USA Swimming Unveils Selection Criteria for 2023 Pan American Games

USA Swimming has unveiled the selection procedures for its pool swimming roster to the 2023 Pan American Games. The quadrennial event will be held from October 20 – November 5, 2023, in Santiago, Chile, with pool swimming running from October 21-25.

The team will be chosen based on results of the 2023 US National Championships that will run from June 27-July 1, 2023, the same meet that will choose the roster for most of the United States’ international rosters this summer (including the World Championships).

The US will send up to 18 men and 18 women to the competition. The meet is the 3rd in the united States’ selection priority of the four big summer championships, though there is an option for athletes to decline and attend the U23 European Championships instead.

Summer 2023 USA Swimming priority:

1. 2023 World Aquatics Championships
2. 2023 World Aquatics Junior Championships
3. 2023 Pan American Games
4. 2023 LEN European U23 Championships

While in past years, there has been the option for athletes qualifying as a relay-only swimmer to a higher priority meet being allowed to swim individual events at a lower priority championship, there is no such flexibility this year. Athletes also cannot choose to decline invites to the World Championships or World Junior Championships to attend the Pan American Games.

There is some flexibility, though, for eligible athletes to decline an invite to the Pan American Games in order to attend the European U23 Championships.

Selection Priority:

1. The top two best-finishing Available Swimmers from Nationals in the 100 and 200-meter freestyles, plus the one best-finishing Available Swimmer in the rest of the individual events.
2. Second-best finishing Available Swimmer in events other than the 100 and 200-meter freestyles. If this results in more than 18 for either gender, swimmers will be ranked based on percentage of “A” Time Standards, with the swimmers closest to those Time Standards being chosen.
3. Third-best finishing Available Swimmer in the 100 and 200-meter freestyles from the qualifying competition. If not all of these swimmers are selected, they will be ranked based on their percentage of the “A” Time Standard in the event for which they qualify under this priority. Only two relay-only swimmers per gender will be nominated under this priority.

Caveats:

• The ranking order for Available Swimmers will be based on finals times and rank at the US National Championships. In other words, swimmers in the A final will be ranked above swimmers in the B final, even if the swimmers in the B final are faster than those in the A final. The same is true for swimmers in the C final (ranked below B finalists) and D final (ranked below C finalists). This is relevant in all strokes, but becomes especially relevant in the 100 and 200 freestyles, where so many are taken to Worlds.
• There is no priority for 4th-place Available Swimmers to be chosen in the 100 and 200 freestyle. Those relay slots will be filled by swimmers who are already on the team.
• The Pan American Games follow the Olympic lineup for individual events, meaning no stroke 50s.
• The procedures all include lots of requirements about hitting the Pan American Games time standards. That shouldn’t be an issue for the American team, though if enough swimmers decline or are chosen in other teams, it could come into play. In the event that the next-priority swimmer doesn’t have the “A” standard, they can be leapfrogged by a lower-finishing swimmer at US Nationals who hit the “A” standard at a different meet.

Qualifying Standards

The qualifying period runs from March 1, 2022 through August 1, 2023. It follows a similar pattern to the World Championships: to have two swimmers in an event, both must hit the “A” Standard (PQT), to have one, that swmimer must hit the “B” standard (PST).

The Pan American Games are open to National Olympic Committees of the Americas, which includes essentially all of the western hemisphere aside from Greenland and French Guiana, which both belong to European nations. In total, 41 National Olympic Committees are expected to participate in Santiago 2023, including those from non-sovereign territories like Puerto Rico or the British Virgin Islands.

The Games have recently been led by the three most populous countries in the Americas. The United States (122gold/293total), Brazil (54gold/169total), and Mexico (37gold/138 total) topped the medals table in 2019. Canada finished 4th with 35 gold medals, though their 152 medals across all sports were more than Mexico.

In swimming, the United States led the medals table in 2019 with 21 gold and 45 total medals, followed again by Brazil with 11 gold and 33 total medals. The United States and Canada have in recent years have treated this meet as a subordinated international event, prioritizing the World Championships that come in the same year instead. The meet has still served as an important stepping stone for many athletes, though. Among the winners at the Pan American Games in 2019 who went on to swim for Team USA at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics include Alex Walsh, Annie Lazor, and Phoebe Bacon.

Over 6,000 athletes are expected to participate in 38 sports. Many sports are qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

2019 PAN AMERICAN GAMES MEDALS TABLE – SWIMMING

RANK	NATION	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE	TOTAL
1	UNITED STATES	21	16	8	45
2	Brazil	11	9	13	33
3	Argentina	4	3	3	10
4	Canada	1	8	6	15
5	Ecuador	1	0	0	1
6	Chile	0	1	0	1
	Guatemala	0	1	0	1
8	Mexico	0	0	6	6
9	Colombia	0	0	1	1
	Trinidad and Tobago	0	0	1	1
Totals (10 nations)		38	38	38	114