The world’s best open water swimmers will converge in Seville, Spain in May for the first qualifying race of the 2008 Olympic Games 10K Swimming Marathon.

The 5th FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships will be held in Seville between May 3rd – 8th 2008.

In Seville, the top ten male and the top ten female finishers will automatically qualify for the Olympic 10K Swimming Marathon. The remaining 15 finalists will be chosen as follows:

5 athletes will be chosen as the top finisher from each of the designated 5 continents.
1 athlete will be chosen from the host nation of China.
9 or 10 athletes will be chosen from the FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifying race held in Beijing on the actual Olympic 10K course on May 31st for women and June 1st for men. Note: 9 athletes will be chosen depending on the means in which the Chinese representative qualifies.

The USA National Swim Team members going to Seville include:

1. Micha Burden (26), Mission Viejo Nadadores: 10K and 25K
2. Kirsten Groome (17), First Colony Swim Team: 10K
3. Chloe Sutton (15), Mission Viejo Nadadores: 5K
4. Christine Jennings (20), Minnesota Aquatics: 25K and  5K
5. Erica Rose (25), Northwestern Aquatics: 25K
6. Mark Warkentin (28), Santa Barbara Swim Team: 10K and 25K
7. Chip Peterson (19) University of North Carolina: 10K
8. Josef Kinderwater (18), University of North Carolina: 5K
9. Chad  La Tourette (19), Mission Viejo Nadadores: 5K
10. John Kenny (26), Germantown Academy Aquatic Club: 25K
11. Bill Rose, Mission Viejo Nadadores, Head Coach
12. Rick Walker, Southern Illinois University, Assistant Coach
13. Catherine Vogt, University of North Carolina, Assistant Coach
14. John Dussliere, Santa Barbara Swim Club, Head Manager
15. Paul Asmuth, Special Assistant to the National Team Head Coach
16. Jeremy Vail, Team Trainer
17. James Johnson, M.D., Team Doctor
18. Genadijus Sokolovas, Technical Support

In Seville, the women’s 10K competition will be held on May 3rd and the men’s 10K race will be held on May 4th, both starting at 10 am. The Seville course was also the site of the 2002 Rowing and Canoeing World Championships.

Although the highlight of the 5th FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships in Seville will be the Olympic 10K qualifying race, the championships will also include the 2008 5K and 25K events. The 5K races will be held on May 6th and the 25K races will be held on May 8th.

The 10K qualifying race will take place in the Guadalquivir River in a closed 2.5K-loop course. The athletes will swim in a counter clockwise direction, keeping the turn buoys on their left shoulder The water temperature will be approximately 75-77°F (or 24-25°C). The start and finish will be near the Rowing-Canoeing High Performance Center facilities with the standard FINA floating touch pad finish pontoon affixed with video cameras to record the photo finishes. The entire course is between 3 – 8 meters deep.

The athletes will wear microchip transponders on both of their wrists throughout the race. Any athlete who finishes the race without a transponder will be disqualified. A dive start will be used from a floating start pontoon. There will also be one feeding pontoon located in the center of the course where one coach will be permitted per swimmer. No boats will be allowed on the course except for boats with the race officials and medical personnel.

The Who’s Who of open water swimming will be there…all of whom have their own Olympic dreams. Because 15 athletes will be automatically qualifying for the Olympic 10K final, the races will be extremely close. The results from the 2006 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships in Napoli, Italy are below.

10K Men’s Final Results

10K Women’s Final Results

In Beijing, the women’s 10K Olympic final will be held on October 20th and the men’s 10K Olympic final will be held on October 21st in the Olympic rowing basin.