Which Swimmers Are In Line For A Wild Card Entry Into The Short Course World Championships?

World Aquatics World Cup #3 – Astana

World Aquatics announced earlier this year that it was adding a new “wild card” qualifying opportunity for the 2026 Short Course World Championships based on performances on the World Cup circuit.

In July, the specifics of how the system would work were revealed. Essentially, swimmers who earned a podium (top three) finish at one of the three World Cup stops in a time under the ‘A’ qualifying time, would be eligible to earn a wild card berth to Short Course Worlds, provided they competed in at least two of the World Cup stops.

Each nation can only have three wild card swimmers total at Short Course Worlds—men and women combined—and only one per event. If a nation has more than three wild card qualifiers, the spots will go to the swimmers with the highest World Aquatics points from a podium performance at the World Cup.

There were five countries that had more than three swimmers satisfy the wild card qualifying criteria at the World Cup: Russia (15), China (9), the Netherlands (5), South Africa (4) and the United States (4).

Whittling it down to three per country, using a swimmer’s highest single-event point total (that they reached the podium with), the following swimmers in those countries have earned wild card berths:

China

1. Yu Yiting – 975
2. Qin Haiyang – 943
3. Chen Juner – 932

Netherlands

1. Marrit Steenbergen – 976
2. Caspar Corbeau – 945
3. Sean Niewold – 884

South Africa

1. Pieter Coetze – 1002
2. Michael Houlie – 918
3. Matthew Caldwell – 886

Russia

1. Egor Kornev – 1005
2. Pavel Samusenko – 968
3. Kirill Prigoda – 962

United States

1. Carson Foster – 969
2. Luke Barr – 946
3. Shaine Casas – 923

In the case of the American team, four swimmers reached the podium in a time under the ‘A’ qualifying cut: Carson Foster, Luke Barr, Shaine Casas and Anna Peplowski. In the battle for the third and final wild card spot, Casas’ highest point total came in the 200 IM in Tashkent, scoring 923 points, while Peplowski earned 922 in the 200 free in Astana, missing out on an automatic Worlds berth by a single point.

Below, find the full list of swimmers who have earned wild card berths to the SC World Championships (unofficially). The event(s) listed beside each athlete are the events in which they went under the ‘A’ cut, earned a podium at the World Cup, and if there was multiple per country in the same event, we removed the athlete(s) with the lower World Aquatics point total (more on that under the table).

It’s important to note that World Aquatics has not yet made the list of wild card qualifiers official, this is purely based on our calculations.

The only scenarios where a country had multiple swimmers satisfy the wild card criteria in the same event were Australia (men’s 50 free), Russia (men’s 50 back) and the U.S. (men’s 100 and 200 IM).

In those scenarios, Cameron McEvoy outscored Isaac Cooper for Australia in the 50 free, Egor Kornev outscored Pavel Samusenko for Russia in the 50 back, and Luke Barr outscored Shaine Casas for the U.S. in the 100 IM and both Casas and Carson Foster in the 200 IM.

Of course, some nations have already selected their SC World Championship rosters, some will do so over the next month, and the United States will be hosting a dedicated trials meet to pick their team.

For the wild card qualifiers, even if they’re not named to their respective country’s World Championship roster, they’ll still be able to compete at SC Worlds.

Canada, for example, has already named their roster, and their three wild card qualifiers, Taylor Ruck, Finlay Knox and Blake Tierney, are already on the squad, making the wild card moot in this case.

For the U.S., Foster, Barr and Casas could opt not to compete at the U.S. trials meet and still race at SC Worlds—this would potentially open the door for three entrants from one country into the same event in Beijing.

Read more on the wild card qualifying system here.