5 Takeaways from the USA Swimming National Championships

The Phillips 66 National Championships that took place last week at the Indiana University Natatorium in Indianapolis was one of the fastest meets in USA Swimming history. While Regan Smith was on the cusp of world records and the distance duo of Bobby Finke and Katie Ledecky continued their dominance, those moments won’t be highlighted in this list. This list will highlight top takeaways that may have been overlooked.

A Young Team

Taking a look at the USA Swimming roster reveals that out of the 48 athletes competing in the pool events at the upcoming World Championships, fewer than 20 are under the age of 20. Looking at recent history, it wasn’t long ago when Ledecky was the youngest Olympic team member in Rio at 19.

So what does this mean for USA Swimming as a whole? If anything can be taken away from having a young team, it is that it shows promise with the Olympics just one year out. For many of the athletes competing, it allows them to get a taste of their first international competition and will prepare them for the world’s biggest stage next summer. An added bonus for Team USA is that there are a handful of teens that have competed at Worlds in the past and won’t compete in Fukuoka, giving USA Swimming the chance to have a solidly international experienced team bound for Paris next summer.

Disqualifications

Thursday was an eventful day in Indianapolis. A large power outage led to the delay of competition, cloudy skies because of the Canadian Wildfires, and oh yeah, disqualifications in the 400 IM.

Disqualifications are rather common, from a false start to a one-hand touch. Mistakes happen. But what happened in Indy when it came to disqualifications brought into question how the officiating was conducted. As Swimming World Senior Writer David Rieder stated: “Numerous swimmers were disqualified, most for the vague-sounding violation of ‘dolphin kick during breaststroke.’ As the DQs kept coming, fans began booing.”

While most people found the officiating itself to be favorable, the video review system was called into question, as it can be used to initiate a disqualification. The most upsetting aspect of the whole issue is not that an athlete was disqualified. It is upsetting because it became a common theme throughout the breaststroke events. If this were a meet with more inexperienced athletes, that would be one thing. But at the National Championships, it’s a different story. These are experienced competitors.

Officials are there to ensure a fair environment for everyone competing, but reviewing a race after a call was not made brings ethics into question.

Roster Caps & Single-Event Swimmers

It has been heavily covered that Michael Andrew won’t be making the trip to Japan due to roster limits. But taking a deeper look at the roster shows that the amount of athletes only swimming in one event at Worlds has had a significant increase in comparison to last year’s Worlds Team.

Looking at the men’s team among pool-only athletes, 15 out of the 26 swimmers, which is equal to 58% of the men’s team, have only one event. That figure is almost double from last year’s total of six out of the 20 men’s swimmers, which was 30%of the team. For the women, the number of single-event athletes is comparable to last summer, with 11 out of 22 swimmers (50%).

While each athlete undoubtedly earned their spot, that is not what is being called into question. The question is will roster spots be an issue once again as we head into Olympic Trials next summer.

The Rise of the Little Guys

Notre Dame’s Chris Guiliano making the World Championships team was one example of unheralded guys earning the spotlight. The same can be said for high school athletes qualifying for Worlds, such as Alex Shackell. It was also a quality storyline to see schools like the University of Pennsylvania (Matt Fallon) place athletes on the Worlds squad.

Indy is Ready for Trials

The energy in Indy was palpable, from the athletes to the fans. Credit goes to Arlene McDonald and the entire event staff at the Indiana University Natatorium, along with USA Swimming, for an event that was superb. What stood out was the fact that while there were plenty of Indiana locals in attendance, there were many travelers, with one girl proudly holding a sign that read, “I drove 10 hours to see Regan Smith.”

As the state’s capital gets ready to welcome swimming and casual fans to Lucas Oil Stadium next summer, there is no doubt Indy is ready to host the Olympic Trials once again.

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Isabelle Fraser

10 months ago

They will do a great job with trials. I have been there for trials years ago. I love it when they put the swimmers name up on the wall and hope they do that again. It was one of the best Nationals I have seen. Good job Arlene and crew.

John Smith

10 months ago

Reply to Isabelle Fraser

I don’t think they will be putting swimmers’ names on the wall in a football stadium, where the ‘24 trials will be held.

HoosierEli

10 months ago

Reply to John Smith

Once someone makes the ‘24 team, their name will be added to the wall at the Nat.

Bill

10 months ago

Officals did not review a race after a call was not made. Cameras were used to make calls during the race in real time. Then all calls were reviewed in slow motion to confirm the DQ. First meet in US calls were initiated with cameras. World Aquatics will use this in Japan and Olympics.

Hana

10 months ago

Reply to Bill

If they’re doing it at Worlds and IOC then they almost have to have the same video-officiating here. Last thing you want are swimmers getting DQ’d at those events. I don’t agree with it personally, but it’s more important to be consistent than anything else.

Lui

10 months ago

I don’t think it is vague when you DQ because of an obvious flutter or dolphin kick. Regardless of the caliber of the swimmer DQ’s will happen and cheating needs to be stamped out in order to keep fair competition.

John

10 months ago

Arlene and her crew did a great job, she and her LOC will do an awesome job and OT will be awesome and a swim event like no one has experienced before.