USA Swimming has released the qualifying criteria for the 2022 World Championships in Budapest, with the U.S. team to be selected at the upcoming International Team Trials in Greensboro, N.C.
The requirements to make the American team this year will follow suit to what we’ve seen at previous trials meets for the Olympics and World Championships.
To generalize, the top-four finishers in the 100 and 200 freestyle events, along with the top-two finishers in the other Olympic events, will qualify for the team, assuming both that they’re under the FINA ‘A’ standard and the maximum roster size isn’t exceeded.
From there, the winners of the stroke 50s and the fifth and sixth-place finishers in the 100 and 200 freestyle will qualify.
World Championships Qualification Priorities
- Top-four finishers in the 100 and 200 freestyle finals, and winner of every other Olympic event
- Second-place finishers in each Olympic event other than 100 and 200 free
- Winners of non-Olympic events (50 back, 50 breast, 50 fly)
- Fifth-place finishers in 100 and 200 free
- Sixth-place finishers 100 and 200 free
In order to have two swimmers represent the United States in an individual event, FINA requires that both of them have achieved the ‘A’ standard within the qualifying period.
If the winner of an event only attains the ‘B’ standard, only that athlete will qualify to represent the U.S. team in that event (even if the runner-up has achieved an ‘A’ cut at a different meet or in prelims).
In the event that the winner hits an ‘A’ cut and the second-place finisher does not, the second-place finisher won’t qualify and the next fastest swimmer in the final who has achieved the ‘A’ cut at a different meet would then be eligible for qualification.
FINA TIME STANDARDS
The maximum U.S. roster size for the World Championships is 26 men and 26 women.
When selecting the relay-only swimmers, the U.S. can bring a maximum of 12 (combined men and women) to Budapest. If more than 12 qualify per the criteria above, the swimmers will be ranked by using the percentage their time is faster than the FINA ‘A’ standard to determine the priority of qualification.
For an in-depth breakdown on calculating the percentages, click here.
We saw this situation come up at last year’s Olympic Trials, where Ryan Held was bumped from the Olympic team after placing sixth in the men’s 100 freestyle. However, the criteria that year was based on USA Swimming’s modified world rankings rather than by the percentage their time is faster than the ‘A’ cut.
As for the non-Olympic 50 back, breast and fly events, assuming the winner achieves the ‘A’ cut, the second spot at Worlds will be offered to those qualified for the team in the 100 back, breast and fly, respectively.
You can read the full qualifying procedures here.
The International Team Trials, which will also be used to select the Junior Pan Pacific Championship team and the swimmers that compete at the Mel Zajac International meet in Vancouver, are scheduled to run April 26-30 in Greensboro, N.C.
The pool swimming competition at the 2022 World Aquatics Championships will run from June 18-25 in Budapest, Hungary.
I’d love to see Dressel in the 50fr, 100fr, 200fr, 50fl, 100fl, 200fl, 50br, 200im.
If I’m lucky I’ll see him swim half of them lol
Any word on Manuel, McHugh, McLaughlin, or Tetzloff?
Is Manuel swimming?
Sad for Ryan Held that the protocol was changed after his situation. He missed out on making an Olympic team when he was the more qualified swimmer by far.
Do we know if this change would have actually gotten him on the team? Same priority, just the tiebreaker is a bit different.
By my math yes. 48.0 to 48.7 is better than 1:57.6 to 1:58.4.
Could be wrong tho.
More notably, for the Olympics the qualifying A standard for men’s 100 free was 48.5 to Held’s finals time of 48.4 and the women’s 200 free A standard was 1:57.2 to Fordes time of 1:57.6.
Sorry, duplicate. Delete.
I thought you’d said the pool swimming was in the second week, not the first
I got Curry making the 50 and 100 free
There’s no way he beats Dressel or Andrew in the 50.
@Braden Keith thoughts on this:
It’s likely that Casas will get second in the 100 fly and Dressel will win the 50 fly.
MA will get second in the 50 fly after Dressel.
Since MA will make the team in other events, can USA Swimming give him the 50 fly spot ( because there is no way Casas will swim it at Worlds due to a close crossover with the 100 back semi + MA is way faster than Casas in the 50 fly)
In this example, if Casas were to decline the 50 fly spot, the swimmer with the fastest time in the qualifying period who’s already on the U.S. roster would have the opportunity to race the 50 fly. So likely Andrew, yes.
But that’s if Casas declines the spot right? I agree with Swimfan that this system may not end up choosing the best candidates for stroke 50s. Maybe a better way is to choose the 2nd fastest swimmer if he/she is already qualified in other events, and THEN offer it to those qualified in the 100 if the spot is declined?
Is Lochte Swimming? Or just training for the shortcourse season later in the year?
I thought he retired. . . . .
A few months back He gave an interview in which he said he wanted to win the overall world cup prize. That’s why I was asking