Swim Meets (3): Prelims/Finals Meet

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I have already covered some aspects of a swim meet in my earlier post where I briefly mentioned the Prelims/Finals meet format, but I thought I would touch upon this a little bit more in detail.

USA Swimming's definition of a Preliminary heat (or Preliminaries): "competition in which a number of heats are swum to qualify the fastest swimmers for the Finals". (USA Swimming 2020 Rulebook, page 17)

The most common Finals format I've seen for a SCY meet would be the A/B Finals format, where the top 16 swimmers from the Prelims qualify (A-Final: 1st-8th,  B-Final: 9th-16th).
In a LCM Prelims/Finals meet, you may also see the Top 20 qualifying for A/B Finals as some LCM pools have up to 10 lanes.

Normally the B-Final (also called a Consolation Final) is swum first, followed by the A-Final (also called a Championship Final).  It is actually pretty cool when you first see your kid qualify for an A-Final, as the meet announcer announces each swimmers individually as they line up behind the diving blocks, so they look like the swimming races you've seen on TV (or I guess in this day & age, YouTube! 😊)  Sometimes the meet organizer may even play some music as the A-Final swimmers walk out to the deck.

The B-Final swimmers usually do not get an individual introduction before their race, but they usually get their names announced as a group once the race actually starts and they are all racing in the pool (e.g. in the water, we have John Smith from Club A in lane 1, Matt Jones from Club B in lane 2...). 

Swimmers in both A/B Finals have a chance to score points for their respective clubs and sometimes even receive an award(s).  The most common form of awards would be medals for swimmers who finish in the top 3 and ribbons for the remaining swimmers.  Some larger sized Prelims/Finals meets may even give out medals for the Top 8 (i.e. all A-finalists).

There are some large Prelims/Finals meet where you can have more than 2 finals (e.g. A/B/C/D Finals: if the meet is in an 8-lane SCY pool, the top 32 swimmers would qualify).  Those C/D finals are sometimes called "Bonus Finals" - usually for those Bonus Finals, swimmers cannot score points and/or there are no other awards/prizes.

Sometimes you may have to consider some logistical challenges when there is a morning Prelims session and an afternoon Finals session that might be taking place 3-4 hours after the completion of the Prelims.  (e.g. Prelims ended at noon, but Finals starts at 4pm)  If you're at a venue that is relatively close to your home, obviously you could drive back home to take a rest after the Prelims and then head back out for the Finals.  For my eldest son, he likes to take a short nap before going back for the Finals, so having that short break was important for him.  Obviously if you're at a large Prelims/Finals Championship meet in a different city, you would have probably booked a hotel/motel/Airbnb so you do have a place to go back to.  But it gets a bit tricky when you're at a venue that is about an hour from home and you only have a 3 hour window.  Do you drive back home to maybe get 45 minutes of rest before heading back out?  That would be up to you and your swimmer to decide.  Sometimes it is worthwhile to do some basic research to see where you could possibly go that is near the meet venue (if going back home is not a viable option).  It could be a mall, a restaurant or a park.  But have some options ready if your swimmer does qualify for the Finals and both of you do not want to drive back and forth from the meet venue.

I will cover some other aspects of the Prelims/Finals such as "alternates" and "scratching" in another blog post, so stay tuned.
Until next time, keep on cheering for your swimmers! 🏊🏊🏊

<Swimmers warming up at our local swim club - Cypress Fairbanks Swim Club (Fleet)>


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