2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials 101: Missy Franklin and Katie Hoff

5-time Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin and 3-time Olympic medalist Katie Hoff break down everything fans need to know heading into the 2024 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials that begin Saturday, June 15th at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.

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Video Transcript

Hey, everybody.

I am Missy Franklin, five time Olympic gold medalist in swimming and I am Katie Hoff, a three time Olympic medalist and Missy and I are really prompt to be your official guide to all things.

Olympic trials.

We are so excited.

We’re going to walk you guys through basically Olympic trials, 101 and answer hopefully all the questions you have about the upcoming Olympic trials for swimming and team USA.

So question number one, Missy, when and where are the Olympic trials this summer?

So for the past three Olympics, our Olympic trials have been held in Omaha, Nebraska this year this summer from June 15th to the 23rd.

They are going to be held in Indianapolis.

The best part is that we are putting three pools in the bottom of Lucas Oil Stadium.

First time this has ever been done, it is going to be absolutely inc incredible.

It’s going to be about 33,000 Spectators and it’s going to be absolutely electric.

All right, Katie question for you.

How many athletes will be competing and how do they qualify for Olympic trials?

We’re estimating about 1000 athletes will be there competing at Olympic trials which to give you context.

There’s about 300,000 swimmers across the nation.

So 1000 out of 300,000 is pretty inc um and they’re able to qualify by achieving a time standard.

So at the beginning of the quad, beginning of the four years leading up to Olympic trials, there’s a time standard.

As long as you hit that time standard, I believe a week out of Olympic trials, you’re able to go and compete in as many events as you qualified in.

So, Missy, next question, what is the format of the meet?

You swim a race for most races?

Three times.

You will have prelims semifinals and finals in your prelim swim that takes place in the morning and every person who has gotten a time standard to compete at the Olympic Trials in that event will swim that event once in prelims from prelims, they take the top 16 athletes, those 16 athletes will swim in two heats in what we call semifinals that same evening from those 16 athletes, they will take the top eight athletes who will come back the next day in the evening and swim that race for a third time where the top two will make the team.

Now, if you are in a 400 or above, so a 408 100 or a 1500 there is no semifinals.

Thank God, we do not make those athletes swim those events three times.

There is just prelims and finals.

So you’ll have everyone swim at once and then the top eight fastest swimmers come back and compete for their spot on the Olympic team.

Now, Katie, you’re going to get more into it.

How does an athlete actually make an Olympic team once?

They’re at trials?

So we take top two per event um as an individual.

So if you’re trying to make an individual event, you place first or second.

If you’re on a relay, you’re placing 1st, 2nd, 3rd or fourth.

How many people make the team in total?

Up to 56 swimmers, 28 men and 28 women can make the team on the swimming side.

Um We also have open water as well, um which we’ll talk about in a little bit but something to note, um, we have a lot of swimmers that are talented in multiple events.

So the more times you have athletes, swimming, multiple events like Missy and I did, uh, you may have it that there’s only 50 swimmers going just based on qualification and based on how many athletes are doubling up on multiple events.

Who are the current coaches that have been selected to lead team USA for the men.

We will have Anthony Nesty from the University of Florida.

He’s the head coach there and for the women, we will have Todd De Sorbo, who’s the head coach at the University of Virginia.

Both are phenomenal coaches and they really make sure that they’re generating the best coaching staff for the team that has been selected to go to the games this summer.

And as you mentioned, Katie, we’re going to talk a little bit more about open water.

We already have three open water swimmers that are qualified to go to Paris.

They’re going, they’ve made it.

Who are these swimmers?

Yes.

So first up we have Katie Grimes, which fun fact about her.

She’s also competing in pool events.

So she swims the 400 I MS. She swims the mile.

She swims the 800 but she’s already qualified for Paris in open water.

We also have Mariah Degan and then on the men’s side, we have Ivan Pko.

Um So that’ll round out our open water team.

So, Missy, what happens after the team is selected?

The athletes are given it ranges but at least a few days to go home repack, get organized, celebrate with their loved ones and get excited before taking off for two training camps that we have.

So the first is a domestic training camp this year.

It’s going to be in Raleigh, North Carolina and it’s going to be roughly from June 30th to July 10th and that will be a chance to bring the whole team together.

And then we go to an international training camp to get us on the same time zone or a similar time zone as to where we will be competing at the Olympics.

So that when we do go to the village just a few days ahead of the opening ceremonies, we’re already acclimated and ready to rock and roll.

There’s so much more we could tell you, but this just sums up some of the nuts and bolts that are super important as well as just helping you really enjoy Olympic Trials.

There’s so many names to follow.

So we hope you guys enjoy.

We can’t wait for you to tune in.

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