SVAC is a registered USA Swimming team. We participate in the Middle Atlantic (MA) Local Swimming Committee (LSC) of USA Swimming.

What are USA Swimming Championship Meets?

Within our LSC, there is a set of championship meets in March. They have progressively strict time standards that must be met to compete. The most up to date regional time standards can be found on the Middle Atlantic website and national time standards on the USA Swimming website.

The current Middle Atlantic championship format includes:

• 10 and Under Champs 2025 10 & Under Champs Time Standard (10U)
• Silver Champs 2025 Silver Champs Time Standard (11 and Up)
• Junior Champs 2025 Junior Champs Time Standard (11-12 / 13-14)
• Senior Champs 2025 Senior Champs Time Standard (15 and Over)

You can read more about the league format for Middle Atlantic here if you would like.

What are USA Swimming Motivational Time Standards?

You may have seen mention of "Motivaitonal Time Standards" or meets containing A/BB/C or something similar. These are essentially a way to grade your times against a percentile of other swimmers who achieve those times within the USA Swimming formats. They are intended as a way to "motivate" a swimmer to achieve better times.

This list is updated every four years. The current Motivational Standards for 2024-2028 can be found here.

In an A/BB/C meet generally that means anyone can come as there is no time standard "C" but the results will be divided into A, BB, and C classes so that you can get first place as a "BB" swimmer and earn an award without getting blown away by faster swimmers, essentially brackets. However, if a meet was an AAA only meet, then swimmers could only enter events which they have an AAA time in. SVAC typically only participates in the A/BB/C format meets.

The time standards are broken down as follows (also by age group an pool length):

• AAAA: Top 2% of swimmers in your age group, nationally.
• AAA: Top 6% of swimmers in your age group, nationally.
• AA: Top 8% of swimmers in your age group, nationally.
• A: Top 15% of swimmers in your age group, nationally.
• BB: Top 35% of swimmers in your age group, nationally.
• B: Top 55% of swimmers in your age group, nationally.

National Motivational Time Standard

2024-2028 National Age Group Motivational Times

USA Swimming Rules and Guidelines

2023 USA Swimming Rulebook

USA Swimming LSC and Zone Map

When is it time for the Olympics??

USA Swimming is the national governing body for swimming in the United States. Therefore, all swimmers who participate in the Olympics or represent the country at any national level meet go through the USA process by qualifying for and winning at meets at every level of competition and working their way up. This means that in addition to the above meets there are additional ways the league is broken down. This is regionally, sectionally, nationally, etc.

If your swimmer was posting times which qualify for competition at these levels, then there are additional meets you would participate in beyond the structure outlined above. Generally, these higher levels of swimming are limited to the upper age groups or collegiate level swimmers and require traveling to another state to participate. For example, the 2024 Olympic Trials were hosted in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The general, progression in terms of time requirements and overall "difficulty" in USA Swimming is as follows:

LSC Level (Middle Atlantic):

1. Silver Champs
2. Junior / Senior / 10U Champs

Zones and Sectionals (Eastern Zone Level):

1. Zones (Age Group Swimmers) - Usually representing their home LSC (Mid-Atlantic)
2. Sectionals (Senior Swimmers) - Usually representing their home club

National Level:

1. Futures
2. Junior Nationals
3. Nationals
4. Olympic Trials
5. Olympics

More information can be found by reading this helpful article.