The United States will be sending different national teams to three international meets this summer, but selection procedures for the 2015-2016 National Team could leave many of those athletes in need of a second taper meet.
The U.S. National Team
The U.S. National Team each year is made up of the 6 fastest swimmers in each Olympic event, based on times from a set list of meets or an open qualifying period.
The National Team is important for a number of reasons, mostly financial. National Team members can receive monthly stipends, elite athlete grants, meet cost reimbursements and athlete health insurance, based on their ranks nationally and internationally. Being a member of the national team also includes access to video review and massage therapists at many major meets, along with the obvious prestige of being a U.S. National Teamer. We reported a more in-depth piece on what National Team status means last summer, and you can read that story here.
This summer, most of the 2014-2015 U.S. National Team is qualified to swim at either the World Championships, the Pan American Games or the World University Games, but can only swim the events they specifically qualified in at last summer’s nationals.
The upshot of all this is that many of these national team athletes won’t get a chance to swim all of their best Olympic-distance events – or sometimes any of them – at those three meets. So if they want to put up a top-6 time and earn National Team status for the coming year, they’ll need to either put up a time they’re confident will hold up in the top 6 before their major meet, or find a second taper meet shortly before or shortly after their international event.
Qualifying for the 2015-2016 U.S. National Team
Last summer, only swims at Nationals and Pan Pacs counted for selection to the U.S. National Team. But this summer, it’s an open qualifying period in which any swims done at a USA Swimming- or FINA-sanctioned meet between January 1, 2015 and August 10, 2015 will count for selection.
Time trials and relay leadoffs do not count for qualifying, nor do intermediate splits (i.e. a 100 split on the way to a 200), so athletes will have to find a sanctioned meet with the specific individual event they need to swim in order to put up a national team qualifying time.
2015-2016 U.S. National Team selection procedures
What all this means
The take-home is that swimming fans across the nation should start looking out for any Worlds, Pan Ams or World U Games team members who might be looking to swim a more full slate of events at tapered speeds in the next few weeks.
It’s certainly possible many of these athletes will use U.S. Nationals in San Antonio as a second taper meet after their international competition. That makes the most sense for World University Games swimmers (who are competing in Gwangju this week) and Pan Ams swimmers (who start competing in Toronto on Saturday), but could be impossible or implausible for World Champs team members, who miss nearly all of U.S. Nationals while in Kazan.
The swimmers affected the most are those who are qualified for Kazan, but only on relays or in non-Olympic distances (which cannot qualify for the National Team). A quick look over the U.S. World Champs roster reveals four swimmers in that boat:
- Brendan McHugh (50 breast in Kazan)
- Chelsea Chenault (800 free relay)
- Margo Geer (400 free relay)
- Lia Neal (400 free relay)
Neal is also competing at World University Games, but won’t compete in any individual events in Gwangju.
A few other swimmers will compete in one of their best events in Kazan, but won’t have a chance to swim another of their top races there:
- Kevin Cordes (50 breast – non-Olympic – and 200 breast in Kazan)
- Ryan Murphy (200 back)
- Cody Miller (100 breast)
- Breeja Larson (200 breast)
These athletes will have to hope they make the 2015-2016 National Team in that one event, or find a secondary meet to swim their other events – for Cordes and Larson the 100 breast, for Murphy the 100 back and for Miller the 200 breast.
We’ve already seen Miller light up the scoreboard a few times this regular season – perhaps this unique national team qualifying setup is part of the reason he’s made a few stops of the Arena Pro Swim Series such major focuses this year.
There are a few other athletes on the Worlds roster for only relays and non-Olympic distances, but they all have another major international meet with at least one chance at National Team qualifying. Rachel Bootsma (50 back in Kazan), Katy Campbell (1500 free), Leah Smith (800 free relay), Shannon Vreeland (400 free relay, 800 free relay), Abbey Weitzeil (400 free relay) Reed Malone (800 free relay) and Clay Youngquist (800 free relay) are all at World University Games individually. And Michael Klueh (800 free relay in Kazan) and Michael Weiss (800 free relay) will both get individual swims at Pan Ams.
It is totally nonsensical to hold the nationals the same week as the worlds!
Is Reed Malone also in the category of WUG for individual and World’s for relay? He put up a very strong time in the 200 at WUG though, so he probably will make next year’s national team. Clay Youngquist swam a good time as well.
You’re right – I’ve added Malone to that list.
Why change the qualification standards after the fact? Everyone who is National Team-caliber knows where to find the standards on the USA Swimming website. Know how to play the game.
Originally when they made these guidelines (rules), the World Cups were to be short course meters so they weren’t taken into consideration.
This seems like a big oversight by USA Swimming. Props for calling attention to it, and hopefully they’ll change the rules so those at Worlds who aren’t swimming their primary events can try to put up qualifying times at the World Cup meets right afterwards.
there are 2 world cup meets after kazan – one in moscow and one in paris
wont usa swimming allow times in those meets from the group that is in kazan ?
USA Swimming’s procedures say the qualifying period closes on August 10th, which is the last day of Nationals. That would exclude the World Cup meets, the first of which starts on August 11th.
They need to at least open up prelims at these major meets to these swimmers so they can compete in their other events. Everyone on the team should be allowed to swim 3 individual events. Why would someone travel half way around the world for one swim that lasts a minute