Roster Update: Lots of Familiar Faces for 2022 World Championship Team

by Madeleine Lepesant 12

April 27th, 2022 National, News

2022 U.S. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TRIALS

The first U.S. swimmers have begun to claim their spots on the 2022 International Teams for this summer’s FINA World Championships and Junior World Pan Pacific Championships.

In addition to the Olympic veterans, Luca Urlando has officially made his first senior international team. He came from behind to win the men’s 200 fly in the final 15 meters to punch his ticket to Budapest. Bobby Finke won the 1500 freestyle, guaranteeing his spot on the team. Caeleb Dressel, Brooks Curry, and Ryan Held will all go to Worlds, going 1-2-3 in the 100 free.

Drew Kibler and Hunter Armstrong tied for 4th, with USA Swimming noting the final relay spot(s) will be addressed at the end of the meet.

On the women’s side, Hali Flickinger was the first person the secure a spot on the Team USA roster. She won the 200 fly with a comfortable lead over the rest of the field. Katie Ledecky won the 800 free in what can be considered her best swim since the 2018 Pan Pacs. Torri Huske, Claire Curzan, Erika Brown, and Natalie Hinds are also en route to Budapest, touching first through fourth in the women’s 100 free.

As reported by James Sutherland, the top-four finishers in the 100 and 200 freestyle events, along with the top-two finishers in the other Olympic events, will qualify for the team, assuming both that they’re under the FINA ‘A’ standard and the maximum roster size isn’t exceeded.

From there, the winners of the stroke 50s and the fifth and sixth-place finishers in the 100 and 200 freestyle will qualify.

For a full breakdown of selection procedures, follow this link.

2022 U.S. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM AFTER DAY 1

Confirmed qualifiers are entirely (including event) in bold. Tentative qualifiers (who need a certain number of multi-event qualifiers to be officially added) are listed in italics.

Women:

Men:

DOUBLES

Here’s an overly-simplified version of the U.S. World Championship selection process: the team can have a maximum of 26 men and 26 women. Swimmers are added to the roster in these priorities until the roster cap is hit:

  1. Top 4 in 100/200 frees, Winner of all other Olympic events
  2. 2nd-place finisher in all Olympic events (besides 100/200 free)
  3. Winner of non-Olympic events (50 back, 50 breast, 50 fly)
  4. 5th-place finisher in 100/200 free
  5. 6th-place finisher in 100/200 free

We track ‘doubles’ as a way of knowing when the next priority of swimmers can be officially added to the team. A ‘double’ is effectively a swimmer qualifying in more than one event. One swimmer qualifying in three events counts as two ‘doubles’ for our purposes.

The Magic Numbers:

  • 6 doubles on either the men’s or women’s side means all Priority 2 athletes (2nd-place finishers) can be added for that gender
  • 9 doubles on either the men’s or women’s side means all Prority 3 athletes (stroke 50 winners) can be added for that gender.
  • 11 doubles on either the men’s or women’s side means all Priority 4 athletes (5th-place in 100/200 free) can be added for that gender
  • 13 doubles on either the men’s or women’s side means all priority 5 athletes (6th-place in 100/200 free) can be added for that gender

After Day 1

  • Not surprisingly there are no doubles as of yet, after just one day and three events per gender. We’ll continue to track doubles as the meet progresses.

JUNIOR PAN PACS

The Junior Pan Pac team will consist of 20 men and 20 women. The selection criteria is similar to that of the World Championship. In short, first priority goes to the top finisher in each event, as well as the second-place finisher in the 100 and 200 free. The second priority will then move to the second-fastest swimmer in each Olympic event until the 20 athletes have been selected on both sides.

Up to three swimmers can qualify in each individual event for the team, though for now, only the highest-finishing eligible swimmer is guaranteed to qualify. So we’ll list out the top-three eligible swimmers in each event, noting that the second and third athletes haven’t actually qualified as of yet.

2022 JUNIOR PAN PACS TEAM AFTER DAY 1

Confirmed qualifiers are entirely (including event) in bold. Tentative qualifiers (who need a certain number of multi-event qualifiers to be officially added) are listed in italics. Tentative qualifiers (who need a certain number of multi-event qualifiers to be officially added) are listed in italics.

Women – Confirmed Qualifiers

Men:

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Smith-Jacoby-Huske-Curzan
2 years ago

Why isn’t the 800 free next to Katie Ledecky’s name in bold?

Melanie
2 years ago

A happy roster so far

gone swimmin'
2 years ago

Is Katie Grimes eligible for Jr. Pan Pacs because she qualified for Open Water worlds?

Melanie
Reply to  gone swimmin'
2 years ago

Wondering the exact same thing

Alex Wilson
2 years ago

Could you post a table of the club codes and which clubs those codes refer to? Or alternatively post a link to such a list? This would help may of us who follow these events

Admin
Reply to  Alex Wilson
2 years ago

Unfortunately, no such universal list exists.

NCSwimFan
2 years ago

What is the tiebreaker between Kibler & Armstrong? There’s no specific verbiage on it in the selection sheet, from what I can tell. May not end up mattering if the # of doubles is low enough, but still think one of them should be priority 1 and one priority 4.

Swammer
Reply to  NCSwimFan
2 years ago

I was wondering about this too, but I don’t think it’ll be an issue. Dressel, Finke, Kieran Smith and MA should all pick up multiple events and take the pressure off. Another interesting possibility is if Kibler qualifies individually for the 200, the spot would logically go to him as he is all but guaranteed a spot on the team

Admin
Reply to  NCSwimFan
2 years ago

We couldn’t find obvious tiebreaker verbiage either, so it might be a swimoff at the end of the meet.

I think right now, USA Swimming is just praying it doesn’t matter. It almost definitely won’t have to happen, but in 2022, it feels like we can no longer ignore “almost definitely.”

Bobo Gigi
2 years ago

KL amazing. The move to Florida was the best thing that could happen to her.
Finke is still the boss.
Very happy to see Urlando back to his best.
Huske and Curzan on track to have a very good meet.
Gretchen Walsh’s disastrous performance is a huge mistery to me. I presume to her as well.
Less worse for Kate Douglass. Let’s see how Alex Walsh will look.
I expected a little bit better from Sims, Grimes and Weinstein in the 800 free. Good performances but not great. They must go out faster in the future to split at least 4.06 at the half-mark.
Many veterans qualified so far. I want to see new faces too.

chow
2 years ago

correction on Jr PanPacs Women: Kayla Wilson would be invited to “100 Fr” relay. (nice PB in winning consol heat in finals and finishing ahead of G Walsh in Prelims)

Blastoff Berkoff
2 years ago

Just throwing it out there the future of the mens 100 free is looking very bright. A lot of college freshmen and high schoolers going 49.