USA Swimming Releases 2018 Winter National And Jr National Standards

With the biggest time standard announcement, that for the 2020 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials, to be released via live webcast Thursday (more details here), USA Swimming has released the 2018 Winter National and Winter Juniors standards removing short course meter and relay qualifying times from both events.

2018 US Winter Nationals

At the 2018 US Winter Nationals, no time standards have changed; the only changes to the meet come in terms of the formatting and the 18&under bonus standards.

Last year, USA Swimming listed short course meters standards alongside the long course meters and short course yards standards. There were also standards listed for relays. This year however, the SCM standards have been removed as have the relay standards. Unlike last year where the meet was held in yards, the meet will be held in long course meters come 2018.

The last time the meet was held in long course meters was during the 2015 edition of the event prior to the 2016 Olympic Games.

Changes to 2018 Standards 

• No changes to SCY or LCM standards
• No SCM standards
• No relay standards

To see the 2018 standards click here, to see the 2017 standards click here.

While none of the actual qualifying standards have differed from the 2017 competition, many of the 18&under bonus standards have changed, although not by much. Most of the changes that occurred were by a few tenths. The biggest changes were in the women’s 500 freestyle (1 second), the men’s 500 freestyle (1.20 seconds), and the men’s 200 IM (1 second).

Below are the changes to the bonus qualifications.

18& under bonus changes:

2018 US Winter Junior Nationals

Like the senior meet, the US Junior Nationals lack both short course meters and relay standards.

The qualifying times mirror 18&under bonus standards from the senior meet with the exception of the women’s short course yard 100 breaststroke. There, the standard is a 1:03.69 as opposed to the 1:03.39 18&under bonus qualifying time in the senior meet.

Both standards (winter junior and 18&under bonus for winter nationals) were the same last year, set at 1:04.29. There’s been a 0.9 second drop in the senior meet and a 0.6 in the junior meet.

Changes to 2018 Standards

• Women’s 100y breaststroke 0.6 seconds faster
• No SCM standards
• No relay standards

Many of the bonus standards have changed. The biggest changes on the women’s side came in the 1000 freestyle (+5.2 seconds) and the 500 freestyle (+3.2 seconds). Like the women’s the biggest changes for men came in the longer events. The 1500m freestyle bonus standard is now 4.4 seconds slower.

To see the 2018 standards click here, to see the 2017 standards click here.