By David Rieder
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina, May 11. AT the USA Swimming Long Course Nationals last summer, SwimMAC teammates Cullen Jones and Josh Schneider tied for second place in the 50 free, both clocking 21.97. Under normal conditions, both swimmers would qualify for the Pan Pacific Championships, and at that meet, the faster of the two would make the World Championships team.
However, the situation was far from typical. That morning, Schneider had been scheduled to swim the 100 fly as well as the 50 free. A SwimMAC assistant had entered Schneider in both events, a fact that was not communicated to Schneider who had still been training at the University of Cincinnati. When the day of the two events came around, Schneider made the mistake of not knowing his scheduled events, and he no showed the 100 fly. The penalty for a no show is a disqualification from the missed event, as well as the next scheduled event, which happened to be the 50 free. Schneider swam in the prelim of the 50 free under protest, and qualified second in 22.20.
After a full afternoon of protesting, officials reinstated Schneider to swim in the final under protest. The protest continued through the following morning, when Schneider swam in the 100 free prelims then broke his hand on the finish. Schneider elected to drop his appeal of the 50 free times as it related to placement on the Pan Pacifics roster. Schneider, however, retained his right to file a future appeal to still get National Team credit for his times
In September, USA Swimming announced that Schneider had been reinstated to the National Team, setting up a swimoff with teammate Cullen Jones to determine who would compete in the 50 free at this summer's World Championships. USA Swimming and SwimMAC determined that this weekend's Charlotte UltraSwim would be the site.
Interestingly, both men have gained extensive experience in swim-offs over the past several years. In 2009, Jones found himself in the exact same situation; at U.S. Long Course Nationals, Jones tied for second with Garrett Weber-Gale in the 50 free (21.55), and the two men swam-off two days later to determine who would get to swim the race in Rome at that year's World Championships. In the swim-off, Jones clocked 21.41 to break Weber-Gale's American record of 21.47. He earned the right to swim in Rome, where he finished fifth and beat teammate Nathan Adrian, making him the top American in the event.
Schneider, meanwhile, found himself again tied in December's World Short Course Championships in Dubai. His semifinal time of 21.29 tied him with Australia's Kyle Richardson for eighth-place, so the two men went into a swim-off at the end of the session. In that race, Schneider out-dueled Richardson, 21.19 to 21.28. In the final, he got off to a great start from lane 8 and ended up with a bronze medal. Brazil's Cesar Cielo won (20.51), while Schneider (20.88) finished just behind France's Fred Bousquet (20.81), setting an American record in the process.
Tomorrow, the two men will square off in a one-on-one match race. Both have exceptional starts and speed. The two step onto the blocks at 6:20 p.m. Eastern Time tomorrow night at the Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center in downtown Charlotte, following the completion of timed finals of the women's 1500 free and men's 800 free.