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2026 Summer Nationals event cap

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I’m curious how others feel about the event caps at Summer Nationals this year.

I understand the need to keep the meet timeline manageable. My concern isn’t that events were capped—it’s that there didn’t seem to be any advance information about which events were likely to fill or how the capacities would be managed.

I was surprised to find that all of the events over 100 meters were already closed while shorter events remained open. Without knowing that ahead of time, it felt like registration became a race to click “submit” rather than an opportunity to register for the events you’ve trained all season to swim.

In my opinion, USMS should have published estimated event capacities or identified events that were likely to fill quickly before registration opened. I think having that information would allow swimmers to make more informed decisions and would make the registration process feel more transparent.

I’m interested to hear what others think and whether anyone else was caught off guard by the event caps.

  • in reply to Kurt Dickson

    One idea is to give "points" to swimmers who actively compete in the events AND their equivalents, and to the fastest times within their age group (perhaps relative to the National Record).

    I'm a swimmer without any NQTs, so I'm thinking out loud about a pathway for swimmers, especially those without NQTs, to still be able to swim.

  • Does anyone know how long after registration opened before event started getting capped. if we’re going to have caps and I guess we are then I think when the Meet information is sent out and when registration opens, there should be a large warning about caps instead of being in the fine print. Also, it would be good to know how long it takes before entries likely close so that if you wanted to enter, say the 800 you know that you probably had a making it up 30 days after registration opens to make it.

  • in reply to Jennifer Tran

    I get why this seems like it’s inclusive, but requiring a previous swim unfairly disadvantages people who don’t have many local meet options. Nationals was already heavily represented by Pacific Masters (since it was local), this probably would have been even more heavily skewed if swimming the event was required, as we have so many meet opportunities if you live in the Bay Area and the part of the state west of the Bay Area. Nationals was my fifth meet of the year, and I never had to travel more than 90 minutes. I can off the top of my head think of at least four meets in that same distance that I didn’t go to. Some people have to travel further than that for the closest meet. It doesn’t surprise me, if they have to travel for meets, that some people would choose Nationals as their one event of the year.

  • in reply to Vadim Winebrand

    This suggestion ignores the inclusivity of USMS. The 3-event cap is the already the balance. I understand that if you are a fast swimmer, you want the times to be weighted, but we have USA swimming for that already.

  • in reply to 166DW

    Thank you for this point! I am lucky that I'm based in Seattle, and 6-7 meets are offered each year within 1 to 1.5 hours of me, while my friends in the Niagara LMSC (where I'm from) frequently have to travel more than two hours for a maximum of 2-3 meets a year.

  • in reply to Erin Sizelove

    I am heartened to see continued constructive dialog on event caps at nationals.  I am confident the championship committee considered improvements to the cap process at their recent meeting after nationals and will be bringing the issue to the upcoming national meeting.  (The need for caps was anticipated – the committee’s 2025 minutes stated, “Will probably have to limit entries for events 200 and longer if attendance reaches expectations.”)  And, the ways and means of capping are flexible – the rule cited, 104.5.3.C(2), says longer events MAY be capped, but does not dictate HOW.  No need for rule changes for improvement!

    Replies in this thread suggested lots of ways to improve the cap process if needed in the future.  I’ll just emphasize I saw a number of comments requesting a ‘heads up’ early in registration to the possible issue, and transparency during registration and administration of the waitlist.  I have just now replied on the thread I created, "USMS National Pool Championship Endurance Event Caps and Seeding - suggestions for improvement".  Please take a look, and hopefully discussions will continue toward improvements in seeding and caps for the nationals endurance events.