Should World Aquatics Eliminate Semifinals for 200-Meter Stroke Events?

Sara Franceschi of Italy during the warm up session at the 20th World Aquatics Championships at the Marine Messe Hall A in Fukuoka (Japan), July 21th, 2023.

Photo Courtesy: Andrea Masini / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

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Should World Aquatics Eliminate Semifinals for 200-Meter Stroke Events?

In Friday’s prelims of the women’s 200 backstroke at the World Championships, American Regan Smith swam a time of 2:07.24 for the top seed, almost one-and-a-half seconds clear of the field but more than three seconds behind her season-best time. Kaylee McKeown, the world-record holder and already the gold medalist in the 50 back and 100 back in Fukuoka, swam a time of 2:09.30, more than six seconds behind her world record of 2:03.14 set in March… and she still cruised into the semifinals in a good position as the fifth seed.

In the end, Hungary’s Katalin Burian was the last swimmer to qualify for semis at 2:11.94, and everyone who swam within nine seconds of the world record made it through to the evening. Sixteen of the 41 participants who legally finished the race (39%) advanced to the semifinals. Compare that to the results of the women’s 200 freestyle, where Belgium’s Valentine Dumont was 16th in 1:58.23, only 2.55 seconds behind top seed and eventual gold medalist Mollie O’Callaghan. Swimmers had to be within 5.3 seconds of the world record, and there were 64 participants, meaning just 25% advanced to the semifinals.

That prompted an interesting idea regarding the necessity of semifinals in certain events. Bobby Hurley, the Australian veteran of numerous World Championships teams now serving as the color commentator on the World Aquatics world feed, suggested that they were unnecessary in 200-meter races of backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke.

Hurley cited the women’s 200 fly at the 2020 Olympics, when only 16 swimmers entered and one scratched, so every single swimmer who raced prelims advanced to swim at night. A swimmer could have completely cruised the race, and as long as they maintained legal stroke technique throughout, they would get a lane in the semifinals. Hurley also cited how American Ryan Murphy was able to largely cruise through the first two rounds of the 200 backstroke Thursday, expending little energy to secure lane six for a race in which he will be the strong favorite.

The idea goes that if there’s relatively little competition for finals spots in these stroke 200s, why is the extra round required? Swimmers do not have to race the 400 free or 400 IM three times, and same story in the distance races. Plenty of international competitions skip the semifinals for 200-meter races but still swim three times for 50s and 100s. Even the Short Course World Championships and Commonwealth Games go directly to finals in 200s.

Hurley’s idea would keep the semifinal round in place for the 200 free and 200 IM, typically deeper events akin to the sprints, but eliminate that step in other strokes. That way, the top swimmers could save their energy while the relative lack of depth means that few (if any) deserving athletes would miss out on a finals spot. It’s unlikely that World Aquatics would approve such a schedule change for the organization’s signature meet, but given the circumstances in some of these races, the idea merits consideration.

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Allen Stark

9 months ago

Absolutely, in fact I think it would lead to faster times and a fairer meet to run just prelims and finals in all events.

Nick the biased Aussie

9 months ago

Great idea. Do it.