2024 WORLD AQUATICS CHAMPIONSHIPS
- February 11th – February 18th (pool swimming)
- Doha, Qatar
- LCM (50m)
- Meet Central
- SwimSwam Preview Index
- Official Entries
The men’s 10 km open water took place on Sunday with spots up for grabs for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The women’s 10 km was yesterday, see those results here.
Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky earned the win in a 1:48:21.10, finishing ahead of France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier who was second in a 1:48:23.60. Hector Pardoe of Great Britain rounded out the podium finishing in a 1:48:29.20.
Pardoe got out to a quick start, leading through the first lap. Rasovszky would go on to lead at the second lap. The leaders stayed near each other battling it out the whole race. Heading into the final lap, Pardoe and Rasovszky were tied. A late charge by Oliver helped him pass Pardoe.
Unlike the 2023 World Championships, where the top three finishers earned individual spots for the 2024 Paris Olympics open water event, the race in Doha earned countries quota spots. The top 13 finishers not already qualified for Paris would earn a quota spot for their country. This means that countries do not have to give the spot to the swimmers that competed today. Instead, the National Olympic Committees can allocate these quota spots as they see fit.
The three swimmers already qualified, based on their top 3 finishes at 2023 Worlds, do not count towards the top 13 finishers. For example, if all three swimmers were in the top 13 today, the 14th, 15th, and 16th place swimmers from today would also earn a quota spot.
The top three finishers from the men’s 10 km in Fukuoka were Florian Wellbrock (Germany), Rasovszky (Hungary), and Oliver Klemet (Germany).
Other rules for open water qualification include the host country (France) being allowed a quota spot even if a swimmer did not place in the top 13 today, and each continent to have a swimmer compete if the continent did not already earn a quota spot.
Pending confirmation, it looks like these 22 men will be competing in the open water 10 km in Paris.
The top three finishers from 2023 Worlds:
- Florian Wellbrock (Germany)
- Kristof Rasovszky (Hungary)
- Oliver Klement (Germany)
The top 15 finishers from 2024 Worlds:
- Marc-Antoine Oliver (France)
- Hector Pardoe (Great Britain)
- Logan Fontaine (Grance)
- Nicholas Sloman (Australia)
- David Bethlehem (Hungary)
- Domenico Acerenza (Italy)
- Dario Verani (Italy)* – Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy)
- Kyle Lee (Australia)
- Matan Roditi (Israel)
- David Farinango (Ecuador)
- Athanasios Kynigakis (Greece)
- Ivan Puskovitch (USA)
- Tobias Robinson (Great Britain)
- Jan Hercog (Austria)
- Michael Brinegar (USA)
Continental Quota:
- Africa: Phillip Seidler (Namibia)
- Americas: Paulo Strehlke (Mexico)
- Taishin Minamide (Japan)
- Martin Straka (Czech Republic)
There are two things to note from this list. First, Verani of Italy will cede his spot to Gregorio Paltrinieri who dropped the event earlier this week.
Second, Ivan Puskovitch of the USA earned a spot in Paris as well. Puskovitch began his collegiate career at USC where he swam for three years. After the 2022 Pac-12 Championships, Puskovitch commuted every day to train with Team Santa Monica while finishing up his degree from USC. In September 2023, Puskovitch announced his commitment to earn a master’s degree from West Virginia while using his 4th and 5th years of NCAA eligibility. Now, Puskovitch will represent the US at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Congrats to Ivan Puskovitch for making the team for the us. Only the 5th us swimmer ever. Big shout out to his coach Chris lear now head coach at Plymouth white marsh aquatic
Yes, congratulations to Ivan and Team USA! However, Ivan’s current coach is Coach Mo K (can’t think of the proper spelling at the moment but head coach of TSM and on the current OW coaching staff with Team USA in Doha) from TSM. Coach Chris Lear is his longtime coach prior to college, but no longer coach of record.
Khadembashi
Thanks! He deserves the recognition.
Am I wrong or is it the Top 13 finishers alongside the 2023 Fukuoka medalists that earn an Olympic quota spot? With Rasovsky and Klemet in the top 13, that would mean Tobias Robinson in 15th would claim the final Olympic quota spot.
Gonna be awkward if he’s not in the top 100 list….
He won’t be. But I’m pretty sure Swimswam said before that open water isn’t considered unless pool swimming gets you on the list anyway. Or something like that.
It would be pretty silly to leave him entirely off otherwise, as he has a great shot at a medal in the 10k.
Wow. What a Hungarian distance-training group.
Kristof Rasovszky wins the 10,000 Meter World title.
Teammate David Bethlehem was 6th, less than 9 seconds back from Rasovszky, and in the pool both are ranked in the 2023 World top 30 in the 1500, Rasovszky at 14:51.46 and Bethlehem at 14:58.04.
Zalan Sarkany, ASU Sophomore, trained with these gents in the summer and fall and then in December swam 14.53.19, joining these two under the 1500 Olympic qualifying cut of 15:00.99. I certainly don’t claim to know how Hungary doles out its Olympic spots, but I’ve gotten the impression Sarkany has been named based on this 1500. All three have qualified between the 1500 and Open Water.… Read more »
Hungarian distance swimming is pretty strong, although most prominently in open water, where it’s on par with German and Italian distance swimming.
Rasovszky apparently doesn’t plan on swimming pool events in Paris (and as of right now, Zalan is the 2nd fastest Hungarian in that event, so he would be selected for the 1500 anyway), so the 2-2 pool distance spots should be filled by Sarkany and Betlehem. It’s a shame that the men’s 800 isn’t contested at the Győr Open (the December meet where Sarkany got his quota in the 1500), because I feel like that’s Zalan’s stronger event in the long course pool – it would have been nice to see another PB.
I misstated Sarkany’s leads in the 1000 and 1650; I reversed them. The correct differentials are 9.65 in the 1650 and 7.25 in the 1000.
did it not use to be 24 or 25 spots for the open water events at the Olympics?
It was a very well put together race from Raso. And the field was basically full (sans Paltrinieri), although it didn’t seem like Wellbrock in particular was really trying. Why else would he even participate though, so who knows.
Can someone explain how the Czech Republic is getting a continental quota spot?
Or Mexico for that matter.
How I understand is that Straka was 17th for Czechia and Strehlke Delgado 18th for Mexico, making them the top continental finishers after redundancies for already qualified, host country, etc…
Brinegar was 19th for USA, :07 back- that could have been his continental spot. USA will only have 1 X male 10K swimmer in Paris.
was this the last chance to qualify for Paris?
Yes
who else is in the bullpen to get the second spot?