2019 Pro Swim Series – Des Moines
- March 6th-9th, 2019
- Wellmark YMCA, Des Moines, Iowa
- LCM (50m) pool
- Psych Sheets
After participation numbers were way down at the Pro Swim Series stop in Knoxville, Tennessee in January, time standards for this weekend’s stop #2 were significantly softened. The result? A dramatic decrease in women’s entries from Knoxville, and a mixed bag, but mostly more entries, in men’s events.
A few examples:
| Knoxville | Des Moines | |
| Women’s 100 Free | 62 | 41 |
| Men’s 100 Free | 57 | 66 |
| Women’s 100 Breast | 42 | 33 |
| Men’s 100 Breast | 41 | 43 |
| Women’s 100 Back | 51 | 29 |
| Men’s 100 Back | 33 | 33 |
| Women’s 1500 Free | 19 | 12 |
| Men’s 1500 Free | 20 | 18 |
Many of the women’s events have now shrunk to the point that D finals will not be filled.
The smaller numbers doesn’t seem to have dissuaded the stars from coming, however, as a number of huge names will be in attendance for the m eThat includes Egyptian Olympian Farida Osman, who has now had some time to settle in under Sergio Lopez in the new pro training group at Virginia Tech.
She’ll swim the 50 free, 100 free, 50 fly, and 100 fly. That 100 fly should be among the best races in the meet: the field includes Olympic silver medalist in the event Penny Oleksiak from Canada, World Championship bronze medalist Kelsi Dalhia from the United States, Amanda Kendall, Germany’s Aliena Schmidtke, and Great Britain’s Charlotte Atkinson. Aside from Kendall, everyone in that group was ranked as their country’s best in the 100 fly in 2018.
On the men’s side, Caeleb Dressel will swim his first long course events since Pan Pacs, which compared to expectation and the standard he set in 2017 were a disappointment. He’s entered in the 50/100/200 free, the 50/100 breaststroke, and the 50/100 fly, though Dressel’s scratch history indicates that he probably won’t swim all of those events. The 100 breast, where he’s seeded 26th, will bring the most interest. He was for a time the fastest yards breaststroke swimmer in history, though he’s never swum the event at a season-ending full-taper meet. His best time in long course, done in 2015, is 1:02.26.
Other Noteworthy Names:
- Among the swimmers joining Atkinson from Great Britain are Imogen Clark, Molly Renshaw, James Wilby, Nicholas Pyle, Emily Large, and Kathryn Greenslade.
- Wilby joins a group of male breaststrokers that should make for some big racing. That group includes 5 of the 6 fastest Americans in the 100 breast last season: Andrew Wilson, Michael Andrew, Kevin Cordes, Cody Miller, and Nic Fink. Felipe Lima, who also seems to have attached to Virginia Tech’s pro group, and Will Licon make for a full top 8 of international-caliber breaststrokers in this field.
- In true Michael Andrew fashion, he’ll swim a wide range of events: the 50 breast, 100 breast, 50 back, 100 back, 50 fly, 100 fly, and 50 free.
- World Record holder Kathleen Baker leads a great group of backstrokers that includes Ali DeLoof and defending World Short Course 50 and 100 champion Olivia Smoliga.
- Olympic gold medalist Tom Shields will swim the 100 fly, 200 fly, and 100 free at the meet.
- Another Olympic gold medalist Allison Schmitt will swim her first long course races of the season. She’s entered in the 100/200/400/800 freestyles and the 50/100 butterflies
I really wish Dressel swam all of these events. So exciting to see him hungry again
This meet may have less number of participants on women’s side but it promises to be faster than anything that we have seen this season by far. It is all on paper of course for now, but the fact that we don’t see Hosszu despite prizes are good indicates that the competition can be strong.
Li Bingjie and Wang Jianjiahe are going to race each other. Wow. Last year they visited different PSS stops: one in January and another in March. Now they are both coming. Wang has beaten Li at everything last year, but Li is still Chinese national record holder from 400 through 1500. Would be interesting to check if the last season was a temporary slowdown to Li
Wish Ledecky was swimming
Are they training in USA? Salo and or Marsh?
Schubert, I believe.
Saw the phrase “D final”, isn’t that an oxymoron?
Why don’t you let my comments through???
Thank you 🙂
Swimming could really learn from the Premier Lacrosse League, started by Paul Rabil -who’s basically the phelps of lax.
I understand there is a lot more tape to go through with FINA/ISL/USA Swimming/NCAA -but they’ve been able to privately start up a league that is player focused, with a lot of support, as a result, of modern marketing strategies + branding.
If you’re looking to learn more, definitely google Premier Lacrosse League / PLL / Paul Rabil
While PLL certainly has a lot of hype…I don’t know that we can say anybody should learn anything from them yet. They don’t play a single game until June. All of the most successful sports leagues in the world are fan-focused. There may be a new model that works for the 2019 world that these guys have stumbled upon. But…they haven’t proven it yet.
Ouch, the feeling when you don’t make the “Other Noteworthy Names” I see how it is Swimswam
You are only olympic and world champion. 😆
It seems like PSS meets usually have some collage attendance. This one in the same month and so close to NCAA championships so I assume most collage team will not attend.