USA Swimming has posted the qualifying standards for the first meet of the 2013-2014 series, swum in Minneapolis in a 25 yard course, and the most obvious reaction is that qualifying standards have been tempered way back from when they were released in 2012.
For example, in the first event, the women’s 200 free, the yards qualifying time of 1:54.19 is seven seconds slower than it was last year, and the long course meters qualifying time of 2:10.49 is nine seconds slower than it was last year. That trend continues throughout the events.
See the 2013 standards, and other information, here.
Note that this Minneapolis Grand Prix in 2012 was a veritable entry disaster, both with it being in yards, and with so much uncertainty about USA Swimming’s then-new experimentation with “B” standards and incredibly heightened standards. For one, they lost many of the collegiate participants that had been a mainstay of the event in previous years.
Now, with so much frustration over last year, the times have swung drastically back toward where they were in the 2011-2012 season, which many saw as too liberal and resulting in huge numbers of entries.
A couple of events, picked at random, and their time standards:
Women’s 200 LC Free
2011: 2:11.79
2012: 2:01.89 (A)/2:05.49 (B)
2013: 2:10.49
Men’s 100 LC Back
2011: 1:03.09
2012: 56.59/59.39
2013: 1:02.09
Note that the B Standards for Minneapolis were later revised, but not the A standards; those B standards were only involved in bonus events.
As you can see, the times are a little faster than they were in 2011, but most of that time drop could be accounted for by ‘time inflation,’ or the sport just generally being faster than it was in 2011.
Entries open on September 10th, 2013, at 10AM Central Time, and then the race will be on for the first 600 swimmers to enter. USA Swimming’s strategy, at least for meet 1 of the new Grand Prix season, is to loosen the time standards, but leave the cap tight, meaning that teams can plan on bringing bigger portions of their top swimmers, but only if they make their calls on September 10th.
To ensure that elites always have a spot, they’ve put in the following exemptions to the cap:
- Any athlete ranked in the top 50 in the world in one or more individual events during the previous 24 month period
- Any U.S. athlete ranked in the top 50 in the U.S. in one or more individual events during the previous 24 month period
- Any U.S. National Team member from the previous 24 month period
- Any U.S. Junior National Team member from the previous 24 month period
The prize money is back, with $500 given out to each event winner, $300 for 2nd place finishers, and $100 for 3rd place finishers. There will be, however, no other awards given at this meet (medals, ribbons, banners), which means no medal ceremonies.
Once a swimmer has a qualifying standard in an individual event, they can enter any other events they like, regardless of time. The maximum number of total events is 7, with no more than 3 in one day (sorry, Katinka).
This meet, while in yards, can be really fun, as it’s one of the few opportunities we get to really see the international-level swimmers take on yards competition after college. This year, though, Missy Franklin is an unlikely appearance given her commitments to Cal, and Ryan Lochte is a question-mark while he decides where he’ll be training for the summer (he’s recently hinted that Australia may not be in the plans, after all).
Historical Minneapolis Time Standards:
2013 Standards
2012 Standards (pre B-time revision)
2011 Standards
I was considering going to Austin last year, but decided not too because I still wanted to focus on short course, The only two I ended up going to were Mesa and Santa Clara, I love both of them, it was a pretty good turnout and very exciting. It will be nice with these new cuts that are slower, I can swim some of my worse events like the sprints, now that the cuts are slower, before I could only swim my best events.
I like the change in eligibility requirements. Qualify for one event and swim everything else. Seems like the old requirements only kept the honest people honest with others falsifying entry times (which seems to be an acceptable form of cheating depending on who you are or who you know).
While too late for some, at least USA Swimming (going forward) recognized the discrepancy in allowing some to cheat without sanctions while denying access to others. Hopefully this new mentality will be passed onto the LSC’s. Rules need to apply to everyone – if it is acceptable for some to break the rules, then perhaps the rules need to be changed!
Minny in late Fall. Hmmmmmmm…. No thank you!
The grand prixs aren’t the same without the GOAT. Attendance was way down last year and as Bobo point out that Austin Grand Prix was sad to say the least.
Everything must come to an end.
MP is a legend for ever.
I’m happy he has retired in the best way possible in London.
Please, don’t cry!
I should say forever. 🙂
These time standards are actually a lot faster than last season. Remember, they opened the meet up and had slower B standards when it was clear no one would show up. I’m worried something like that will happen again, because the appeal for this meet is limited. Not many teams show up for a SCY meet in November in Minnesota. Minnesota doesn’t have a huge amount of boys meeting these cuts, and the girls have their state high school meet the next week so they won’t be swimming. I wouldn’t be surprised if they slow the cuts down again next year.
In my opinion, the most awful grand prix of last season, unfortunately, was in Austin. I remember a race, the women’s 200 breast if I have a good memory, with only an A-Final and there were 5 swimmers in the water. I believe they don’t want to relive that disaster. And I don’t want to watch that again!
I totally agree with u here also ! awfull Grand Prix it was in Austin ! uninteresting for competitors and for swimming fans . Hopefully , they won’t do the same mistake for next Grand Prix season .
Hopefully they polled the college coaches to find out how many were planning on attending before setting the time standard.