Top 8 Swim Meets to Watch in 2024: All Lanes Lead to Paris
The Olympic year has begun, and elite swimmers around the world have their attention focused on qualifying for the Games and then bringing their top form to Paris in late July. With just a handful of exceptions, most competitions over the next seven months will be about building up to that nine-day climax. Every exceptional swim is sure to be scrutinized for how it affects the buildup to the Olympics, the meet which determines legacies and creates legends.
But as we count down the days and weeks to Paris, we will see plenty of championship-caliber swimming, beginning with a meet called the World Championships but at a much different point on the calendar than usual.
1. World Aquatic Championships, Feb. 2-18 (Swimming February 11-18) — Doha
This global meet, originally set for 2023 before numerous delays thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, will take place less than six months before the start of the Paris Games, and with Olympic selection season approaching, many big-name athletes are choosing to pass on the Doha meet. Only 18 Americans (and just five women) are heading to Doha while Australia’s 24-swimmer roster misses big names Kaylee McKeown, Ariarne Titmus, Mollie O’Callaghan and Kyle Chalmers.
What will be in stake in Doha is Olympic relay selection, with only the medalists in each relay from last year’s Worlds in Fukuoka having secured their spots in Paris. The Americans and Australians have ensured selection in all seven Olympic relays, but every other country will have plenty to swim for.
2. NCAA Women’s Championships, March 20-23 — Athens, Ga.
The always exciting NCAA Division I Championships will begin with the women’s meet at the University of Georgia, and the Virginia Cavaliers will once again be favored for a title. Kate Douglass has exited college swimming while Claire Curzan cannot compete in NCAA competition until next season, but sisters Alex Walsh and Gretchen Walsh are likely to win plenty, both individually and on relays, while Aimee Canny, Maxine Parker, Ella Nelson and transfer Jasmine Nocentini should be key pieces in a four-peat attempt.
We’ll see big names such as Lydia Jacoby and Katharine Berkoff as headliners in Athens while U.S. World Championships team members Bella Sims and Erin Gemmell should be impactful freshmen.
3. NCAA Men’s Championships, March 27-30 — Indianapolis
At the men’s meet, Cal is going for consecutive title No. 3, with almost all of the Golden Bears’ top performers back off last year’s team, including 2023 World Championships rookies Jack Alexy, Destin Lasco and Dare Rose, with Gabriel Jett and Bjorn Seeliger both in position to repeat huge results from last year. But Cal will get a big challenge from Arizona State, which has plenty of sprint depth to go along with all-world superstar Leon Marchand and 200 backstroke world champion Hubert Kos.
4. Australian Swimming Trials, June 10-15 — Brisbane
Olympic selection season will get underway in earnest in April, but the nation that won the most gold medals at last year’s World Championships won’t pick a team until June. We expect most of the big-name Aussies to get onto the team without much trouble, but the trials will be an excellent gauge of their form. More significantly, the Brisbane meet will provide insight into what sort of relays Australia will field at the Paris Games. Will Australia’s depth pieces match what they accomplished in 2023? Can medley relay holes (such as breaststroke) be filled? Will veteran Cate Campbell jump back into the mix and qualify for a fifth Olympics?
5. European Aquatic Championships, June 10-23 (Swimming June 17-23) — Belgrade
The continental meet will not hold the same significance this year with its timing just over a month prior to the beginning of the Paris Games, but we should expect plenty of top Europeans to use Belgrade as a tune-up. World-record holders Leon Marchand, Sarah Sjostrom, Kristof Milak, David Popovici and Adam Peaty are among those who could race, with both Milak and Peaty working their way back after missing the 2023 Worlds and Popovici trying to re-establish himself after a stunning 2022 followed by a down 2023.
6. U.S. Olympic Trials, June 15-23 — Indianapolis
The American team for Paris will be selected at Lucas Oil Stadium, with potentially the largest crowd ever to watch a swimming competition. The meet will mirror the nine-day competition schedule set to debut in Paris. Even in a relatively disappointing season for the United States like 2023, American depth outshines any other country in the world, and swimmers will have to swim fast in prelims and semifinals at the U.S. Trials just to give themselves a shot at Paris. That is particularly true in relay events, with all but two of the swimmers who qualify for the 100 and 200 freestyle finals likely to earn selection. That should significantly raise the stakes in the semifinals.
Meanwhile, the Trials will serve as a final test of Caeleb Dressel’s return to swimming after a hiatus of many month at the end of 2022 and into early 2023. Dressel has posted some strong midseason results, but we’ll find out for sure in Indianapolis the extent to which he will be able to boost the U.S. team at the Olympics.
7. Summer Olympics, July 26-Aug. 11 (Swimming July 27-Aug. 4) — Paris
Swimming gets underway at La Defense Arena July 27, and the Paris Games will have an entirely new schedule for the first time in two decades. Just like at the Tokyo Olympics three years earlier, the lineup will feature 35 pool events, with the women’s 1500 freestyle, men’s 800 freestyle and mixed 400 medley relay debuting in 2021. There will be eight prelims and nine finals sessions contested, while open water swimming will take place a few days later, on Aug. 8 (women’s) and Aug. 9 (men’s).
8. Short Course World Championships, Dec. 10-15 — Budapest
The sport will of course continue after the Olympics, with many turning their attention to the four-year buildup toward the next Olympics in Los Angeles. One early racing chance will be in December, with 25-meter world titles up for grabs in Budapest. Some swimmers who had success in Paris will compete, but others will take a much-deserved restful autumn, leaving an opportunity for new names to emerge and get a taste of international success.
9. And the Canadian Olympic Trials where Summer McIntosh will break the world record in the 200 medley among other things.