USA Swimming has published its updated selection criteria for the 2024 Olympic Games, with the changes appearing to be a direct response to recent controversies that the organization has faced in selection criteria.
One big change is that USA Swimming will no longer bring additional relay swimmers in the 100 or 200 freestyle in the event that one of the top two finishers declines to swim the race individually. If one of the top two swimmers is removed from the team, they can be replaced, but otherwise, the top six from Trials (in most cases, pending roster size limitations) go.
This seems to be a response to inconsistently-applied procedures in these situations over the last decade. When Michael Phelps dropped the 200 free in 2012, Davis Tarwater was added as a 7th relay member. When Ledecky dropped the 200 free at the 2013 World Championships, 7th-place finisher Karlee Bispo was called up to fill the relay slot. When Ledecky dropped the 200 free at the 2022 World Championships, 7th-place finisher Erin Gemmell was not called up to fill that slot. Then in 2023, Anna Peplowski was called up to fill the slot.
This inconsistency resulted in USA Swimming issuing a public apology to Gemmell.
USA Swimming has now eliminated that slot, at least for the Olympics. Competitively, there could be value in this as well – USA Swimming has found its way into tight spots with needing to use every swimmer on its roster and running out of prelims spots to evaluate who should swim on finals relays. While depth can save swims for your stars, too much depth can backfire if you’re choosing blind for spots in finals.
Katie Ledecky‘s 200 free is once again the most likely place for this scenario to play out, though maybe a Carson Foster 200 free could create a similar situation on the men’s side.
This also eliminates a roster and relay slot they might have to deal with if they bump into the cap like they did for Tokyo, when Ryan Held was left off the roster based on criteria.
The rest of the changes were mostly administrative, with some minor language changes and updating references to FINA.org to reflect the organization’s new name and URL.
To allow a 7th place finisher on the team with a chance at Olympic Medal (for a one time prelim swim) cheapens the Medal and supports “rewarding almost great” more than true competitive greatness. Just one person’s opinion.
Do they really have to eliminate the swimmer? Couldn’t they just tell him or her not to show up?
Coming in third isn’t the most heartbreaking spot anymore.
What is so difficult? The seventh place swimmer becomes the 6th place swimmer when someone drops out! They are eligible!! Great swimmers like Ledecky have always proven themselves at the trials to be added to the relay and should. This is not a criteria problem, it is an administrative one! Come on USAS this is not rocket science!!
The 7th place swimmer becomes the 6th place swimmer if someone drops out of the relay. If someone drops out of the individual but still plans to swim the relay, the 7th place swimmer is still 7th and shouldn’t be on the team.
Ledecky is a top-4 200 Freestyler for the U.S.A. women, likely the fastest. She can skip this event at Trials, or just swim through prelims or semifinals; she’ll be on that finals relay in Paris. I bet she does not swim finals of this at Trials now with this new rule, but I think that’s the only scenario where this rule will come into play. Every other girl in contention would swim this event individually in Paris if she qualified.
On the men’s side, Carson Foster is probably the only one who could be on the relay (prelims or finals) but likely not want to swim the event individually at Paris. However, I think he’s pretty much confirmed he is… Read more »
Lets swim events we plan on actually swimming. Shoutout to all the finals scratchers for screwing up psych/heat sheet previews
In general I agree with you. I do think there should be a pathway for swimmers who want to swim a relay but not an individual event. If Ledecky just finished 3rd in the 200 free, then this would be a non-issue. But she’s too good to finish 3rd.
Does Katie have to swim it at Trials to be eligible for relay selection? If not, if she’s going to continue dropping the event, why doesn’t she just not swim 2 free at Trials to avoid another debacle?
Or….other swimmers need to swim faster if they want to ensure to get on the team.
good. if a top 2 finisher gives up their individual spot, they function identically to a relay only swimmer. adding a 7th is unnecessary
Will Foster swim the 200 free prelims and drop it again? If so, it may still have 4 relay only swimmers selected, and they are all in prelims, then 3 switched out for top 2 and Foster for finals.
Was Phelp’s 100 free the only time this ever happened?
Phelps had many reasons to not be in it individually and by him setting the American Record on the relay in finals, it wasn’t debatable – plus.. you know… it was Phelps… going for 8 golds.
I feel that with Swimming at a higher parity between the top guys, this shouldnt be done anymore.
If you had the same top 16 guys swim 10 times, you’d likely get 3-4 different winners and probably 14 guys qualify top 6. Unless Carson wins handily but has a double he is avoiding, sure. But if he is winning handily, then thats likely his best event anyway.
Earn it in… Read more »
Phelps settle AR at trials in prelims as well I believe.
I dont care enough to look at the sequence of heats but Phelps did go under the AR but was beat by Garrett Weber-Gale in prelims.
https://www.usaswimming.org/docs/default-source/eventsdocuments/meet-results/olympic-trials-results/2008-us-olympic-team-trials.pdf
Just keep that same energy- if they swim slower at Olympics or Worlds because they went with the guy who “earned it” in finals not the 4 best swimmers.
I hear you, but with that mentality you quickly open yourself up to subjective decisions, drama, biases and potentially worse outcomes.
What is worse?
A) Pick the top for finishers. Excluding an all-time great that had a bad swim. Then at finals the 4th place person goes a bit slower and has time the other person could have gone.
B) You take the 1-3 and 5th person because they have a history. Then the 5th place person that has a history has another bad swim.
It amounts to about the same but you removed someone that beat them straight up, for a subjective “i think they are better”.
We are ‘fortunate’ that our sport has very little… Read more »
Carson’s not quite Phelps-Lochte level, so he’ll probably have to prove he’s 1:45 at either trials or worlds.
In 2012:
In 2008:
- Lochte swam 48.65 in semis then scratched (5th in semis, would’ve been 5th in finals). He did not swim the relay at OG.
- Lochte swam 1:45.61 in semis then
… Read more »2016 Phelps time trialed the 100/200 during training camp to early his relay spots. I believe he only competed 1/2 fly and 2IM that year at trials, including prelims.