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USA Swimming has announced the qualifying times for the 2018 National Championships in Irvine, Calif. The meet, scheduled for July 25-29, will serve as the qualifying meet for the Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo and one of two qualifiers for the 2019 FINA World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea.
The qualifying times in every single event are quicker than those from both the 2016 Olympic Trials and the 2017 National Championships. Unlike Olympic Trials, short course yards entry times can be used to qualify for a summer Nationals, even when it serves as a qualifying meet.
Qualifying procedures for the major meets in 2018 and 2019 have yet to be released, but typically, the top three swimmers in every event make the Pan Pacs team, along with the top four in the 100 free and 200 free. Sometimes, if there is still space on the team, the fourth-place swimmer in some events could qualify, based on world rankings.
Times from Nationals and Pan Pacs will then be combined to determine the next four major international teams: the 2018 Short Course World Championships, the 2019 FINA World Championships, the 2019 Pan American Games and 2019 World University Games.
This meet will also mark the first time results in the men’s 800 free and women’s 1500 free are considered “Olympic events” for the purposes of qualification. Up through 2017, only one swimmer from those events qualified for a major international team, but now that both are Olympic events for 2020, selection will be the same in those events as all others.
A PDF file containing the qualifying standards for 2018 Nationals can be found here.
Lisa Berger
Evonne Stehr next summer Jr Nat. It’s right by Disneyland! Just sayin…. 😉
Jake Harner