United States Plan for 2024 World Championships Depends on Success in 2023

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Katie Ledecky, Leah Smith, Claire Weinstein & Bella Sims won gold for the U.S. in the women's 800 free relay at the World Championships -- Photo Courtesy: Giorgio Scala / Deepbluemedia / Insidefoto

United States Plan for 2024 World Championships Depends on Success in 2023

In a departure from typical practices, FINA is holding a World Championships in February 2024 in Doha. This meet will be the first-ever long course Worlds held in an Olympic year because of a schedule shuffle resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many top swimmers and various national-team officials have expressed their displeasure about the timing of the meet and in particular FINA’s decision to base relay qualification for the Paris Olympics on results from that early 2024 meet.

Typically, most relays qualifying for an Olympics secure their spots at the World Championships the year before, but only the top-three teams in 2023 will book their spots. The remaining 13 available positions will be determined at the Doha meet.

Several top British swimmers, including Adam Peaty, have expressed displeasure with those qualification procedures, and count USA Swimming National Team Managing Director Lindsay Mintenko among those not thrilled about the plan. Asked about having a World Championships just five months out from the Olympics, Mintenko said, “I’m not sure if it’s a great idea,” and she acknowledged that only having three relays from the 2023 Worlds in Fukuoka, Japan, qualify for the Olympics will add pressure to next year’s global meet.

“Only taking three from the World Championships the year prior is a huge change from what it has been in the past, so there’s a lot of pressure on countries to swim fast, and it puts a lot of pressure on the best athletes,” Mintenko said. “Not only will they have to do the World Championships in 2023, but some countries, us being one of them, may have to send our best athletes to the World Championships in 2024, too, and that puts a lot of pressure on them to swim fast a lot in 2024. I think that’s a pretty unfortunate situation.”

A swimmer attending Worlds in 2024 would likely need to taper shortly after for their country’s Olympic Trials and then again for the Paris Games, which has been a red flag for coaches and swimmers preferring an extended block of training during that time. Accordingly, the 2024 meet is not expected to be well-attended.

“The people who want to go will go, and we’ll send a team,” Mintenko said. “I don’t know what that looks like yet, and honestly, I don’t think I’ll know what that looks like until we see how the relays do in 2023.”

In other words, the Americans will make a concerted effort to send strong teams in any Olympic relay where they do not win a medal in Fukuoka. “If we need to put a focus on, let’s say, the women’s or the men’s (800 free relay) and we have to select 200 freestylers, then that’s what we’ll focus on. Our selection procedures are going to be focused around our relay selection.”

Mintenko added that she does not expect the U.S. to hold a dedicated selection meet in advance of the 2024 Worlds, although the plan could change. In that case, it is likely that USA Swimming would pick a team based on results from previous years and athletes could accept or decline spots in a similar manner to the typical U.S. selection process for the Short Course World Championships.

“If you ask any athletes to go to a trials meet that many times in a row, that’s a lot of pressure. That’s hard,” Mintenko said.

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