Swimming World Magazine

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WORLD SWIMMING
done first at the Trials.
The athletes heading to Long Beach
this summer have already proven
their mettle by reaching challenging
time standards.
Curiously, the women’s qualifying
times for 2004 have proved to be
much more accessible than the men’s.
While the biggest number of competitors
in any one event on the men’s
side so far is 53 (200 IM), the most on
the women’s side is 67 (in both the 100
fly and the 200 IM).
The single most difficult standard to
reach has turned out to be the men’s
100 breaststroke. To date, only 33
swimmers have dipped beneath the
1:04.29 standard.
No matter how many or how few
swimmers ultimately will mount the
blocks in each event, though, one
thing is a given: every one of them can swim his or her way
onto the team.
Different Strokes for Different Folks
Each country has established its own criteria for assembling
its Olympic teams. Many stage a trials meet similar to the one
held in the United States.. Other countries with less developed
swimming programs conduct no such competition—and for
good reason.
It would be nonsensical and counterproductive for swimmers
such as Slovakia’s Martina Moravcova, Malaysia’s Alex
Lim or Tunisia’s Ous Mellouli, for example, to be forced to participate
in a national trials process when their swimming skills
are so vastly superior to those of their countrymen.
Their focus over the last few years has instead been directed
on attaining FINA’s challenging “A” and “B” time standards.
These qualifying times, which straddle the U.S. Olympic Trial
standards, were implemented after the likes of Eric
Moussambani and Paula Barila Bolopa from Equatorial Guinea
made a mockery of the 2000 swimming competition by
appearing in the meet without ever having seen a starting block
before.
The new FINA rules state that any country wishing to place
two athletes in an event must show proof that both swimmers
have achieved the “A” standard. Countries choosing to enter
only one swimmer per event must demonstrate that the athlete
has attained the still quite difficult “B” standard.
It’s estimated that this restructured system will leave about
800 swimmers from around the world competing in Athens—
substantially less than the number who swam in Sydney.
Interestingly, though, even some of the countries that do
elect to stage a national trials meet do not always adhere to the
strict standards followed by the United States.
In 1984, for example, Anne Ottenbrite was Canada’s top
breaststroker and one of its best hopes for medaling in the
Olympics. Though a knee injury prevented her from competing
ERIC MOUSSAMBANI
Photo by Sean Gransworthy, Allsport
at the Canadian Olympic Trials, she
was subsequently added to the team
anyway. The move was very controversial,
but Ottenbrite went on to win
gold in the 200 breaststroke, silver in
the 100 breast, and she helped lead
Canada’s medley relay team to
bronze.
Some would claim that Ottenbrite’s
success proved that her selection was
the correct move to make. But was it
the most just? Probably not in the
mind of the athlete she displaced from
the team.
Continuing A Dynasty
It’s often been speculated that
because of the unprecedented quality
and depth of talent the U.S. enjoys in
almost every event, the U.S. Olympic
Trials is the most competitive swim
meet in the world.
While other countries have produced periodic splashes of
brilliance throughout swimming history, none has come close
to matching the long-term success enjoyed by the United
States.
Whenever there’s discussion of dynasties in sport, in fact, the
U.S. Olympic swim team is invariably overlooked. It hasn’t just
been a matter of years or even decades, as is the case with the
New York Yankees, San Francisco 49ers or Brazilian World Cup
soccer teams.
This is a dynasty that has been going strong for over a century.
Team USA has captured 433 total medals in Olympic Games
competition—more than three times the number won by
Australia, the next closest nation. The 191 gold medals won by
the Americans is nearly four times more than runner-up
Germany. The U.S. women’s team, by itself, has won 29 more
golds than the Germans.
Perhaps the biggest testament to the United States’ utter
dominance in the sport, however, is the fact that a rule enacted
in the 1980s, blatantly aimed at handicapping the Americans,
limited a country’s entrants per event to two. Not even the
Romanian gymnastics team, the Austrian ski team or the
vaunted U.S. basketball team has ever received such a backhanded
compliment.
It can be argued, though, that the biggest reason why our
athletes have performed so well on the world’s biggest swimming
stage is because they have been hardened by having to
tap into their very best during the Trials. There is simply no
margin of error when there are only two available slots.
Whatever the case may be, athletes wanting to become part
of such an illustrious Olympic tradition will first need to produce
some stellar swimming at the U.S. Olympic Trials.
But, then again, that’s the way it’s always been—and the way
it should always remain.
Tito Morales, a novelist and free-lance writer, is a Masters swimmer who competed collegiately
for the University of California at Berkeley.
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