The Olympic Stroke 50s Might Not Be the Career-Extending Magic Wand Everyone Hoped For

World Aquatics has revealed planned sweeping changes to the way swimmers are chosen for the Olympic Games, with bonus events, toughened time standards, and a shifted relay selection plan. While in general, I feel that these changes were positive, creative solutions to deal with the reduced participation cap from the IOC.

The big piece that will turn the most heads, though, might be the new selection events for the new stroke 50s. In those races, the top 6 finishers via a series of races at the preceding fall’s World Cup will qualify directly, and the rest of the field will be filled out with bonus entries from swimmers who are already on their respective Olympic teams in other events. As reported earlier today:

Rosters will remain at a limit of 26 per gender for the Los Angeles Olympic Games, meaning large countries (mostly the United States, though China may be approaching the threshold as well) will have to find ways to add stroke 50s to their rosters without adding athletes.

The primary selections for stroke 50s will be done at the previous year’s World Cup. This will ‘extend the Olympic window’ for swimming in a sense to align it with other sports, which traditionally begin building toward the Games themselves with qualification events that are much further in advance.

World Aquatics is planning a three stop 2027 World Cup in Europe, hoping to host all of the events in former Olympic cities. At each of those three stops, a different stroke 50 event would serve as a qualification.

Prelims of that race would take place on day 1, cutting the field to 32. In the day 1 evening session, the field would be cut to 16, in the day 2 evening session, the field would be cut to 8, and in the day 3 evening session, the top 6 would earn qualification spots in those stroke 50s for the Olympic Games.

Nowicki added that this was a “first step to modify format” of major swim meets in the future.

Those top 6 are not true ‘direct qualification’ spots though, as they are still subject to the internal qualification rules of their National Olympic Committees – which are not required to accept them. That will be crucial, again, for the Americans, who will have to figure out how to balance 26 roster spots with 3 new events for each gender.

Each country will only be able to have 2 swimmers in the final of those events at the World Cup.

The rest of the fields in the stroke 50s will be filled by athletes already entered in other events (more on that later). This ensures that a maximum of 36 “new athlete” spots will go to stroke 50s.

Unlike the other qualification procedures announced, this is not a change, per se, because the stroke 50s are new events. It is, however, a change from the expectations that I think many individuals levied upon the events when the stroke 50s were first announced.

The chorus from swimmers (and their fans) around the world that these stroke 50s would be a major career extender for individuals whose bodies, or minds, could no longer handle the grind that is training for 100 or 200 meter races, but who were more willing to continue their pursuit for a 50 meter race. Social media posts around the U.S. were filled with swimming people who with a mixture of tongue-and-cheek and earnestness committed to train for a 50 meter stroke qualification for the U.S. Olympic Trials (USA Swimming only received this information today, so it’s unclear whether the races will be swum at Trials at all).

But those dreams evaporated quickly. Athletes, especially from nations that generally send smaller Olympic Teams, who might have believed they had a clear path to the Olympic Games now will see murkier waters, having to race at the World Cup, or earn a corollary qualification invite time in a 100 meter event. Even that becomes a lot more difficult with World Aquatics anticipating faster qualifications time due to the “A” standards being set at the 14th place entry time from the Paris Olympics, with the generally-slower 14th or 16th place result being the historical precedent for “A” standards.

While this will be a disappointment for many, and will probably keep some big names out of the Games, in general, I think moving away from qualifications that allow someone to see a clear pathway to the Olympics years in advance is a net benefit to the sport. This expands the Olympic window, creates some extra pre-Games energy with the semi-direct qualification, and keeps the energy high for longer.