USA Swimming Announces Four-Stop Schedule for 2023 Pro Swim Series

USA Swimming has announced a four-meet schedule for the 2023 Pro Swim Series with three familiar locations, along with a more novel stop.

The 2023 series will run from January through May, with stops in each month except for February.

• January 11-14, Knoxville, Tennessee (University of Tennessee)
• March 1-4, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center at ISHOF, presumed)
• April 12-15, Westmont, Illinois (FMC Aquatic Center)
• May 17-20, Mission Viejo, California (Marguerite Aquatic Center)

While the series overall has undergone a dramatic shift in hosting in the last few years, it appears to be settling into a new hosting rotation. The University of Tennessee’s massive aquatics center saw its hosting opportunities canceled in both 2022 and moved to Richmond in 2021 because of ongoing coronavirus concerns.

2019 was the first time where the series scheduled a meet in Knoxville, and 2023 marks the fifth straight season where a meet is scheduled there (though it has only actually happened twice so far).

The new stop will be in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Though USA Swimming did not confirm the exact location, it is presumed that the meet will be at the newly-renovated International Swimming Hall of Fame pool at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatics Center. Phase I of the renovation was completed in April, which includes three completely refurbished pools.

In April, the tour will move to Westmont, Illinois, which was a new and last-minute addition last year. The FMC Aquatic Center, located about 20 miles outside of downtown Chicago, has spectator seating for 1,200, which makes it one of the largest permanent indoor facilities not located on a college campus in the U.S.

The series will conclude at the newly-renovated Marguerite Aquatic Center in Mission Viejo, California. That pool also hosted a stop in 2022 – the final one, which came after the US International Team Trials, and so was lightly-attended by the country’s top national swimmers.

USA Swimming CEO Tim Hinchey believes that it was important to get the schedule out early – especially after the chaos of the last few years, where meet dates and locations were changing frequently because of the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our goal is to provide as much clarity as possible regarding next year’s calendar as early as possible, enabling our members to develop training regimes that optimize performance while allowing membership to organize their year accordingly,” Hinchey said. “We are investing in quality competitions at a cadence that will set athletes up for success and will look to finalize locations for every event as soon as possible.”

The subtext of Hinchey’s comments is that the Pro Swim Series meets have not been well-attended by athletes in recent years. At last year’s Westmont meet, for example, the women’s 1500 free only had two entries, the women’s 200 fly only had three entries, several events couldn’t fill a final heat, and only the men’s 50 free had more than 19 entries. Even the reinstatement of prize money didn’t seem to do much to boost entries.

The hope is that earlier planning might allow more teams to work these meets into their planning and improve attendance, though their scheduling in the busiest part of the collegiate season does present a challenge for most of the country’s elite swimmers.

   Below is the full 2023 USA Swimming national calendar