2016 Canadian Olympic & Paralympic Swimming Trials
- April 5, 2016 through April 10, 2016
- Toronto Pan Am Sports Complext, Toronto, Ontario (Eastern Time Zone, GMT -4 hours)
- Championship Central
- Psych Sheet
The 2016 Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Trials will be held in Toronto, Canada at the still shimmeringly-new Toronto Pan Am Sports Complex that was built for the 2015 Pan American Games.
Besides selecting athletes to compete at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the meet has become somewhat of an international gathering point for North American swimmers. In many cases, these are swimmers who are from other countries that train in the United States and come from countries without proper Trials, or with some flexibility in qualifying meets. This is the case with, for example, New Zealand, who has officially declared the Canadian Olympic Trials as its second Olympic qualifying meet after their own Nationals, which are happening this week.
For those athletes who compete in the NCAA, this meet can be a good long course test shortly after the taper for that event as well.
Foreign swimmers cannot swim in the A final or be seeded in the top 10 of a “Timed Final” to ensure the meet’s integrity as an Olympic qualifying event, and a maximum of 4 foreigners can compete in a B final.
Some training groups, often ones with Canadians already in their groups, have made a habit of travelling to this meet as a group, even for those professional athletes who have no real qualifying focus, and using it as a good training meet. Among those groups this year are a group from Cal,a group from the University of Florida/Gator Swim Club, and a group from the University of Michigan/Club Wolverine.
We will run a full set of previews on the meet focusing on the Olympic Trials portion over the next few days, but for this article, the focus will be on those international athletes who are travelling to compete in Canada.
A partial list of those athletes is below:
Nathan Adrian, USA – 2012 Olympic Champion in the 100 meter freestyle (50/100 free)Adrian has confirmed that he will not swim at Canadian Trials.Natalie Coughlin, USA – 12-time Olympic medalist (50/100 free, 100 back)Coughlin has also confirmed that she will not swim.- Connor Jaeger, USA – 2015 Worlds silver medalist in the 1500 meter free (200 IM, 400 free, 1500 free)
- Josh Prenot, USA – 2016 NCAA Champion in the 400 yard IM (200/400 IM, 100/200 breast)
- Ryan Murphy, USA – American Record holder in 100 and 200 yard backstrokes (100/200 back, 100/200 free)
- Tom Shields, USA – 2015 World Champion on butterfly leg of 400 medley relay (100/200 free, 100/200 fly)
- Elizabeth Beisel, USA – 2012 Olympic silver medalist in the 400 IM, bronze medalist in the 200 back (200/400 free, 200/400 IM, 200 breast, 200 back)
- Ryan Feeley, USA
- Josh Schneider, USA
- Simonas Bilis, Lithuania
- Marcin Tarczynski, Poland
- Pawel Werner, Poland
- Chuck Katis, USA
- Jacob Pebley, USA
- Sean Mahoney, USA
- Fiona Doyle, Ireland
- Marcin Cieslak, Poland
- Jan Switkowski, Poland
- Mateo Gonzalez, Mexico
- Dylan Carter, Trinidad & Tobago
- Seth Stubblefield, USA
- Tom Kremer, Israel
- Michael Klueh, USA
- Michael Wynalda, USA
- Justin Glanda, USA
- Kyle Whitaker, USA
- Derek Toomey, USA
- True Sweetser, USA
- Michael Flach, USA
- Jenny Wilson, USA
- Natasha Lloyd, New Zealand
- Matthew Hutchins, New Zealand
- Corey Main, New Zealand
- Sam Perry, New Zealand
- Kevin Litherland, New Zealand
- Mick Litherland, New Zealand
I can’t see her swimming everything. I think she scratches the 8 unless she needs a hail mary to make the team.
This was meant to be in reply to NICKH. Damn mobile browser.
A ton of foreign athletes routinely swim at our National Championships and swim in our NCAA “taking” college scholarships and finals places from American athletes. How is this any different? I would think the increased competition would be a good thing for the top Canadian athletes, and swimming with an international team in college is great for long term international relations among some of our future leaders.
Could someone elaborate on how the USA keeps it only home country athletes if the above comment is true?
I understood that FINA rules stop National Federations from restricting their entry to home athletes, not exactly sure how or if the USA apply that, plus i’m no expert on fina rules. Many of these major non Canadian athletes have been swimming yards all year and looking forward with their NCAA duties done for another year they need to swim LCM, preferably competitively – I’m intrigued to see how they approach it, going to hard in the morning is obviously good preparation for future competitions but could leave you without an afternoon swim, so perhaps they may ‘loaf’ through the heats aiming for the B final and turn on the style then to put a marker up.
Terry, I’m unfamiliar with any such rule, and haven’t been able to find it in the FINA rulebook anywhere. Brazil couldn’t stop foreign entries this year, because Maria Lenk is the official Olympic test event. I will follow-up though and see if there’s anything to what you say.
What about Estonian national record holder Osbald Nitski?
Retired in October
*Quit* in October
Athletes with a history of doping don’t get to “Retire”
Looking forward to seeing where Nathan Adrian is compared to Condorelli, Beisel v. Overholt, Jaeger v. Cochrane, Coughlin v. Cdn sprinters. Disappointed there’s no Funk vs. Finc though.
Wow, Taylor Ruck entered in 7 events. 50/100/200/400/800 free and 100/200 back.