22 women will compete in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games women’s marathon swim on August 8th.

22 men will compete in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games women’s marathon swim on August 9th.

Women’s Olympic Marathon Swim Competitors

Leonie Beck of Germany, Chelsea Gubecka of Australia, and Katie Grimes of the USA all qualified to compete in the 22 women’s field at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The remaining 19 spots have not yet been named, but will be determined later by the following National Olympic Committees (NOC) listed below.

World Aquatics confirmed today that the following countries have secured the remaining 19 spots for their female representatives at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games women’s marathon swim. According to the qualification process, while Beck, Gubecka, and Grimes each earned a personal invitation to the 2024 Paris Olympics, the 13 highest-placed athletes in the 10 km race, both for women and men in Doha, only earned a quota place for their NOC to the 2024 Paris Olympics – not a personal invitation.

It is up to each NOC to determine how their country’s representative will be selected. While many of the marathon swimmers in Doha will be selected by their NOC, it is possible that a fast(er) 800m or 1500m pool swimmer is selected by their NOC and that swimmer will compete in the Seine in the 10 km race.

Women’s NOC Quota Position

• Netherlands (1 NOC quota position)
• Spain (2 NOC quota positions)
• Portugal (1 NOC quota position)
• Australia (1 NOC quota position)
• Brazil (1 NOC quota position)
• United States (1 NOC quota position)
• France (2 NOC quota positions)
• Italy (1 NOC quota position)
• Monaco (1 NOC quota position)
• Japan (1 NOC quota position)
• Hungary (1 NOC quota position)

Men’s Olympic Marathon Swim Competitors

Florian Wellbrock of Germany, Kristóf Rasovszky of Hungary, and Oliver Klemet of Germany all qualified to compete in the 22 men’s field at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The remaining 19 spots have not yet been named, but will be determined later by the following National Olympic Committees (NOC) listed below.

Men’s NOC Quota Position

• France (2 NOC quota positions)
• Great Britain (2 NOC quota positions)
• Australia (2 NOC quota positions)
• Hungary (1 NOC quota position)
• Italy (2 NOC quota positions)
• Israel (1 NOC quota position)
• Ecuador (1 NOC quota position)
• Greece (1 NOC quota position)
• United States (1 NOC quota position)

But it gets a little more complicated…

Host Country Qualification

World Aquatics continues its explanation, “As the host country, France had an automatic NOC quota position (i.e., one man and one woman) for the marathon swim in Paris. However, two men and two women athletes from France finished with a top 13 result in Doha. Thus, both athletes from each gender obtained a quota place for their NOC without needing the automatic quota position, according to the qualifying procedures.

Therefore, in the women’s marathon swim, Brazil earned the quota position as the next highest placed athlete from the Doha event. For the men, Austria earned the quota position.“

But there are still four spots left to fill out the 22-person fields.

Women’s Continental Qualifications

World Aquatics announced that the four additional marathon swim NOC quota positions per gender are filled by the Continental Representation at the 2024 World Aquatics Championship 10 km qualification swim.

For the women, the following countries earned an NOC quota position for the marathon swimming based on their performance at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships:  

• Great Britain (Europe)
• Mexico (Americas)
• South Africa (Africa)
• People’s Republic of China (Asia)

So far, so good. Except there was a complication.

Continental Complication for Women

World Aquatics explained its decision to offer the Americas NOC quota spot to Canada. “The Continental Representation position for Oceania, however, which had no competing women athletes at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships outside of Australia – which had already qualified the maximum number of two women NOC quota positions. Therefore, the Oceania Continental Representation position was allocated to the highest-placing woman competitor in the 10 km race in Doha whose country was not yet qualified for the Olympics. In this respect, Canada was reallocated this NOC quota spot.”

Read here.

Men’s Continental Qualifications

For the men, the following countries earned an NOC quota position for the marathon swimming based on their performance at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships:

• Czechia (Europe)
• Mexico (Americas)
• Japan (Asia)
• Namibia (Africa)

Continental Complication for Men

World Aquatics continues, “As Oceania also had no competing men athletes at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships outside of Australia – which had already qualified the maximum number of two NOC quota positions for Paris – the Oceania Continental Representation position was similarly allocated to the highest-placing competitor in the 10 km race for men in Doha whose country was not yet qualified for the Olympics. In this respect, Poland was reallocated this NOC quota spot.”

Whew.

But wait, there is more.

Qualified Pool Swimmers

World Aquatics says, “Men and women pool swimmers that achieve the Olympic qualification standard in either the 800m or 1500m freestyle and compete in at least one of these events in Paris will be eligible to compete for their country in the marathon swim, provided that the country observes the rule of a maximum of two athletes per gender in the marathon swim.”

If this explanation was not clear, the World Aquatics qualification procedures are summarized here.

It will be great to see a list of final qualifiers…in time.

© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

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