USA Swimming announced the schedule for the 2019 TYR Pro Swim Series, which will feature all new locations in the first year that USA Swimming has solicited bids for hosts.
Here’s a quick look at the schedule:
| January 9-12 | Knoxville, Tenn. | Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center |
| March 6-9 | Des Moines, Iowa | MidAmerican Energy Aquatic Center at the Wellmark YMCA |
| April 10-13 | Richmond, Va. | Collegiate School Aquatics Center |
| May 17-19 | Bloomington, Ind. | Counsilman Billingsley Aquatics Center |
| June 12-15 | TBD | TBD |
While the timeframe is consistent with what we’ve seen over the past few years, the series will not feature any of the stops that we’ve gotten used to, including cities like Austin, Orlando, or Santa Clara, among others.
Instead, the series will kick off in January at the Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center, home of the Tennessee Volunteers. The next stop in March will be in Des Moines, Iowa, at a pool that just opened earlier this year and will host one of the 2019 Futures meets. From there, the PSS will head to Richmond, VA, to the Collegiate School Aquatics Center, which is the permanent home for the temporary competition pool from the 2008 Olympic Trials. That facility has only one 50 meter pool, with a 25 yard cooldown pool.
In an interesting wrinkle, the series will still be making a stop in Indiana, but this time the host will be the Counsilman Billingsley Aquatics Center, IU’s home pool, instead of the IUPUI Natatorium in Indianapolis.
There will be a final meet in June, but that location has not yet been released. Sources tell SwimSwam that it is likely to be on the West Coast (meaning Santa Clara may be back in play), which makes sense, as the series has previously feature a June Santa Clara stop, and currently none of the other locations are further west than Des Moines.
The 2019 series will feature the return of SwimSquads, which debuted last year, but will not include the return an alternate meet schedule that include “shootout” 50s and mystery IM events, which earned mixed reviews last year.
Full Press Release
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Swimmers from around the globe will be making five stops in the United States next year on the newly unveiled 2019 TYR Pro Swim Series competition calendar. Part of the USA Swimming Championship Series, the events will travel coast to coast, stopping in Knoxville, Tenn., Des Moines, Iowa, Richmond, Va. and Bloomington, Ind. between January and June 2019. The June 2019 event location will be announced at a later date.
“We are very excited about the tremendous interest from teams, convention and visitors’ bureaus and sports commissions from across the country, wanting to bring a high-level swimming event to their community,” USA Swimming President & Chief Executive Officer Tim Hinchey III said. “Beyond their great competition venues, our [five] selected hosts have the resources, contacts and commitment to help market and facilitate incredible events for our athletes.”
The full schedule:
| January 9-12 | Knoxville, Tenn. | Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center |
| March 6-9 | Des Moines, Iowa | MidAmerican Energy Aquatic Center at the Wellmark YMCA |
| April 10-13 | Richmond, Va. | Collegiate School Aquatics Center |
| May 17-19 | Bloomington, Ind. | Counsilman Billingsley Aquatics Center |
| June 12-15 | TBD | TBD |
The TYR Pro Swim Series will run Wednesday to Saturday, with the exception of Bloomington, Ind., which will host the event Thursday to Sunday with an Olympic Intrasquad event to kick off the meet.
“As the title sponsor of the TYR Pro Swim Series, TYR is always working to support athletes, coaches and fans in fun and creative ways,” began Chief Executive Officer Matt DiLorenzo. “With this city lineup we are looking forward to introducing new communities to the Series, our brand and our technology.”
A sanctioned series for over 20 years, the 2019 TYR Pro Swim Series marked the first time USA Swimming selected its events via a request for proposal and bid process. The highly-competitive process yielded many submissions from communities across the county. Together with USA Swimming, each event’s Local Organizing Committee (LOC) will play a vital role in the planning, community connections, local sponsorships, ticket sales and marketing of the event.
“We are thrilled to be hosting the kickoff event for the 2019 TYR Pro Swim Series,” said Chad Culver, Senior Director of the Visit Knoxville Sports Commission. “This is a huge win for Knoxville and our entire swimming community. The Allan Jones Intercollegiate Aquatic Center is a world class facility that will be a great host for the event.”
“We are very excited to welcome USA Swimming and athletes, both amateur and professional, to Greater Des Moines,” said Ryan Vogt, National Sales Manager (Sports) at Catch Des Moines. “We have a great partner in the Wellmark YMCA and we are sure visitors will be blown away by our new, state-of-the-art pool. The ease of having everything within walking distance in downtown Des Moines, from the pool, hotels, restaurants and attractions, will make for a great athlete and fan experience. This is another step in the journey to make Greater Des Moines a national landing spot for swimming competitions.”
“We are honored to host the TYR Pro Swim Series at SwimRVA’s facility,” said Adam Kennedy, Executive Director at SwimRVA. “This is one of the highest profile swimming events in the world with some of the most decorated Olympians. This international competition will not only elevate our local swimming community, but Richmond as a whole. We can’t wait to welcome some of the nation’s best swimmers to our pools.”
“Visit Bloomington and Hoosier Sports Corporation are thrilled to host the 2019 TYR Pro Swim Series,” Hoosier Sports Corporation Sports Sales Manager Pete Nelson stated. “We are excited to host some of swimming’s most elite athletes, in partnership with Indiana University, in this amazing city.”
The TYR Pro Swim Series is a 3.5-day long course event that consists of six stops across the country from January through November. The meet, which traditionally runs from Wednesday afternoon to Saturday, is televised on NBC Sports Network, the Olympic Channel, as well as live streamed at usaswimming.org.
Historically, each stop attracts between 400-600 of the world’s top swimmers including, USA Swimming National Team members, Junior National Team members and top 50 world ranked swimmers.
Returning this year will be the USA Swim Squads, which allows USA Swimming National Team members to compete for team points and a grand prize throughout the year’s events. Four teams will feature six active athletes designated across six event categories (one athlete per team per category) who are eligible to score points in a maximum of two events from that category – free, back, breast, fly, IM or flex. Captains will be announced this fall and the teams will be selected Sunday, November 18.
In the 2019 TYR Pro Swim Series, swimmers may earn awards for top-three finishes in all individual Olympic events. At each meet, $1,500 will be provided for a first-place finish, $1,000 for second and $500 for third. In addition, the athlete (one per gender) who has the highest scoring prelim swim, in Olympic events only, based on FINA power points, at each TYR Pro Swim Series Meet, will win an additional $1,500.
At the conclusion of the 2019 TYR Pro Swim Series, the eligible athlete (male and female) who has the highest scoring swim in an individual Olympic event (based on FINA long course power points), at any of the TYR Pro Swim Series, will win a one-year lease of a BMW vehicle.
For more information about the series, visit https://www.usaswimming.org/tyr-pro-swim-series.
Keep up with all the latest USA Swimming news by following @usaswimming on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
How can I get a schedule of the events for the meet? Is it possible to see lineups for each heat? Are these available online or only at the day of the event
The expense of hosting the meet is being passed off on the swimmers. Last year entry fees were $15 per event. This year per the Knoxville meet invite they are $20 per event. With no ticket prices being listed. Hotel rates for the Knoxville area have already been increased even when using the preferred hotels list. Last year USA swimming introduced a new format then proceeded to change the format after the first meet. This is clearly another USA Swimming money grab. If it ain’t broke stop trying to mess with it. Bring back the old Arena Grand Prix.
I hear you…perhaps Speedo or Arena can host similar events in the west side…as the new TYR PS seem mostly in the east side or EST Zone- Iowa seems the most Western …in the list.
Another huge issue is the $$ to even bid. Reliable source tells me it’s 20 K and non-refundable. Who has that kind of $$ to just throw around?
Wow! Mostly hard-to-get places and pretty much EST locations!!!
So much for Mesa, Santa Clara.
While I see Santa Clara as a loss, I don’t necessarily see Mesa as one. With the wind conditions, time there were never super speedy.
as Irvine ever hosted a pro series meet, aside from the nationals!? and what about the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center? i know it host the pac 12 champs, but by june, it could be ready?
Does this mean no Santa Clara International meet? If that is the case, then wow, end of an era
As was pointed out…our sources tell us that the TBD is a west coast meet. So, it’s still possible.
Santa Clara will still have their meet. It just may or may not be part of the Pro Series.
I think we’ll see the rise of these kinds of meets as a result of the shift away from the traditional hosts. Meets like the UltraSwim in Charlotte, the Atlanta Classic…
It’s going to become very interesting if they get scheduled the same weekends, seeing where athletes choose to go.
Bingo Braden. The pros are required to attend a few of the events to get their APA money from USAS. Other than that they will stay away and go to better more convenient venues hosting meets.
I will say that I love places like Des Moines personally, and I think if more people tried them, they’d appreciate them more. Des Moines has a great farmer’s market, great fairs, minor league baseball, and jalapeno bacon-wrapped tater tots at Kelly’s Little Nipper.
But, I understand that not everyone is into those kinds of local flavor. And I understand that for athletes, it’s a ‘business trip,’ so the ability to get in, race, and get out is important to them.
I agree with Braden, Des Moines has great charm. I see a lot of fear of change in these comments. We are trying to grow the sport after all, right? By the way, Des Moines does have an “international” airport with decent coverage actually. As an Iowa native, I don’t think it’s as much of a tragedy as the comments are making it seem.
I’m all for Des Moines, but Des Moines in early March?
Gonna be chilly. But…no worse than Minneapolis in November I guess. Too bad we can’t have every meet in San Diego, amiright?
Des Moines has four short course lanes for warm up/warm down and no deck space for athletes.
Only four lanes!?!??
Richmond has 6 short course lanes in 3 1/2 feet of water. While long course wu/wd isn’t necessary, that’s a far cry from Texas
ever been in the warmup pool in charlotte? Ran pro series/grand prix meets & the ultraswim meet for years… 4 lanes, shallow…. just need to have water
Mmm. Can’t wait to try those tots at Big10
“Coast to coast”
Did none of the past locations which held meets bid this year, or are they purposely choosing alternate locations to allow new organizations to try their hand at running these events? I would think that running an international swim meet with media coverage and contingents from other countries might be more complicated than these venues\people are ready to handle. I hope they are going to receive a LOT of support from US Swimming!
I know for Richmond’s bid, it was a coordinated effort between the facility, the Richmond Region Tourism Team, and other local and regional organizations. The metro area hosts a large NASCAR race every year and hosted the UCI World Cycling Championships in 2015, so with partners involved who have experience hosting international events, I think they will be fine. Venue wise, SwimRVA hosted Futures this past year and will host USMS Nationals in 2020, so they are increasing their experience with hosting bigger meets as well.
With the way that SwimRVA has treated the local swim community (especially Poseidon), I am saddened that USA swimming awarded this meet to them. They have grandiose plans (which is typically the MO with anything backed by Ukrop) but they simply don’t have the facility required for an event like this. Triple the seating, add another 50 M pool, and have desirable restaurants/hotels closer than 20 minutes away and then we might be talking.
While I don’t know enough about Richmond to address the restaurants/hotels issue, don’t know enough inside baseball to discuss the local politics, and it does seem like the seating is a bit small – it’s worth acknowledging that most hosts historically of PSS meets haven’t had full 50m warmup/warmdown pools.
Texas, for example, only has the diving well for warmup/cooldown space during a 50m competition. There are very, very few facilities in this country with multiple indoor 50m pools available.
There’s a Hyatt 14 minutes from the pool and there are plenty of restaurants along Chippenham. Deck seating is lacking a bit, but the pool has hosted plenty of big meets and have made it work (big in size, not necessarily big in importance). From my understanding of the Poseidon situation, they were unable to pay their rent to use the pool. Other local clubs, such as Richmond Racers, still use the pool and have a good relationship with SwimRVA as do many high school teams. They also host plenty of meets in conjunction with area clubs. Even if you have a different understanding of what happened with Poseidon, I don’t see how that’s relevant.
Interestingly, I have heard the complete opposite in regards to Poseidon. A few things…They did not hold up their end of the bargain in regards to the partnership which involves GRAP, SwimRVA and Collegiate School. They do not have the correct philosophy for a non-profit organization that is supposed to serve the community…Poseidon are not good stewards of sportsmanship. This is a reflection of the head coach — the guy holds a grudge.
On the surface, it doesn’t make sense. When you dig deeper though, why pay to bid for the meet as a facility with the potential cost to lose money? As Dmswim pointed out, the other bids had partners which helps out. Missing out on many top facilities because of this process. It’s unfortunate.
Very very disappointing locations and facilities. Bad air in most. Limited warm up space in many. Seating questionable in a few. All in the name of a buck.
given there are three, I’m interested in your distinctions between most, many, and a few.
not really worried about spectator space (seating for 400 would be more than sufficient)… did anyone see the stands at most of the PSS stops last year?