USA Swimming has announced that both the 400 free and 400 IM heats for both men and women will be swum in flights at the upcoming US Olympic Trials in Omaha. National Team Director Frank Busch ultimately made the decision.
The way the flights will work is as follows:
- The fastest five heats of the women’s and men’s 400 Free and 400 IM will be swum slowest to fastest during the preliminary session starting at 10:00 a.m.
- The remaining heats of those four events will be swum at the end of the preliminary session, fastest to slowest.
Three of the 400s take place on Day 1 with the Men’s 400 IM, Men’s 400 Free and Women’s 400 IM. The women’s 400 free is on day two. The full prelim schedule for those days is as follows:
Day 1 (June 26) – Prelims – 10:00 a.m. – Order of Events
M 400 IM fastest five (5) heats (slowest to fastest)
W 100 Fly as normal
M 400 Free fastest five (5) heats (slowest to fastest)
W 400 IM fastest five (5) heats (slowest to fastest)
M 100 Breast as normal
M 400 IM remaining heats, from fastest to slowest
M 400 Free remaining heats, from fastest to slowest
W 400 IM remaining heats, from fastest to slowest
Day 2 (June 27) – Prelims – 10:00 a.m. – Order of Events
W 100 Back as normal
M 200 Free as normal
W 100 Breast as normal
M 100 Back as normal
W 400 Free fastest five (5) heats (slowest to fastest)
W 400 Free remaining heats, from fastest to slowest
The National Team Director reserves the right to do modify the women’s 800 freestyle prelims (on day 6) to match the schedule of the 400s if the size of the event warrants it. A decision will be made closer to the entry deadline on June 20th. The men’s 1500 freestyle prelims on day 7 will be conducted as they have in the past, heats slowest to fastest.
The schedule change gets the probable finalists out of the prelim session much quicker, giving them more time to rest up prior to finals.
Read the full Coach’s message on the USA Swimming website here.
Great choice
Thank you Frank. This is a sensible and humane decision.
But interestingly, it does sort of formalize a division between serious contenders and those that are just happy to take part, and supports the perspective that standards are a bit too generous for an Olympic qualifying competition. For example, there are more the 50 potential women with qualifying times between 4:31 and 4:49 in the 400IM leaving up to another ten heats (nearly a whole hour!) with swimmers whose entry times are between 4:50 and 4:55 This decision kindly accommodates the “happy to be there” athletes and their supporters without forcing everyone to have to wait through all their heats.