IOC Lays Out Marathon Swimming Qualification Pathways for LA 2028 Olympics
The IOC this week laid out the marathon swimming qualification pathways for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, with 22 men’s and women’s places available.
Like pool swimming, countries are limited to two entries each. The U.S. will receive a host country quota place for each race, but that will be redistributed if an American athlete qualifies through one of the three pathways.
The open water races in Los Angeles will take place at Belmont Shore. The women’s event is on the third day of the Games, July 17, with the men a day later.
The three main paths to reach Los Angeles are via the 2027 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, a 2028 Olympic qualification event and the February 2028 World Rankings.
The first chance to reach Los Angeles will be at the 2027 World Championships in Hungary. The top three finishers in each event plus ties will qualify for the Olympics. Open water swimming in Budapest will take place between July 4-8, 2027.
The next spot will be awarded to the highest-ranked eligible athlete (i.e. not already qualified, or ineligible based on being the third from their country) in the Open Water Swimming World Ranking as of Feb. 1, 2028. The date, “may be adjusted slightly depending on the 2028 World Cup calendar.”
The final pathway is an Olympic qualification event, at a date and location to be determined. It will fill the remaining slots – a minimum of 17 of them – via a tiered system based on:
- continental representation
- the host country quota
- the highest-finishing eligible athletes in the qualification event
One spot each is set aside for the highest-placed eligible athlete from each of the five continents (Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania). If an athlete is already qualified from that continent, then the spot is reallocated to the highest-placed eligible athlete(s) from the qualification event.
The host country quota will be reallocated if the U.S. in this case has “one or two athletes qualified” via previous pathways.
The remaining quota places – which World Aquatics estimate will be about 12 – will be allocated by the qualification event. In the last Olympic cycle, the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha served as this race, however a standalone will be established this quadrennial. If there are any ties, the Open Water Swimming World Rankings will be used to do differentiate.
As was the case in Paris, any swimmer with a Olympic Qualification Time (“A” standard”) in either the 800 of 1,500 freestyle pool events and a confirmed quota place from its NOC among the 830 allocated swimming spots can enter the open water race, as long as they don’t exceed the NOC limit of two swimmers per nation.
World Aquatics will inform NOCs of their allocated quota places within five days after the TBA qualification event. NOCs will have two weeks after that to confirm their places, and World Aquatics will have three weeks to reallocate any unused spots. The entries deadline for the Los Angeles 2028 Games is June 26, 2028.
