By Annika Johnson on SwimSwam
The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is putting together a U.S. National Team that will compete at two international meets this fall.
Any swimmer with USA Swimming times can apply, they would just have to join the AAU in order for their insurance to be covered for the trip.
This year the AAU U.S. National Team will compete at two swim meets:
- ISF U15 World Sport Games in Belgrade, Serbia (September 11-18)
- ISF U18 Gymnasiade in Jinjiang, China (October 16-22)
The first meet will be for swimmers born in 2006-2008 and the second meet will be for athletes born in 2003-2005.
To apply you can fill out the application here and email it to the National Team leader Mary Ruffin here. The deadline to submit applications is July 28th at 8 pm, U.S. Central Time.
Each delegation can enter up to two swimmers in each individual event and one relay in each relay event and there is no limit to how many events a single athlete can compete in.
Therefore, the selection criteria will choose the athletes with the top two fastest times in each event. Relays will be chosen based on the fastest combination of athletes who applied and coaches are selected based on the number of swimmers who make the team.
The organization attended the 2019 International School Sport Federation World Championships in Brazil where a team of 16 swimmers represented the U.S. 400 swimmers from 18 countries competed in the meet. You can find the meet results here.
The AAU U.S. team at that meet included UCSD rising juniorLance Freiman, Princeton rising senior Jack Warden, and Brown rising sophomore Marcus Lee.
Ruffin described the 2019 ISF World Championships as “a mini Olympics.”
“Teams were treated with such respect and getting to meet swimmers from around the world was fantastic.”
Read the full story on SwimSwam: AAU Opens Applications For U.S. National Team, Will Compete in Serbia and China
