USA Swimming has released the official meet packet regarding the 2022 Futures Championships. This summer will mark the 7th edition of Futures and will see some changes to the format.
Region-based sites all over the nation host Futures simultaneously, though results are not officially combined. The competitions will occur between July 27th-30th this summer. In previous years, there were four hosting sites for four designated regions. This year, the Board of Directors has added another site and adjusted the boundary map to accommodate the 5th region.
- Geneva, OH – Spire Institute
- Cary, NC – Triangle Aquatic Center
- Minneapolis, MN – Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center
- College Station, TX – Texas A&M University
- Santa Clara, CA – George F. Haines International Aquatic Center
Since 2016, USA Swimming divided the country into 4 regions – Eastern, Southern, Central, and Western. A name has yet to be given to the recently delineated region. The newly established region subtracts mostly from the previous Western region. The new zone covers the states of Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas – added from the Southern zone. The Southern region no longer includes Texas or West Virginia. Instead, it now has Michigan and Indiana. The Western region shrunk considerably with its number dropping from 13 to 7 states.
Updated USA Swimming Boundary Map
The Futures Championships are designed as an intermediate step between Sectional Championships and Junior National or National Championships, and are open to swimmers of all ages.
Similar to last year, each site is capped at 800 swimmers. As a result of the new region, however, the potential number of participants has increased from 3,200 to 4,000.
The Futures time standards remain the same as they have been since 2019. See below for the full 2022 time standards.
Futures bridges the gap between Sectionals and Junior National Championships and provides developing swimmers with elite competitions to race against other swimmers who are in the same position. There are no time standards that make an athlete “too fast” for these meets, just minimum time standards.
Breakout swimmer Claire Weinstein, who recently qualified for the 2022 World Championships team in the 200-meter freestyle, competed at last year’s Futures meet in Richmond, VA. She now has the fastest time swam by a 15-year-old American in the 200 free.
Other recognizable names who raced at last year’s Futures meets include UVA freshman and 2022 NCAA-title winner Gretchen Walsh, US National Junior Team member Erin Gemmell, and 2022 NCAA champion in the 1650 free Paige McKenna.
Where can you find the bonus cuts? Meet sheet says there are bonus events but I can’t find them listed anywhere.
There are no designated bonus qualifying times, once a swimmer qualifies for one event they are allowed to swim up to two additional bonus events in any two events of their choice. If they qualify for two events then they get one bonus and if they qualify in three or more events they get no bonus swims.
Here is the wording from the meet book:
“ Any athlete who qualifies for one individual event will be permitted to enter and swim in up to two bonus events;
Any athlete who qualifies for two individual events will be permitted to enter and swim one additional bonus event;
Any athlete who qualifies for more than two individual events,… Read more »
Is this meet fina approved?
Michigan and Indiana were already in the Southern division – this isn’t a change.
teams in the upper peninsula of Michigan are closer to Minnesota and Ohio why are they going to NC?
Someone asked this earlier, but there appears to only be one team in the UP, and they are in the Wisconsin Swimming LSC.
While the map sort of makes it look like the split is by physical geography, it’s actually by LSC. So that team in the UP will participate with the rest of the Wisconsin Swimming LSC.
Does Geneva Ohio have enough hotels and restaurants to keep hosting this meet?
It is a logistic nightmare for teams to get there and have their swimmers perform at the best of their abilities.
Wasn’t a problem last time we were there.
I’m honestly a little surprised that part of the new owners’ development plan isn’t hotels.
Next big intersection East down I-90 has 6 hotels. 10 minutes in the other direction there are two more. There’s a Motel 6 across the street.
I dunno, what’s the reasonable range? 20 minutes?
In that case I am going to push our club coach to go to NCSAs in Indy instead.
Geneva, Ohio? SPIRE has two hotels being built for delivery in 2023. Ground has broken on the closest one. There are also over 700 hotel rooms within a 15 minute drive of SPIRE.
A Marriot will go here, and a Starbucks:
Which will become:
If you’re in the western UP, you’ll have to drive past 2 futures meets to get to Cary
I’m honestly surprised that the western UP hasn’t petitioned to join the Wisconsin LSC.
There is only one USA team and they already got approval from the MI LSC to join the WI LSC.
Sure enough, that’s correct. Wildcat Aquatic Club based out of Northern Michigan University.
I’m a swimmer from the western UP and I’m two hours away from WAC so I registered unattached in the Wisconsin LSC. I’m glad I did because otherwise I would have to travel really far.
There is only one USA team in the UP and they are registered as a Wisconsin LSC
Erin Gemmell isn’t on USA swimmings World Champs roster.
Hopefully, they will add her if it’s true.
That’s not a slam on her.
I think she should be on the Senior World Championship roster to swim in the preliminary 4×200 and rest up the top 4 200 swimmers
Thanks for clarifying in the caption under her picture.
Futures is always so fun to watch. There are so many names that have risen up who went to futures last year. Claire Weinstein for example! It’s always the sneak peak into the unfolding talent.
Why would a Michigan swimmer go to North Carolina when Ohio is right next door?
As I understand it, swimmers have to swim at the Futures meet designated for the Region in which their LSC is located. There will always be swimmers who have to travel further to their meet when they are on the fringe of a Region. Look at a swimmer in Arkansas having to travel to Minneapolis when College Station is so much closer. Having said that, putting Michigan and Indiana in the Southern Region doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me.
Or from Berkoff country (aka Montana) all the way to College Station Texas rather than Minnesota.
Either way you draw the lines, someone is going to be closer to another meet than their designated one.
My guess is that it has something to do with balancing numbers.
USA Swimming isn’t particularly transparent, though, so it’s hard to know for sure.
It has to do with #s of qualified athletes as well as # of eligible facilities.