In light of the inclusion of 50-metre stroke events in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic program, Swimming Canada is announcing amendments to the selection policy for this summer’s World Aquatics Championships.
In addition, Swimming Canada has published nomination criteria for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.
Swimming Canada will incorporate 50-m breaststroke, backstroke, and butterfly as selection events starting with this year’s Canadian Swimming Trials June 7-12 in Victoria.
The decision aligns with the recent World Aquatics announcement that these events will be added to the Olympic program at the Los Angeles 2028 Games.
World Aquatics Championships are set for Singapore, with open water competition scheduled for July 14-19, followed by pool action July 26-Aug. 3. While the 50-m events have long been part of the worlds program, their addition to the Olympic Games represents a major shift.
“World Aquatics putting the information out that they are adding the 50 butterfly, backstroke and breaststroke for men and women means six more medal events. It’s a great addition into the Los Angeles 2028 Games program,” said High Performance Director and National Coach John Atkinson. “It’s something that had been rumoured that was going to be happening, so we thank World Aquatics for providing clarity with an official announcement. Anything that increases the number of medals for swimming at the Olympic Games is a positive addition to the program.”
Meanwhile, the nomination criteria for the 2026 Commonwealth Games have been posted. Selection will be based on performances at a series of summer competitions in 2025: Trials, the FISU Games July 17-23 in Berlin, the World Aquatics Championships, and the World Junior Swimming Championships in Otopeni, Romania, Aug. 19-24. The team is expected to be announced by Oct. 31.
The competition will take place in Glasgow, Scotland, from July 24-29, 2026, with no staging camp prior to the event. The team will consist of 12 swimmers, with up to three swimmers per individual event, and will be supported by a team leader, head coach, and up to two additional team coaches, staff accreditations pending and to be confirmed, as well as core mission team staff.
In addition to these changes, Swimming Canada have made amendments to the Sport Canada Athlete Assistance Program (carding) to include the 50-m stroke events. This has been approved by Sport Canada and this amended policy will be posted in the near future.
“This is similar to when the men’s 800 and women’s 1,500-m events were added for the Tokyo 2020 program,” Atkinson added.
Furthermore, the selection policy for the World Junior Championships is also being reviewed to consider the inclusion of the 50-m stroke events. Swimming Canada is also awaiting news on how the changes may affect overall participant numbers at Olympic Games.
“World Aquatics will be working on the Olympic qualification pathway document for how athletes can qualify to swim at the Olympic Games. The information that is still not yet known in all of this is, will the number of athletes in swimming at the Olympic Games increase, or remain the same?” Atkinson noted.
“Then they have to look at the process of how Olympic qualifying times, relay-only athletes, universality qualifiers and Olympic consideration times are allocated. That all has to meet the total number of athlete slots available at Olympic Games. For Paris 2024 it was 872. Once that number is known and the pathway is known, we’ll know how all of this will piece together like a good jigsaw does, and what we have to work towards in the end.”