usa swimming's selection policy is STUPID!

After winning the 50m Butterfly event at US trials, Michael Andrew thought he had made the world championship team. Due to roster cap limitations, he ultimatley found himself off the team due to the selection policy favouring the 5th and 6th place finishers in the 100/200 Freestyle events. Was this fair?

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[carlisbookshelf]

American here: our team selection process/policy is utter bullshite

[MarceloCabral]

I agree with you both about Andrews and the 50s in Olympics. No reason not to have those events still, so fun, and give longevity for swimmers like my fellow Brazilian Nicholas Santos!

[fortitudo]

The worst thing is that :
They took 6 boys including Carson Foster + Henry McFadden, so 7 boys in total to swim the 4x200 relay instead of taking Andrew. A medal chance in 2 50s 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ If they don’t prioritize 50 strokes, they need to erase it from their trials and not giving false opportunities to sprinters.

[christianhedeen]

when a team has a lot of its relay swimmers in multiple individual events, keeping those swimmers fresh by having backups to swim prelims is more important. olympic events and especially relays mean more than a potential medal in a singular, non-olympic, event

[nickw]

Definitely would like to see the stroke 50s in the Olympics.

[randomchannel-pxho]

I agree the policy is stupid, the winner of the 50s should be priorities over number 5 & 6 for the relays, but also, Andrew's performance at the meet was pretty poor, especially not finalized in the 100 and 100 breast. The selection policy had been published for months before the meet, blaming it and not his regression in performance in a bad look

[hmmm....]

The rules didn't force MA to add 3.5 seconds in his 100 breast and a full second in his 100 fly. That is entirely on him.

[SoCalDogDad]

Until the 50's are Olympic events this is what you're going to get in the US selection process. They are not a priority beyond the 50 free. I'd personally love to see the 50's added and the mixed relays dropped. I'm no fan of MA but in this case he was his own worst enemy. When you appear to focus your training efforts on 50's and not 100's this is what you get. As someone else said maybe don't add 3.5 seconds in your 100 breast and a full second in your 100 fly and you'd most likely be swimming the 50 of each of those.

[speenerworld]

But bringing Coach Andrew wouldn't bring much value on the US team and take space on the coaches roster. MA and Dad are a bundle.

[KyleMillis]

I’d turn it around and point the finger at the British selection process as well. There’s lots of politics involved and sometimes the swimmers that win Nationals still don’t get selected. 😮

[georgefirth]

USA missing out on a medal. Prioritising a 200m free relay.. which we all know GB will win this year and in Paris 😉

[hanacarina]

I’m honestly confused by the 50’s-it has trickled down to age group swimming as well. I get it-they are fun to swim and fun to watch….but if they aren’t IOC events, and they aren’t regular USA Swimming events, then why even have them in the first place? We’ve had 50s as an option for every single meet this summer for my 13 yo-and there are no qualifying times for our LSC championships-why even swim them?

[tooshay]

100 percent agree with you. . I started hating the term, ¨it´s company policy¨ back in 2020 w/the FORCED self suffocation face diapers and jibby jabs (where regular people and athletes have Suddenly Died -film) and not so in plain sight changed POLICIES. BTW you explained it perfetly. #6 relay man/woman is NOT the priority. All 50s top two should be going, period.

[zacklee]

Totally agree with you, Michael should be going

[Viccobalta]

Controversial opinion, but I don't think 50s at the Olympics is really a good idea. 1.Swimming already has a much bigger array of events and medal opportunities at the Olympics than most other sports.
2.Look at the history. The Olympics is meant to be about a serious test of athleticism which is particular to each event. It started with just distance events. Training for a 50 is objectively easier (not to mention less swimming based) than training for a 100. But overall, it doesn't even test for a very different kind of athleticism. Most great 50m sprinters also train for the 100, and can put out a competitive 100. it's not really unreasonable to ask sprinters to step up to 100 for a meet of that calibre.

[amokmad]

Well.. Andrew didn't peak for this meet. Last time he peaked for Trials.. Tokio was not so good for his individuals races. This time the strategy changed because he really cares for team USA. Otherwise he would have peaked for this Trials too

[joshuadempsey]

What makes it worse is that if he didn’t take that half stroke in the 50 FR final, he would have easily gotten second and made the team

[alipaige]

I will say I think one thing you're missing is that you never know who is going to step up. Bella Sims was taken as the 5th place finisher in the 200 free last year and the US relay would have been hurting without her. Of course the women weren't in danger of running out of room on the roster last year, but theoretically they could have been. I don't know if I agree with the selection procedures but the US has been consistent in prioritizing relays.

[summersunday]

So why include 50’s in fly, breast etc if the winner don’t get to make the team? Crazy.

[DK-ttzt]

I think a guy who focuses only on being fast at 50s not being able to do better than a 21.6 is pretty stupid as well