The field in Michigan includes over 25 members of the U.S. National Team. This is the first Grand Prix meet of the season for Coughlin, who last competed at the 2010 FINA Short Course World Championships in Dubai, UAE last December. Besides Olympic gold medalists Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, Ryan Lochte and Jason Lezak, other swimmers expected to compete include Michigan natives Allison Schmitt (Canton, Mich.) and Peter Vanderkaay (Rochester, Mich.), as well as National Teamers Katie Hoff (Towson, Md.), Cullen Jones (New Brunswick, N.J.), Dana Vollmer (Granbury, Texas), Kate Ziegler (Great Falls, Va.), Emily Brunemann (Crescent Springs, Ky.) and Tyler Clary (Riverside, Calif.).
A leaderboard for the USA Swimming Grand Prix Series can be found online at www.usaswimming.org/grandprix. Swimmers are awarded five points for a gold medal, three points for a silver medal and one point for a bronze medal. The top scoring swimmer at the conclusion of the Series will be awarded $20,000. National Teamer Missy Franklin (Centennial, Colo.) leads the current Grand Prix standings and is followed closely by Tunisia's Ous Mellouli and then Lochte.
The competition will be broadcast and webcast LIVE on Universal Sports on Saturday, April 9 from 5:30 - 8 p.m. ET and on Sunday, April 10 from 5:30 - 7 p.m. ET. A LIVE webcast of both prelims and finals from the meet will be available throughout the weekend on www.usaswimming.org/michigangrandprix.
2010-2011 USA Swimming Grand Prix Swim Meet Series
- Minnesota Grand Prix 12-14 Nov, 2010
Minneapolis, MN - Austin Grand Prix 14-17 Jan, 2011
Austin, TX - Missouri Grand Prix 18-21 Feb, 2011
Columbia, MO - Indianapolis Grand Prix 3-5 Mar, 2011
Indianapolis, IN - Michigan Grand Prix 8-10 Apr, 2011
Ann Arbor, MI - Charlotte UltraSwim Grand Prix 12-15 May, 2011
Charlotte, NC - Santa Clara International Grand Prix 16-19 Jun, 2011
Santa Clara, CA
Television and online coverage will also be provided of all 2010-2011 USA Swimming Grand Prix events. Universal Sports will broadcast the Austin Grand Prix (January 14-17), the Missouri Grand Prix (February 18-21), the Indianapolis Grand Prix (March 3-5) and the Michigan Grand Prix (April 8-10). Online coverage of all seven events will be provided by Swimnetwork.com and Universalsports.com.
This is the fourth year in a row that prize money has been awarded to the overall point leader of the Grand Prix Series. In its inaugural year in 2008, Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps took home the prize. The 2009 purse went to National Team swimmer Mary DeScenza and Chloe Sutton took home $20,000 in 2010.
The scoring system awards swimmers points based on gold, silver and bronze-medal performances at each of the eight meets. A gold medal earns a swimmer five points, a silver medal is worth three points and a bronze medal is one point. The standings integrate male and female participants, recognizing the swimmer with the highest cumulative point total. In the event of a tie, the winner will be the swimmer who earned the highest single-race FINA power point ranking. Leaders will be tracked online at www.usaswimming.org and in Splash magazine, the official magazine of USA Swimming.
