For a unique World Championships, USA Swimming has designed a unique set of qualifying criteria.
The organization has released the requirements to earn a spot on the U.S. team at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships, which will run from February 2-18, 2024, in Doha. The pool swimming competition will be held during the second week, Feb. 11-18.
This edition of the World Championships was originally scheduled for November 2023, but was pushed into early 2024 after the 2022 World Championships in Fukuoka were postponed until July 2023.
USA Swimming will not host a national trials meet for the event, which is no surprise given there’s not an adequate window of time to do so, and will instead select swimmers based on times swum between October 1, 2022, and November 1, 2023.
The team size will be smaller than usual, with 14 men and 14 women set to be selected for a maximum 28-swimmer roster. For comparison, USA Swimming sent 48 pool swimmers to the 2023 Worlds in Fukuoka and could’ve sent up to 52.
Only the fastest swimmer in each individual Olympic event will qualify to swim in Doha, with several athletes expected to opt out of the competition due to its strange timing. If the top 10 swimmers in a given event opt out, that event won’t have anyone selected.
There is usually a set of 5-6 priorities for selection to major international teams, but in this case, there’s only one:
Priority #1. The first priority will be comprised of the Available Swimmers who has the first fastest Time in each Individual Olympic Event. Limitation on Selection: USA Swimming will not Select Available Swimmers with Times slower than the 10th fastest Time among Available Swimmers in each Individual Olympic Event.
In order for the U.S. to field two swimmers in an event, there will need to be a second swimmer on the roster who has achieved the ‘A’ standard within World Aquatics’ qualifying window (Oct. 1, 2022 – Dec. 19, 2023). If there is only one swimmer on the roster with an ‘A’ cut in an event, the U.S. will only have one entrant in that event.
For the non-Olympic events, the three stroke 50s, the qualifier in the corresponding 100-meter event will earn an entry provided they’ve achieved the ‘A’ standard in the 50-meter race.
There will also be no relay-only swimmers selected to the team, as the coaching staff will put together relays among those already on the roster.
The U.S. was one of two countries to qualify all seven relays for the 2024 Olympic Games at the 2023 World Championships, which takes some of the pressure off relay performance in Doha.
The 2024 World Championships will take place just before the start of conference championship meets in the NCAA, and they’ll conclude just 118 days before the start of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.
The swimmers named to the U.S. team will travel to Doha on February 5 and train in Doha from the 6th until the 10th before racing commences on the 11th and concludes on the 18th
USA Swimming will announce the roster by November 15.
welp… looks like I am not going to THIS one either…
I wish Ledecky went to this WC having one event only in her program. Let her swim 8:05 at 800 for example. She had never been at 8:05 🙂
She does have a history of being tapered and rested for the meet at the beginning of the Olympic year (January 2016) to set a benchmarks for the following training cycle. She swam the personal best at all events but 400.
Why to not expect her to do the same this time?
is there open water?
I have so many questions swirling in my head right now:
1) How many Americans from Fukuoka will opt to go to Doha?
2) Will the Doha World Championships be the first long course World Championships to not see a single world record in the pool? I’m assuming that’s never happened before.
3) Will we see any of the top swimmers opting to attend Doha with the goal to clean up against a weakened field? I legitimately think Ledecky could win 5 individual golds (200 free, 400 free, 800 free, 1500 free, 400 IM) plus relays. I’m sure that won’t happen, but I can dream.
I can’t imagine less than the maximum number being sent; this is obviously going to be a lower quality Worlds but the top 10 in each event still has multiple swimmers who will most likely never qualify for Worlds any other way so this is still a pretty crazy once in a lifetime opportunity
Wow. I get that this meet isn’t high priority for USA Swimming, but I didn’t expect them to cheap out and not send a full roster.
I get that a lot of the top swimmers will opt out from the competition, but why not give other swimmers an opportunity to gain experience competing at a world championships.
I’m curious how much money they’ll save by not fielding a full team.
Well do swimmers get performance related bonuses from usa swimming? I know fina pays out but im not sure if usa swimming does
I would be surprised if the 24 cut, and the personnel/whatever else comes with them, didn’t at least come somewhat close to saving 6 figures
I don’t think it’s about saving money. USAS has more than enough money to send a full team to every single meet. They’re just making a point that this meet isn’t a priority.
The timing of this meet rules out all of the NCAA athletes, which comprise a fair number of those ranked 10th or higher.
Athlete / Coach decisions for the remaining (small) number of 10th or higher athletes will further drawn down (eliminate?) the remainder.
“Gonna be a lonely bench.”
~ Norman Dale, Hoosiers
This meet is a joke. A January WCs in an Olympic year? It will be like a B meet for the athletes who missed out on the last WC team.
Yeah but it will be great for diving, synchro, water polo, and open water.
And if they still give out $5.6 million in prize money, it will be great for a lot of those B teamers trying to financially justify continuing their careers.
Payday for Michael Andrew?
I wonder how much slower than 3:27.96 the winning time will be in the W4x100m Freestyle at Doha? If AUS, USA, CAN, CHN, GBR are sending ‘B’ Teams (or some not even contesting the relay) and if Sjostrom and Steenbergen weren’t there. It could be an embarrasingly slow time.
Could it even be 10 seconds slower?
Obviously you have no idea how fast AUS B team is.
Hint: their prelims relays were faster than silver medal winning time in Tokyo and Fukuoka.
“B’ Teams was the wrong term to use. In a situation where most coaches just didn’t want to send their charges to Doha and you ended up with ‘D’ teams for AUS & USA including some non-specialist 100 freestylers. And sort of cobbled together relay teams as mentioned in the article. Also if NCAA season stopped a lot of those top sprinters going for the USA. That was more like what I was thinking of.
It was reported a few months ago that C1 is considering going to Doha so her plus a few up-and-comers might be able to field a decent 4×1.
Yes that’s a good point. I wonder if her sister is also considering going.
No idea but she did go 52.5 today at a short course meet so she’s moving in the right direction. Has the 50 tomorrow.
Would be surprised to see at least one of C1/C2 and/or Wilson provide an experienced base for any juniors selected for W4X100. Likewise with the group of 1.55/1.56 performers with W4X200. Will be curious re men’s relays given 2/3 are still heavily reliant on Chalmers
You’re overinflating your argument by claiming those heats line -ups as B teams. The reality was only 2 were swapped out for finals on both cases.
10 seconds slower is 3:47.96 which would have come 10th in the Fukuoka HEATS. There’s no way that not single country can match that.
But yeah, I would say at absolute best it’s 5 seconds slower than Fukuoka.
10 seconds slower is 3:37.96 not 3:47.96 which would have been 7th in the FINAL and close to the reduced Canadian “B” team’s time in the final.
Lol that’s awkward. I made a typo writing down the time. Or maybe I’m just THAT bad at maths.
In any case, it’s still not happening.
No worries.