As we roll over into the new USA Swimming season, the 2013-2016 Quad Plan has been updated and declared that the 2014 National Championships, which run from August 6th-10th in Irvine, California, will serve as a huge selection meet.
Specifically, they will select teams for the 2014 Pan Pac Championships in Australia, the 2015 World University Games in Gwangju, South Korea, the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, the 2014 FINA World Short Course Championships in Doha, and perhaps most notably the 2015 FINA World Championships in Kazaan, Russia.
This continues the trend started in 2010, where we saw this same pattern. The result was two consecutive years of very similar teams representing the USA, and a lot of Olympic year surprises from young swimmers who had two years to do a whole lot of development.
There’s an interesting dichotomy between how USA Swimming chooses its Olympic Team (quite literally at the 11th hour), and how it chooses the pre-Olympic Worlds teams, which is a full year ahead of time.
Maybe my memory is foggy but I could have sworn that Frank Busch said this wouldn’t happen again. Did he change his mind or was he outnumbered on the issue?
Me too!
i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again. bowman is a crafty one. look back to 2009. it hurt him personally when biederman broke those records. he wants to see biedermans name cleared from the books. i think he sees potential in agnel to do just that. specefically that 200 free. now can he do it? idk, but it looks like that is what bowman is really centering his new elite group around. mid distance freestyle. now i am NOT a bowman fan. not at all. so take what i have to say with a grain of salt. i don’t really like him on a personal level or a professional level. but that being said.
phelps better get his… Read more »
He isn’t the only person on earth who wants to see the men’s 200 free and 400 free world records cleared. It’s better when the best swimmers of the moment break them. And Biedermann is among the 8 best freestyle mid-distance swimmers but he is far from being the best. He’s a suit swimmer. It’s time for Yannick Agnel and Sun Yang to erase him from the books. I would be very happy. But I think the 200 free world record is so crazy that even a giant Yannick Agnel will probably never break it. 1.42.00 is so stupid. I hope I’m wrong. But in the 400 free, I think it will happen in the next 3 years if Yannick… Read more »
Agnel has much better chance to swim 3:40.06 than 1:41.99
Not that I think he will swim 3:40.06
The Quad plan I find was last updated in May – link to a newer one?
Off topic but Matt McLean goes to NBAC.
Agnel, Dwyer, McLean!
All train for the 200 free and the 400 free.
Mr Bowman is building a freestyle industry in Baltimore.
Still no news about Leveaux.
I would like to amoury’s tweets about Baltimore. Last I read he was complaining about gypsy beggar kids.
Amoury is le plus non political correctique .
(Btw Bobo I mentioned Agnel leaving France long time before it happened).
whether it’s correct or not, Leveaux is not afraid to speak/act what’s on his mind.
While destroying 50/100 WRs in 2008 Istanbul, he loudly spoke that it was because of the shiny suit. And then he refused to wear any shiny suit and wore briefs in 2009.
Leveaux is a suit swimmer. His huge body has been very well advantaged by the magical suits.
Just a correction, aswimfan, Amaury has swum in 2009 in the magical suits. You mistake for Yannick Agnel. He was very young and it was very funny to see him at the French championships in a simple brief against his opponents in the magical suits. It was a total choice of his coach Pellerin. He probably knew this stupid era wouldn’t last for a long time and this decision to not wear them would be an advantage in the long term.
Is Agnel still swimming the 400? I’ve always wondered whether Agnel is a better 100-200 swimmer or a 200-400 swimmer, but it’s hard to tell based on his times and technique. However, I don’t think I’ve seen him swim the 400 in the past two years, but his 100 and 200 have improved a lot in that time.
Mr Bowman wants to train him for the 100 free, the 200 free and the 400 free. I think it’s too much. You can’t shine in the 100 if you train for the 400. And the opposite is also true. And for the 244th time, I repeat you can’t win the 100 free if you swim before in the same meet the 400 free, the 200 free and 2 freestyle relays. Against pure and fresh sprinters, it’s impossible.
I hope Mr Bowman will become wiser and will drop the 100 free to focus on the 200/400 double.
You ask if Agnel is still swimming the 400.
Last November he breaks the SCM world record.
If you… Read more »
It is actually genius strategy in terms of Olympic preparation in 2016. The under grads, the post grads and the pros only need to fully taper once per year now in the run up to Rio. This leaves LOTS of time to make huge advances in long unbroken training blocks. Across the rest of the world, most other top swimmers will be tapering definitely 2, maybe 3+ times a year for a whole range of other meets and selection events every year. USA team is still good enough to win 2015 Worlds despite being picked in 2014 so no need to worry anyway.
The US 2015 team selected in 2014?
No news here. We know that for many weeks.
And it didn’t start in 2010. It was already the case in 2006.
I have made a few researches and it looks like for 2003 the team was made in 2002.
Why the same decision each 4 years?
The swimmers who were in trouble this year have to rebound very quickly if they want to swim at the 2015 world championships. For example Allison Schmitt. If she isn’t back at her best next year, her next big LCM meet will be the olympic trials in 2016!
You have to be lucky next summer. It will not be the… Read more »
As an ‘outsider’, I’d love to know the reason as well. It does seem very odd when generally you want the hot hands at a major championship and as others have pointed out, possibly excludes younger, fast-developing swimmers from valuable big championship experience.
Bobo the situation in 2006 was a bit different since the 2007 worlds were held in March to coincide with the end of the Australian summer.
Can’t see how it was decided to pick a Wotld Championship team a year in advance.
American swimmers need the carrot out front to keep everyone’s on their toes. Unfair to those who make strides in the year period. No rhyme nor reason to go this far in advance so many things happen it that period. We have multitudes of talent out their not like other nations. Very unfair to the swimming community to not have a continuum in their efforts. In the States it just doesn’t work for an outstanding world championship. Presume decision made by National Coach and Steering Committee poor decision for swimming in the US.
the only possible “devil’s advocate” i can think of…is that this will force swimmers to train aggressively THIS year rather than slacking off and hoping to come back next year. This way, the “slump” of the olympic cycle only lasts one year…??
idk…that’s the only thing I could come up with. Honestly, I just don’t think it’s fair. Everyone can have a bad meet…get sick…over-train…something. That single meet shouldn’t cost you two years of valuable international competition.