Diener (1993), Jan-Philip Glania (1989), Jacob Heidtmann (1994), Marco Koch (1990), Yannick Lebherz (1989), Clemens Rapp (1989), Thomas Lurz (1979, Open Water)
Following the new selection criteria and the results at the season highlight, the World Championships in Kazan, the new German A squad could be for the pool swimmers:
Franziska Hentke (1989), Sarah Köhler (1994), Jenny Mensing (1986), Alexandra Wenk (1995), Paul Biedermann (1986), Hendrik Feldwehr (1986), Jacob Heidtmann (1994), Marco Koch (1990), Clemens Rapp (1989).
Open water legend Thomas Lurz retired in May 2015 – but the German team showed a brilliant performance with Rob Muffels, 3rd on the 5 km, Isabelle Härle with a bronze medal in the 10 km and Angela Maurer also with a third place finish in the 25 km. And the team open water relay managed to claim the Gold in Kazan with Härle, Reichert and Muffels.
It might be hard for some swimmers having to forego the pre-Olympic year with less support of the DSV and DOSB – but finally the German National Team will be announced officially on 1 October 2015.
Um… so the only swimmers who will mach the team are Koch, Biedermann,
and steffen deibler probably
All the Kazan finalists achieved the criteria … Look at the list in the report, Deibler is not one of them although he had a special status like Biedermann, Koch during the season 2014/2015. But of course the qualification for Rio will be a different procedure …