Editor’s Note: FINA says that the document that contained these standards is “out of date,” without elaborating.
The International Olympic Committee published the qualifying criteria for the Paris 2024 Olympics today, and with it was included the qualification process for relays. As was the case for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, there will be a total of 16 relay teams entered in each relay event. Of course, as always, each National Olympic Committee (NOC) is only permitted to enter one relay per event.
The qualifying process will be similar to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. 12 relay teams will be selected in each relay event from the results of the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan. Please note, selections will not be made from the results of the 2022 World Championships, which are being held in Budapest this summer. Beyond the 12 teams selected at the 2023 World Champs, the remaining 4 teams in each event will be selected by order of fastest times achieved in the qualifying period, which is from March 1, 2023 to May 31, 2024. To be considered, times must be achieved at a 2023 or 2024 FINA World Cup meet, or a FINA-approved continental championship during the qualifying period.
As is typically the case, all athletes individually entered in the Paris 2024 Olympics will be eligible to compete on relays, regardless of whether they’ve achieved the Olympic Consideration Time in the corresponding stroke and distance which is being competed in the relay. Those decisions on the members of relays are left to the discretion of each NOC. Again, as is usually the case, relay-only swimmers will be permitted to compete in Paris. NOC’s are allowed to bring 2 additional relay-only athletes per each relay event they’ve qualified to compete in. So, if country X qualifies 4 total relays, they’re permitted to bring up to 8 relay-only swimmers to the meet.
There is a catch with relay-only swimmers, however. Per the FINA rules on relay-only athletes, if an NOC enters relay-only athletes, those athletes are required to compete in prelims or finals of at least one relay. If a relay-only swimmer is entered, and fails to compete in any events, it will result in the disqualification of the last relay team in which he/she was eligible to compete. There is an exception in the case of injury or medical emergency, after confirmation from the FINA Sport Medicine Committee.
Do relay-only swimmers have to make the consideration time or not?
I wonder if this has anything to do with the drama related to the relay qualification of Greece, Ireland and Switzerland last year:
https://swimswam.com/swiss-seek-full-transparency-after-losing-olympic-spot-in-mixed-medley-relay/
Maybe it’s too complicated for fina to track all relay results in their rankings?
This is good news. I feared they might force countries to qualify relays at the Doha 2024 WCs. FINA really should just cancel them.
In that 90% of the legitimate contenders should “nail down” their qualification at 2023 Worlds; Yes.
However, I would have had little issue with making 2024 Worlds the “last chance shoot-out” for the remaining spots and might even have changed it to top 8 or 10 from 2023 auto-qualify; everyone else to Doha !
Indeed, now the 2024 WC are really pointless…..