A maximum of 52 swimmers (26 of each sex, not including open water swimmers) were chosen for the 2020 Summer Olympics from Wave II. To make the Olympic team, a swimmer must place in the top two in one of the fourteen individual events. To be considered for the U.S. 4×100-meter and 4×200-meter freestyle relay teams, a swimmer must place in the top six in the 100-meter and 200-meter freestyle, respectively. Swimmers must have achieved a time standard to be eligible to compete in the U.S. Olympic trials:[4]
In January 2021, USA Swimming announced its decision to break the Olympic trials into two meets called waves. This decision was made in part to follow social distancing protocols and keep attendees, athletes, and workers safer during the COVID-19 pandemic.[3][5][6][7] Each wave had a different set of qualification time standards. The time standards took effect January 28, 2021 and an initial qualifying period for both waves ended May 30, 2021. Wave I swimmers who met the time standards for Wave II at the Wave I meet and finished first or second in their event qualified to compete at the Wave II meet.[3] Finals for Wave I were conducted in an A-final and B-final format.[8]
A total of 50 swimmers from Wave I qualified to compete in Wave II.[9] The first swimmer who swam in the Wave I meet and advanced to a second swim, semifinal or final, at the Wave II meet was Heather MacCausland in the women's 100-meter breaststroke on June 14, 2021.[10] The most watched YouTube video from the entire Olympic trials came from Wave I not Wave II. It was a clip of Kayla Han winning the B-final of the women's 400-meter individual medley and breaking a USA Swimming national age group record in the process.[11][12]
Between Wave I and Wave II, 2,285 individuals competed at the 2020 Olympic trials, a decrease of over 700 swimmers from the 2016 Olympic trials. As a whole, proportionally fewer Wave I swimmers and proportionally more Wave II swimmers swam faster than their seed times compared to swimmers at the 2016 Olympic trials.[13]
Events
The meet featured twenty-eight individual events in a long course (50-meter) pool—fourteen events for men and fourteen events for women. Events 200 meters and shorter were held with preliminaries, semifinals and finals, while events 400 meters and longer were held with preliminaries and finals. Semifinals featured sixteen swimmers in two heats; the finals included eight swimmers in a single heat. Preliminaries were seeded with ten lanes. Event order, which mimicked that of the 2020 Olympics, with the exception of the Olympic relay events, were the following for Wave II:[14]
Date
Sunday June 13, 2021
Monday June 14, 2021
Tuesday June 15, 2021
Wednesday June 16, 2021
M o r n i n g
Men's 400 IM (heats) Women's 100 butterfly (heats) Men's 400 freestyle (heats) Women's 400 IM (heats) Men's 100 breaststroke (heats)
Key: Highlighted swimmers achieved the qualification conditions to be included in the Olympic team in that respective relay event based on their performance in the corresponding 100 meter or 200 meter freestyle individual event.[15] The qualifying rules for the 2020 Olympics specified that a country could not have more than 12 swimmers, men and women combined, that would race only in relays; of the four sixth-place finishers, Held ranked lowest in his event in USA Swimming's world rankings, so he was left off the team.
Two national television networks covered the US Olympic trials in swimming in the United States, NBC and NBCSN.[45] NBCSN aired the heats later the same day and NBC aired the finals and some of the semifinals same day.[46] This coverage was part of the NBC Olympics television and digital programming covering the U.S. Olympic Team trials in various sports that set a new record in number of hours of coverage of the Olympic trials for all sports in the United States at 85.25 hours.[45][46]
Sunday coverage of the U.S. Olympic Team trials in swimming on NBC made it into the top 20 most viewed programs for the day.[47] For the top five most viewed days of U.S. Olympic Team trials across all sports, the swimming team trials had one day make it in the top five along with two days from team trials in track and field and two days from gymnastics team trials.[11]
^Mitchell's time did not meet the qualifying standard of 3:46.78, but as the next highest placing finisher that did have the standard finished 11th, the swimmers in finishing order from 2nd to 10th were given the opportunity for a "time trial" to get a qualifying time; Mitchell swam his in 3:45.86, which qualified him, and no further time trials were needed. -- "The Most Electric Time Trial In Swimming History"SwimSwam. June 15, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2024.
