Swim Ireland Competition Pathway

This page explains the pathway that Swim Ireland have in place from the time that an athlete begins their competitive career until they reach National level competition.
All Swim Ireland competitions are open to all Swim Ireland registered members subject to relevant qualification criteria as applicable. At National Meets, specific qualification criteria are available for athletes with disabilities. Clubs and Regions should make reasonable adjustments to include athletes with disabilities at their meets.

In all cases, coaches should ensure athletes meet an adequate standard to enter any competition

Ages: 

Athletes ages will be defined as their age on 31st December of the year of the competition - eg, an athlete born in 2009 will swim as a 12-year-old during 2021 and a 13-year-old during 2022. This applies to all competitions except for schools which will be defined as 31st August of the school year and Inter/Intra club GALAs who can use age on day if preferred.

Time Standards:

Qualifying Times:

Where a meet has qualifying times, athletes who have achieved these times will be accepted into that event.

Consideration Times:

Where a meet has consideration times, athletes who have achieved these times will
be considered for entry into the event based on entry numbers.
Athletes who have not achieved either qualifying or consideration times will not be accepted into the event.

Upper Cut Off Times:

Where a meet has upper cut of times, athletes must be SLOWER than the designated
time to be accepted into the event.

Competition Types:

Swim Ireland’s Domestic Competition Plan sets out the competitions to be held Regionally and Nationally throughout the year. These are classified and shown in the Competition Pathway diagram on page 2 as: