Facts: This is how the Olympic qualifiers work
After criticism from specialist sports associations about tough qualification rules, the SOK, the Swedish Olympic Committee, changed its selection criteria for the Olympics earlier this year:
+ The basic criterion individually and for teams has been changed from the requirement to be able to reach a top 12 position instead of the previous top 8.
+ The future criterion, which can be given to young talents, has been extended and also applies beyond the active’s first Olympics.
+ An exception criterion has been introduced and can be given to athletes who have passed the international qualification but not the SOK’s requirements.
+ Furthermore, a note on clearer interaction between special confederations and SOK and clearer directives to the athletes has been added.
Since another World Swimming Championship will be held (in February next year in Qatar) before the Olympics in Paris, the Swedish Swimming Federation has decided that those who reach the individual final in Fukuoka will be pre-nominated for the Olympics. The fact that the top 12 is not used is in order not to lock the selections already now. Each nation may have a maximum of two participants in the Olympics in the individual disciplines.
The soon-to-be 30-year-old national team swimmer will compete in Fukuoka, Japan, for his first long-course championship since the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
The search for an Olympic ticket there became a stress and frustration that made Michelle Coleman lose the joy in her swimming. She took a break over the whole of last year’s long track season, which meant that she was over both the WC and EC.
Only a few weeks before the Olympics in Tokyo did she get the green light, despite the fact that almost two years earlier she had achieved world times in both the 50 and 100 meter freestyle and was below both the SOK’s and the International Swimming Federation’s qualification limits several times.
A combination of poor communication and tight-lipped rules meant that Coleman’s frustration grew as the announcement was delayed.
“Here to compete in the WC”
When she now returns to long track, the WC is the first opportunity to qualify for the Olympics in Paris next summer. A final place would mean that the matter is settled.
But Michelle Coleman is trying to forget that.
— I’m here to compete in the WC, not to qualify for the Olympics, says Coleman emphatically and continues:
— I have made that mistake so many times before. I’ve done it in 2019, I’ve done it in 2015 and thought now I’m going to swim here to secure my place next year. It hasn’t gone the way I wanted.
Michelle Coleman has already done her first races in the WC with the 4×100 meter freestyle team, where she received positive form reports.
“The Great Hunt”
Individually, she competes in the 100 meter freestyle (start on Thursday) and 50 meter freestyle (start on Saturday).
The goal?
— I am satisfied with the season and so far and that I have maintained a high level in 50 meters. I’m still chasing that individual WC final. So that’s really the goal I have. It’s the big hunt, says Coleman who was in the Olympic final in the 200 meter freestyle (seventh) and has an EC bronze (100 meter freestyle) individually in the long course.
Her biggest successes so far have been as a team swimmer with six WC medals in long and short course.
The ten-month break she took last year is the best thing she’s done, says Coleman.
She has changed her life by starting a civilian career and works part-time alongside swimming.
— It has worked extremely well. You might think that you get tired, but I get so much energy from doing something else. It becomes like two separate lives and that is very good, she says.
Last Olympics in Paris
Although she is thinking about Paris right now, the goal is to get there for her fourth Olympics. It also looks set to be her last.
— I can’t see myself in Los Angeles in 2028. Paris is probably my last Olympics, but it’s not my last championship. But the Olympics in particular, four years is a long time, she says.
When the calendar shows 2028, she is instead a dog owner and takes long walks. At least that’s the picture she sees in front of her.
— I really want a dog, it is the requirement of my partner that I get a dog when I stop swimming. I have longed for a dog for almost 30 years, she says.