{"id":460584,"date":"2021-01-26T13:53:09","date_gmt":"2021-01-26T20:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=460584"},"modified":"2021-01-26T18:10:15","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T01:10:15","slug":"analyzing-the-lowest-seed-on-the-olympic-trials-psych-sheet-to-advance-to-the-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/analyzing-the-lowest-seed-on-the-olympic-trials-psych-sheet-to-advance-to-the-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Analyzing Past Lowest Seeds on Olympic Trials Psych Sheet to Advance to Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

With USA Swimming making an announcement that the 2021 Olympic Trials will be split into two waves<\/a> with Wave II serving as the official qualifying meet for the Olympic Games, the question is being asked: Will that hurt some swimmer’s chances of making the Olympic team? As much as we love the “if you have a lane, you have a chance” saying, the Olympic Trials finalists generally come from the last three circle seeded heats.<\/p>\n

We at\u00a0Swimming World\u00a0<\/em>have gone through the past three Olympic Trials in Omaha (2016, 2012, 2008) to give a sense of who was the lowest seed on the psych sheet in each event to advance to the final. Very rarely does the last seeded swimmer that advances to the final come from outside the top 24, and even more rarely do they come from outside the top 40. The last time that happened was in 2012 when 87th seed Cody Miller\u00a0<\/strong>made the final of the 200 IM.\u00a0 The lowest seed to actually make the final and place in the top two in the last three Trials was\u00a0Cullen Jones\u00a0<\/strong>in the 100 freestyle in 2012 when he was 13th on the psych sheet.<\/p>\n

USA Swimming<\/a> analyzed data from the last three Olympic Trials in determining where the cut-off should be for the Wave II Olympic Trials<\/a>, using the 41st seeded time as a gauge to create the new standards. Based on the data, it is highly unlikely that one of the two qualifiers in each event from the Wave I meet will make an impact at the Wave II competition.<\/p>\n

Here is a look at that past three Trials and the lowest seed to make the final.<\/p>\n

2016 Men<\/strong><\/p>\n