USA Swimming Units Dates, Location for New Short Course Worlds Choice Meet

Madeline Folsom Contributed to this report.

USA Swimming has set the date for its first-ever quick course meters choice meet for the Short Course World Championships meet. The crew shall be chosen from October 28-31 on the FMC Natatorium in Westmont, Illinois.

New USA Swimming CEO Kevin Ring first shared this data on a particular episode of the SwimSwam Podcast.

“We recognize the importance of what that is, and that is one of those ‘things are changing, we need to make sure we change with them’.”

October 28-31 is after the beginning of the NCAA season, although to some extent that overlap was unavoidable due to the increasingly-crowded nature of the worldwide swimming schedule. The crew shall be chosen simply 4 weeks earlier than the meet, which shall be held in Beijing, China from December 1-6, 2026.

In 2024, the athletes have been chosen primarily based on their lengthy course meters swims that have been achieved from July 2023 by way of August 2024, and athletes have been required to be members of the present USA Swimming National Team.

This choice course of has been topic to criticism up to now, and has left main athletes at house. In 2021, Coleman Stewart was the SCM World Record holder within the males’s 100 backstroke, however he was left off the roster in favor of Hunter Armstrong and Shaine Casas, who each had quicker lengthy course meter occasions throughout the qualifying interval.

Beata Nelson was one other swimmer left off quick course rosters in favor of lengthy course athletes. She was among the best feminine backstrokers in SCM, and the American Record holder within the 100 IM, however she was left off each the 2021 and 2022 Short Course Worlds rosters for the United States, even if there was an open roster spot within the girls’s 200 IM and no athlete listed to race the 100 IM.

Creating a brand new meet will open the door to extra short-course-oriented athletes, which is the first approach swimming is educated and raced within the United States, giving them a chance to make a significant worldwide crew. It may even make sure the quickest swimmers in every occasion are invited.

This meet won’t solely add a racing alternative on U.S. soil for the highest athletes, which we sometimes solely see yearly at lengthy course Nationals/Trials, however it’s consistent with the way in which different swimming federations schedule their season and make their SC World Team alternatives.

Athletes who make the crew additionally earn the chance for prize cash. In 2024, the highest eight swimmers in every occasion acquired prizes, beginning with $10,000 for occasion wins and taking place to $2,000 for eighth place. Gretchen Walsh earned probably the most cash in Budapest with $290,000 as soon as all of her World Record bonuses have been factored in as effectively.

The 2024 SC Worlds in Budapest was one of many quickest meets in current reminiscence with 30 World Records falling over the six days of the meet.

In spite of selecting their crew from lengthy course meets, the Americans nonetheless dominated the meet, profitable 18 gold medals (3 times as many because the impartial athletes from Russia, subsequent most) and 39 whole medals (greater than double Canada’s 15, the following most).