{"id":479467,"date":"2021-06-23T14:19:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-23T21:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=479467"},"modified":"2021-06-23T14:19:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-23T21:19:21","slug":"swim-poll-of-the-week-should-the-two-wave-olympic-trial-format-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/swim-poll-of-the-week-should-the-two-wave-olympic-trial-format-stay\/","title":{"rendered":"Swim Poll of the Week: Should the Two-Wave Olympic Trial Format Stay?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the Swim Poll of the Week for Wednesday June 23, 2021, sponsored by Strechcordz Swim Training Products<\/a>. In our last poll, we wanted to know:\u00a0Should the two-wave Olympic Trials format stay?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wave I of the United States Olympic Trials concluded earlier this month in Omaha, Nebraska with a shortened event schedule compared to the typical, eight-day setup. It was a different feel from a normal Olympic Trials \u2013 with no national teamers and a handful of fans. But the overall product was still exciting, and swimming was on TV four nights in a row. The question has to be asked: Is a two-wave Olympic Trials the way of the future or does it die along with COVID?<\/p>\n

With the COVID-19 pandemic causing so much uncertainty for the sporting world in 2021, many fans were concerned with how USA Swimming could conduct a safe Olympic Trials this year.<\/p>\n

How would all the qualified athletes be able to fit in the two 50 meter pools for warmups? How would seating work in the stands? It was not feasible to make Trials a regional competition by splitting the meet in two \u2013 with some contenders for the Olympic team in one place and others in a different venue. It wouldn\u2019t have been a fair way to select the team.<\/p>\n

USA Swimming eventually decided on dividing the meet into two \u201cwaves,\u201d with a faster set of cuts created to meet the 41st-seeded time, in order to select the team with a lesser amount of swimmers. Those remaining athletes with Trials cuts would still get to compete in Omaha, albeit not in the same capacity with the members of the Olympic team roaming the deck alongside them.<\/p>\n

USA Swimming also provided a little incentive to the Wave I meet, with the top two finishers in each A-Final earning the opportunity to race in Wave II, thus giving the athletes in each final the feel of what fighting for a spot on the Olympic team is like. What looked like a glorified U.S. Open on paper quickly felt like a real Olympic Trials with something at stake in each A-Final.<\/p>\n

Many of the swimmers who competed in Wave I got the invaluable experience of gaining a second swim at Trials, while also racing on TV and earning the opportunity to be interviewed. It was something they wouldn\u2019t have gotten at a regular Olympic Trials. Many of the athletes who finished first or second celebrated as if they made the Olympic team, and it gave them the euphoric feeling of making the Olympic Trials cut for the first time all over again.<\/p>\n

With many of the athletes and coaches praising the Wave I format, did USA Swimming successfully stumble into a new format for Olympic Trials to fight overcrowding?<\/p>\n