Moving forward with the new dates for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, Swimming Canada has published its revised Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic nomination criteria to its website.

The Olympic Games are now set for Jul. 23 – Aug. 8, 2021, followed by the Paralympic Games Aug. 24 – Sept. 5.

These new documents maintain the same standards that were previously set for the original 2020 dates while adding in some flexibility given the current global situation.

“We considered all the different permutations,” said High Performance Director and National Coach John Atkinson. “First and foremost, we will consider performances at the Trials, but through different priorities there are other performances that will be considered to allow us to be as flexible as possible.”

The Olympic program updates include both the open water marathon swimming and pool swimming qualification systems.

“It’s great that we have been able to work through both the Olympic Games open water swimming and pool swimming qualification systems that were re-worked and updated by FINA and the International Olympic Committee,” said Atkinson. “As a sport, we started internally looking at our nomination criteria, we’ve had meetings with the Canadian Olympic Committee and now we’re at that point that we’ve published the revised criteria.”

All relay teams that have previously qualified for the Olympic Games will remain qualified, with specific athletes to be identified following the Trials in accordance with the nomination criteria. The qualification process began at the 2019 FINA World Championships last summer.

On the pool side Swimming Canada has qualified the following relays by placing in the top 12 from the preliminary results at the World Championships: women’s 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle, and 4x100m medley, men’s 4x100m medley, and the mixed 4x100m medley.

For open water swimming, Kate Sanderson and Hau-Li Fan will remain selected to attend the FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier event in 2021. Both Sanderson and Fan earned spots for the Olympic qualification event by being the top Canadian female and male swimmer in the 10-km event last summer.

The Paralympic Games nomination criteria will stick with the same philosophy put in place more than 12 months ago.

“It’s just another piece in the puzzle to provide some level of certainty to the athletes and the coaches that we’ve built a policy,” said Associate High Performance Director and National Para Swimming Coach Wayne Lomas. “This was about making sure the document meets the current requirements of the International Paralympic Committee and World Para Swimming while ensuring the fewest changes for the swimmers and coaches. We’ve achieved that with this document.”

The Para swimmers who had pre-qualified based on the London 2019 World Para Swimming Championships will be honoured.

All Canadian swimmers who won a medal at the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships in a Tokyo 2020 Paralympic event have already been nominated to the Paralympic team. These swimmers are Aurélie Rivard, James Leroux, Tess Routliffe, Shelby Newkirk, Katarina Roxon, Nicolas-Guy Turbide, Alec Elliott, and Abi Tripp.

“We are honouring the spirit that we put in place originally to protect those athletes who have demonstrated the ability to achieve podium performances on the day that matters,” said Lomas.

To find the Olympic Games nomination criteria please click here: https://www.swimming.ca/en/resources/teams-selection-policies/senior-teams-selection-criteria/

To find the Paralympic Games nomination criteria please click here: https://www.swimming.ca/en/resources/teams-selection-policies/para-teams-selection-criteria/