Aquatics reveals Paris 2024 procedures

Aquatics, a sport containing five disciplines, has revealed the qualification procedure for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The reveal of the systems for Artistic Swimming, Diving, Marathon Swimming, Swimming, and Water Polo mean that Athletics is the only sport yet to release any systems, although the BMX Freestyle discipline of Cycling is also yet to reveal its qualification procedure.

Artistic Swimming

Artistic Swimming is a women's only discipline, with a reduction from 104 to 96 women competing, down from Tokyo 2020,. There are still two events: a teams' event and a duets' event. A duet consists of two athletes, while a team consists of eight. Just like 2020, there will be ten teams, at most one per NOC. The host country will automatically gain a spot, while the winners of Continental Championships (dates and times TBC) gain a spot for each continent apart from Europe (as France automatically take their continental spot). The only continental championship to be revealed is the 2023 Pan American Games (Santiago, CHI, 20 Oct-5 Nov 2023). The other five places will be earned at the 21st FINA World Championships (Doha, QAT, 2-18 Feb 2024). This means that there is no longer a separate qualification event, perhaps due to the shorter cycle between Games.

For the duets, there will now be 18 pairings, down from 22. The ten teams will automatically qualify a duet, and the two athletes in the duet must also be part of the team. Again, the winners of Continental Championships including the 2023 Pan American Games will earn a spot. Technically, the European spot should go to France, but as they will have already qualified from the Team competition there will also be a European event. The final three places will be earned at the 21st FINA World Championships. Again, this means the end of the qualification event. In the 2020 cycle, the Worlds were not a designated qualifying event for duets (although it was used for some continental quotas).

Diving

Diving has Individual and Synchronised 3m Springboard and 10m Platform events for both gender and 68 athletes per gender, this represents no change from 2020. In individual events, there are at most two places per NOC, but each individual athlete can only earn one place. The top twelve athletes at the 2023 FINA World Championships (Fukuoka, JPN, 14-30 Jul 2023) will qualify a place. The winners of Continental Championships (dates and locations TBC) including the 2023 Pan American Games will also qualify a spot. In this event, only the winners will qualify a place; if the winner has already qualified the place will be reallocated to the next qualification system. This is the 21st FINA World Championships, which will qualify twelve places plus any additional places. Extra places may also be added at this event in the case that the total quota of 136 places is for some reason not met. For the team events, there will be eight teams per event (one per NOC). The top three teams at the 2023 FINA World Championships, the top four at the 21st FINA World Championships, and the host country will be the eight teams. With two world championships during the cycle, the FINA World Cup has been replaced, but otherwise the system is mostly similar form 2024.

Marathon Swimming

In Marathon Swimming, there are 10km events for both genders, but there will now be 22 athletes per gender (at most two per NOC), down from 25. The qualification system is the same for both genders, just like Diving. Three athletes per gender will qualify a spot at the 2023 FINA World Championships, while the top thirteen athletes per gender from the 21st FINA World Championships will do the same. Each individual athlete can only earn one place at the Games. Then, the highest athlete left from each continent at those championships will also gain a place. Finally, there is a host country quota. Again, there is no longer a specific qualifier, instead the two world championships both earn places.

Swimming

Swimming has a total of thirty-five events. For both men and women, there are seventeen events: for Freestyle; 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, and 1500m; for all of Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly; 100m and 200m; a 200m and 400m event for Individual Medley, both 4x100m and 4x200m Freestyle Relays and a 4x100m Medley Relay. The thirty-fifth event is a mixed 4x100m Relay. There are 426 athletes per gender, down from 439 in Tokyo. In each indvidual event, there are at most two athletes per NOC, and at most one relay team per NOC. In individual events, hitting the Olympic Qualification Time (OQT) in FINA-approved events (1 Mar 2023-23 Jun 2024) will earn you a pathway in automatically. But there is a complicated medley of alternative ways to qualify. One can qualify by universality invitation (if an NOC qualifies no athlete, they can enter one man or one women as long as they participated in either the Fukuoka or Doha World Championships), or being part of a relay team. If you meet the easier Olympic Consideration Time (OCT). One athlete per event will be invited based on the OCT until there are less than 28 places (or one per event) left. For the remaining 27 (or less) places, who gets the nod will be based on World Ranking.

In the Relay, each event will have sixteen teams. Three teams will qualify from the 2023 FINA World Championships and thirteen will qualify from the 21st FINA World Championships. This will allow two additional athletes per relay entered per NOC, at most twelve. This system is a slight modification from the 2020 system, basing the times on WCs only.

Water Polo

Water Polo maintains its 12-team men's tournament and 10-team women's tournament from 2020. A team consists of eleven members, and there is at most one team per NOC per event. Two teams will qualify from the 2023 FINA World Championships. The hosts will qualify, with five places (one per event) being earned at Continental Championships (dates and locations TBC) including the 2023 Pan American Games. The final four men's spots and the final two women's spots will be earned at the 21st FINA World Championships. The FINA Word League is gone as a qualifier, and like other events the dedicated qualifer is replaced by the extra World Championships.

Quote

"Our ambition is to give aquatics athletes great opportunities to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games through high-quality competitions. We were guided by the mission to ensure the fairness of the qualification process for athletes. This was a truly collaborative effort. It requires a delicate balance, but is one that we were able to achieve together."

FINA President Husain Al-Musallam

The Paris 2024 qualification system is underway, with host quotas decided and ranking periods underway, with some dedicated qualifiers taking place in Football and Triathlon.