Mireia Belmonte of Spain has taken on quite a schedule for the upcoming World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Her event lineup comes out to six total, tying Katinka Hosszu (100, 200 back, 200 free, 200 fly, 200, 400 IM) and surpassing Leah Smith (200, 400, 800, 1500 free, 400 IM) in number of events and passing both in total distance.
Belmonte’s incredibly versatile, and she’s capable of reaching the final of any of these races (should she swim them all).
Below is a list of her provisional entries for Budapest. We’ve sectioned it off per day, so that it’s clear how many races she’s swimming per day and where any events might conflict with one another.
Belmonte’s Budapest Schedule
- July 23rd (Day 1)
- 200 IM prelims
- 400 free prelims
- 200 IM semifinals
- 400 free final
- July 24th (Day 2)
- 1500 free prelims
- 200 IM final
- July 25th (Day 3)
- 1500 free final
- July 26th (Day 4)
- 200 fly prelims
- 200 fly semifinals
- July 27th (Day 5)
- 200 fly final
- July 28th (Day 6)
- 800 free prelims
- Night off
- July 29th (Day 7)
- Morning off
- 800 free final
- July 30th (Day 8)
- 400 IM prelims
- 400 IM final
As shown, there would only be two of the sixteen sessions that Belmonte would have off: finals on Day 6 and prelims on Day 7. Her worst day would be Day 1, where she’d have two prelims and two finals swims, with one of the finals swims being the 400 free final. Of course, every semifinal and final swim is tentative, as she has to place high enough to move on to each round.
If she swims every event, just prelims will amount to 3500 meters. Add in semifinals for the 200s, and she gets to 3900 meters. Add in finals swims, and the grand total comes out to 7400 meters. Open water swimmers may scoff at that number, but that is a lot of meters to take on– not that we think Belmonte can’t do it. Like plenty of other tough distance-type swimmers, she’s put in the work. It’s just a feat in itself to race that much over a week’s time.
Belmonte, the defending Olympic champion in the 200 fly and the 2016 bronze medalist in the 400 IM, will probably be putting the most focus on those two events, as those (along with the 800 and 1500, but to a lesser extent) are her best medal shots. It’s possible that she’d drop the 400 free and/or the 200 IM, as those are her weakest events comparatively, which would allow her to rest all of Day 1 as well as Day 2 finals.
There’s no way that Mireia Mariposa swims all these events.
Something’s got to give. I say she skips the 1500 and one other event.
she should drop the 200 im or 400 free…
Maybe “race” would have been a better word than “swim”. With warmups and cooldowns, she’s going to swim a lot more than 7400m in Budapest
She came back from a serious injury and an also serious affair with her native rival in open water, so good luck to her.
Are we forgetting what we tell the other 99.99% of swimmers who will never compete for an international medal. It’s about participation. For those of you saying she should cut back on her schedule – maybe she simply wants to race and the more the merrier. I wish her the best and expect she will cherish the memory of the races and the effort.
She may be a swimmer who may actually need a busy schedule to compete better. While logically it may seem smarter to rest up for her main events, it may actually be to her advantage to keep most of her schedule. This is what she has trained for and similar to Katinka, may benefit from a high yardage World’s schedule.
I’d agree, if I hadn’t watched her painfully sink in the 200IM final at Euro Champs in 2014. In a slow race, where 2.12 medalled, she was miles off. Silver was hers if she had a more manageable schedule ha.
Race not swim. Warmup and cooldown add a lot.
She should drop the 200 IM and either the 400 free or the 1500 free to keep her energy for the 200 fly, her only gold medal chance. Stay fresh for the second part of the meet from day 5 to day 8 with the 200 fly final, the 800 free and the 400 IM, your 3 best events.
Good luck to Mireia.