Qualifying for 2010 Short Course Words - Dubai December 15-19, 2010

The 2010 Short Course Worlds will be held on December 15-19, 2010 in Dubai. I'm really hopeful to be able to watch Ryan compete in an international short course meet. How can he qualify?

The USA Swimming selection criteria are posted here:

http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/1d86d0b1-4811-43a8-ab16-889f01778cf4/USAS%202010%20SCWC%20selection%20Criteria_v3.pdf

"Qualifying Competitions" are defined as "the 2010 ConocoPhillips National Championships to be conducted August 3-7, 2010, and the Pan Pacific Championships August 18-21, 2010, both in Irvine, CA."

The team will be announced on October 1, 2010.

The size of the team is limited to 26 swimmers per gender.

The team is selected according to the following priorities:

Priority #1

• The four fastest swimmers from the Qualifying Competitions for the 100m & 200m free
• The fastest swimmer from every event other than 100m & 200m free

Priority #2

• The second fastest swimmer in every event other than 100m & 200m free

There are a bunch of rules about how the team is to be decreased if the swimmers qualifying under both Priorty #1 and Priority #2 equal more than 26 per gender. There are also a bunch of other rules about tie-breakers. There are even more rules about what happens if a swimmer selected to the team decides not to swim a particular event.

The bottom line is the upcoming Long Course Nationals & Pan Pacs in Iriving essentially will determine who qualifies for Short Course Worlds. I would have thought the 2010 AT&T Short Course Nationals to be held in Columbus, OH on December 2-4, 2010 would be the qualifying meet, but it is not.