Indy World Series Marks A Key Step For U.S. Swimmers Aiming for This Fall’s World Championships

Singapore is a full day’s journey from Indianapolis, separated by some 9,500 miles, give or take.

Yet the Southeast Asian nation will be front of mind for America’s top Para swimmers as they gather in Indianapolis this weekend for the Para Swimming World Series – USA. It will be their lone opportunity to secure a spot on the U.S. team that will travel to Singapore in September for the 2025 World Para Swimming Championships.

Some will leave the meet thrilled, others may be disappointed. But the good news for all is that the 2028 Paralympic quad is only just beginning, and this year will help set the U.S. team up for success before hosting the world in Los Angeles in 2028, said Amanda Duke Boulet, director of U.S. Paralympics Swimming.

“We’re trying to cast a really wide net and allow the athletes the opportunity to show their skills between this year and next year,” Duke Boulet said. “And we’ll be helping to facilitate and mentor some of these newer athletes while also helping along the veterans that have been doing this for a while and making sure they have what they need to be successful. That way when we get to trials for the 2028 Games we’ve got a good, large group to choose from to assemble the most competitive team for L.A.”

Indianapolis is the fifth stop on the World Series circuit, which includes eight meets around the world. The meet begins April 24 and wraps up on April 26, and will include a number of international swimmers as well as the top swimmers in the U.S.

The U.S. could potentially field a large team for the world championships in the sense that each federation is allowed to bring three athletes per medal event. Still, making the U.S. team will be challenging. In order to qualify, athletes will need to have a time in either the preliminaries or finals that is equal to or better than the third-place world ranking in that class and event.

“The world rankings are pretty tough this year because we had the Paralympics last year, and there were some amazing performances,” Duke Boulet said. “It is pretty tough to make some of those time standards, so I’m excited to see where the athletes are coming out of Paris and coming off nationals to be able to hit some of those objective measures.”

Duke Boulet will see a great mix of veteran and newer athletes in Indianapolis, which she’s looking forward to. It will be her first opportunity to meet many of them, as well as their coaches, in person, since starting her role as director in December. She was on the job just 10 days before the national championships, which a number of top athletes skipped since it followed just a few months after the Games. Many athletes were still taking a break from the pool or just getting back into their training in December.

Among the Paralympic veterans who are expected to compete this weekend are Olivia Chambers, Julia Gaffney, Jamal Hill, Noah Jaffe, Jessica Long, Elizabeth Marks, Christie Raleigh Crossley, Morgan Stickney and Mallory Weggemann.

“We’ve got some fierce competitors and strong-willed athletes,” Duke Boulet said.

They’ll be joined by up-and-comers such as Chloe Cederholm, Cara Pennington, Emma Roberts, Katie Kubiak, Kenley Teller and Koehn Boyd.

For all, the weekend will be a good test to see where they’re at in their training and will help set future goals, Duke Boulet said. And this is only the beginning. Team USA is looking forward to hosting two emerging talent identification camps this year geared toward newer athletes who’ve just hit emerging or “C” team time standards.

“It will be an opportunity to get together and meet other athletes of similar ranges and abilities and learn from other coaches about what this could look like for them if they keep working hard in this space,” she said. “We’re excited about mentoring these new up-and-coming athletes through their journey. Now is the time. We have several years before Los Angeles to see who we can really help make the team and help Team USA win medals.”

Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to USParaSwimming.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.