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A strong field of Team USA Olympians, world champions and USA Swimming National Team members will kick off 2018 at next week’s TYR Pro Swim Series at Austin, set for Jan. 11-14 at the University of Texas’ Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center.
The four-day meet opens Thursday, Jan. 11 and continues through Sunday, Jan. 14. Thursday through Saturday, daily prelims open at 9 a.m. CT followed by finals at 6 p.m. The meet concludes Sunday with timed finals for the 1500-meter freestyle at 8 a.m. CT. Single- and all-session tickets are on sale now online.
Nearly 20 U.S. Olympians, including individual gold medalists Nathan Adrian (Bremerton, Wash./California Aquatics), Matt Grevers (Lake Forest, Ill./Tucson Ford Dealers Aquatics), Ryan Murphy (Jacksonville, Fla./California Aquatics) and Dana Vollmer (Granbury, Texas/California Aquatics), are among the standouts expected to compete in Austin.
Stars of the 2017 FINA World Championships slated to swim include double individual medley gold medalist Chase Kalisz (Bel Air, Md./ Athens Bulldog Swim Club) and five-time gold medalist Mallory Comerford (Kalamazoo, Mich./University of Louisville).
On the local front, Austin-based National Team members expected to compete include Olympian Jack Conger (Rockville, Md./Nation’s Capital Swim Club), Madisyn Cox (Lubbock, Texas/Longhorn Aquatics), Will Licon (El Paso, Texas/Longhorn Aquatics), Dakota Luther(Austin, Texas/Austin Swim Club), Olympian Clark Smith (Denver, Colo./Longhorn Aquatics) and Andrew Wilson (Bethesda, Md./Longhorn Aquatics).
NBC Sports will provide extensive coverage from Austin with live action on Thursday, Jan. 11 via the NBC Sports App, live television Friday, Jan. 12 on NBC Sports Network and Saturday, Jan. 13 on the Olympic Channel – all at 7 p.m. ET. Saturday’s coverage also will air on same-day delay on NBC Sports Network at midnight ET. All three finals session will also be streamed via NBC Sports, while a live webcast of prelims also will be available at usaswimming.org.
This meet is the first of six stops of the 2018 TYR Pro Swim Series, which features exciting adjustments to the Austin, Mesa and Santa Clara meets, including:
- Addition of 50-meter events for each of the strokes, culminating in a “shootout-style final,” as well as an 800m freestyle for men and 1500m free for women
- Mixed 400m medley relay featuring members of the National Team and a 200m “mystery” individual medley final in which stroke order will be determined immediately prior to the event
- Finals will feature A and B finals only
Also making its debut in Austin is USA Swim Squads, a new feature for 2018 that allows USA Swimming National Team members to compete for team points and a grand prize throughout this year’s events. Four teams, captained by Olympic legends Natalie Coughlin, Lenny Krayzelburg, Jason Lezak and Kaitlin Sandeno, will feature six active athletes designated across six event categories (one athlete per team per category) who are eligible to score points in a maximum of two events from that category – free, back, breast, fly, IM or flex.
In the 2018 TYR Pro Swim Series, swimmers may earn awards for top-three finishes in all individual Olympic events. At each meet, $1,000 will be provided for a first-place finish, $600 for second and $200 for third. Participants will be awarded points in each individual Olympic event throughout the duration of the series (Five points for first, three for second, one point for third place).
At 2018 Phillips 66 Nationals, the point totals will double to 10 points for first place, six for second and two points for third place. The final series tally will be computed after the 2018 Phillips 66 National Championships, slated for July 25-29 in Irvine, California, and the prizes will be awarded at that time.
The top eligible male and female overall point total winners in the series will earn a one-year lease of a BMW vehicle, as well as a $10,000 series bonus.
Press release courtesy of USA Swimming.
