My swimmer had to do one in 200 fly...it was one of the most exciting races of his swim career. He won the swim off, which meant his "prize" was to swim the 2 fly at finals...the third time that day!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They swim the event against each other at the meet.

But I see just two swimmers, each time. So they literally do a heat where just two swimmers swim?

Yes. Only the swimmers that tied swim.

Example pool has 8 lanes, two heats go to finals, heats are fixed at finals

at prelims, the top 16 fastest swimmers go to finals, and swimmers 8 and 9 tie (meaning, one kid would land in the faster heat and one would be in the slower heat) OR swimmer 16 and 17 tie (meaning, one kid would make it to finals and one would not).

With fixed heats, it is almost always better to be in the faster heat, even though in the first example above, the #9 kid would actually have the better lane assignment.

Swim offs are so fun to watch. Not so fun if you’re one of the swimmers I imagine. I don’t think I ever had to do one. I remember it happening kind of often (relatively speaking) for 50 free at big meets where top 24 (3 heats of 8) made finals. I definitely saw one where the swimmers tied AGAIN. What are the odds?!

It's like a dance off but in water.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are more ties in swimming than you would expect. I recently saw a swimoff for a 500 free. I felt bad for those girls.

But they don’t have to swim the 500 again. It can be an agreed upon stroke and distance, it can be a coin toss.

In this case, the winner went on to represent her team around two hours later in the state qualifying meet. She had a personal best time in the swim off, but gained time and came in last in finals. Even her PB time wouldn't have scored points in the final.

I don't know how rules differ for swim offs between USA swimming and high school swimming. I've only ever seen club swim have a swim off at the end of preliminaries.

It's essentially the old wildcard play-in game in baseball.

My kid was in one a couple years ago. In prelims he tied for the last spot in the finals race so he and the other kid raced to see who would get the spot. I can’t actually remember what happened though (I wasn’t at the meet) - either they did the swim off and DS won or a kid dropped out of finals (maybe the one he tied with?) making room for DS in the race but it was exciting and full of drama at the time.

Anonymous wrote:There are more ties in swimming than you would expect. I recently saw a swimoff for a 500 free. I felt bad for those girls.

But they don’t have to swim the 500 again. It can be an agreed upon stroke and distance, it can be a coin toss.

There are more ties in swimming than you would expect. I recently saw a swimoff for a 500 free. I felt bad for those girls.

This happens sometimes at events with prelims and finals and 2 swimmers tie for a place in finals.

Is it like a dance off? Can the get served?

Anonymous wrote:They swim the event against each other at the meet.

But I see just two swimmers, each time. So they literally do a heat where just two swimmers swim?

They swim the event against each other at the meet.

I have seen on results sheets - swim offs between two swimmers. I am assuming it is just something put on the sheet - or do they really swim off at the meet????