LA28 Releases Swimming Qualifying Standards For 2028 Olympic Games

LA28 and World Aquatics have released a document outlining the qualification system for the swimming competition at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, including the official time standards for the Games.

• See the qualifying document here.

In September, World Aquatics outlined a new Olympic qualifying process that included tweaks to how the qualifying standards were established and a new set of rules for how swimmers could qualify for the Games in the stroke 50 events, which will debut in LA.

Previously, the ‘A’ time standards were set at the 14th or 16th place time from the previous Olympics, and in LA, World Aquatics’ Mike Unger told SwimSwam the qualifying time would be roughly set at the 14th-ranked entry time from the Paris Olympics. This was due to the fact that entry times are usually faster than actual times produced at the Games, and with swimming’s quota down to 830 athletes (from 852 in Paris), they were looking for slightly fewer auto qualifiers.

According to the official standards recently released, the ‘A’ times aren’t exactly the 14th-seeded times from Paris, but they’re generally pretty close. The ‘B’ cuts are simply 1% slower than the ‘A’ times.

2028 OLYMPIC QUALIFYING TIMES – WOMEN

2024 VS 2028 QUALIFYING & 14TH SEED IN PARIS – WOMEN

2028 OLYMPIC QUALIFYING TIMES – MEN

2024 VS 2028 QUALIFYING & 14TH SEED IN PARIS – MEN

STROKE 50 QUALIFICATION

As for the stroke 50s, the document confirms the proposed qualifying process reported three months ago, where the top six finishers in the event at a select World Cup stop in October 2027 will automatically earn entry into the Games.

By the sounds of it, one of the World Cup stops will be used as the qualifying meet for the men’s and women’s 50 back, one for the 50 breast for both genders, and the other for the 50 fly.

Directly from the Document – Stroke 50 Qualification

• At each of the three World Cup 2027 stops, competitions in two of the new events will be held:
  • The six athletes who finish in the first six places in the final of each new event will be offered a direct qualification place to compete in that new event at the LA28 Olympic Games.
  • If two or more athletes are tied for sixth place, each of the tied athletes will be offered a direct qualification place to compete in that new event at the LA28 Olympic Games.
  • The competition rules for the new events held at the World Cup 2027 will be set out and published by World Aquatics in a separate document.

An athlete who earns one of the six spots in a stroke 50 events must have their spot confirmed by their National Olympic Committee with World Aquatics in order to compete in LA. If an NOC declines, withdraws or fails to respond in time, the swimmer ranked #1 in the world will take their spot. If the world #1 has already qualified, the swimmer who finished 7th in the World Cup final will qualify.

In addition to the six who qualified at the World Cup, any other swimmers already qualified for the Olympics in another event, or as a relay-only swimmer, can enter a stroke 50 event in Los Angeles, provided they’ve met the minimum time standard (see below) and their nation does not exceed the two-per-country rule.

MINIMUM TIME STANDARDS – STROKE 50 EVENTS

RELAY QUALIFICATION

The top 12 nations in the heats of each relay event at the 2027 World Championships in Budapest will automatically qualify in the corresponding relay event at the 2028 Olympics. In the event of a tie for 12th, both teams will be offered a qualifying spot.

The number of relays a country qualifies in directly corresponds to how many relay-only swimmers they’re able to invite to the Games.

• If the NOC enters one relay event, it may enter up to two Additional Relay Competitors.
• If the NOC enters two relay events, it may enter up to three Additional Relay Competitors.
• If the NOC enters three relay events, it may enter up to five Additional Relay Competitors.
• If the NOC enters four relay events, it may enter up to six Additional Relay Competitors.
• If the NOC enters five relay events, it may enter up to seven Additional Relay Competitors.
• If the NOC enters six or seven relay events, it may enter up to eight Additional Relay Competitors.

In previous years, only the countries with the next four-fastest times in the qualifying period would be eligible to compete at the Olympics.

However, in 2028, if a country isn’t qualified in a particular relay, say, the men’s 4×100 free relay, but has four male swimmers qualified in individual events, they will be eligible to enter that relay, provided they’ve notified World Aquatics of their intention to do so by June 24, 2028.

Even if a country earns one automatic relay berth at the 2027 World Championships, they’ll still need at least two swimmers to qualify individually for the Games in order to field that relay (given that qualifying one relay earns them two relay-only spots):

If an NOC that received and accepted one of the direct relay team places through qualification at Budapest 2027 does not have enough athletes to field a relay team (i.e. fewer than four eligible athletes qualified through the A Entry Standard, new event, B Entry Standard invitation, and Additional Relay Competitor routes), the NOC will not be permitted to enter that relay event.

The qualifying period for the 2028 Olympics will begin on March 1, 2027, and run through June 18, 2028.