USA Swimming has released its “motivational times” for the upcoming 2024-2028 quad.
The time standards sets varying marks for swimmers aged 18 and under based on relative speed within the corresponding age group. The standards range from B to AAAA to give swimmers benchmarks for goal-setting and track improvement. Some local club meets will also set qualifying standards based on these times.
This document from the 2012 quad explains how the motivational times are determined. As a rough overview, they are built around a base “seed time”, determined by the 16th place time in a set of years. That seed time is then multiplied by an adjustment factor dependent on age group and by standard level.
Compared to the 2021-2024 standards, most of the times for the youngest age groups have gotten slower. Four years ago, we hypothesized this might happen due to the ban on the most advanced tech suits for athletes ages 12 and younger.
In fact, most of the standards have changed. You can see all the standards in the documents below by both age group (10 & under, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18) and by each age from 10 to 18. Times marked with an asterisk were updated for this quad.
Can anyone explain the difference and rationale between Times by Specific Age vs. Times by Age group? For example, Boys 15 100F SCY AA is 51.99 and Boys 16 100F SCY AA is 51.29. However for the Age group of 15-16 Boys 100F SCY AA is 50.99.
When is this effective? First Eastern conference swim meet here in SoCal is this weekend. Is there an effective date for this? Thank you!
They’re effective now. I believe they kicked in officially September 1.
Thank you! The SoCal swimming is still not showing the new times.
Any idea when the NCSA Age Group time standards will be released for the March 2025 meet?
Not sure. I assume it’s soon, though lots of time standards are kind of behind for 2025 with the Olympic hangover/everyone being off rhythm still because of COVID.
They got slower????
its math… great breakdown from 2012 linked in the article, all percentage based on the numbers… Covid, number of meets available, lots of factors that would “skew the formula” for this quad
Not in the 13-14 boys age group
As a European I though these would be faster for some reason
Well, the Kid bee swimmers are faster than a lot of master swimmers.