Quick answer
Swimming standards are official cut times for each age group, gender, event and pool type. In the US, USA Swimming's motivational standards run B, BB, A, AA, AAA and AAAA, and championship meets add their own cuts. In Canada there is no national letter chart: swimmers work up through provincial and regional championship cuts to Swimming Canada's national standards for the Canadian Open and Canadian Swimming Trials. Gophin (free) shows your swimmer's times against 60+ of these standards in one screen.
Rafa came home from practice one day beaming: "Dad, I made a B time!" I had no idea what that meant. I spent that evening clicking through Swimming Canada and club PDFs, getting more confused by the minute. That confusion became one of the first features I built into Gophin.
If your child has come home saying "Coach said I almost have my A time," and you nodded without knowing what that means, this guide is for you.
What Are Swimming Standards?
Swimming standards are benchmark times set by governing bodies for each event, age group, gender and pool type. When your child swims faster than a benchmark, they "have" or "made" that standard.
They matter for three reasons:
- Goals. "Get faster" becomes "drop 0.6 to reach A in the 100 Back."
- Meet entry. Championship meets use standards to decide who can enter.
- Progress. A standard is the same bar every season, so it shows progress more fairly than placings, which depend on who showed up that day.
USA Swimming: Motivational Standards and Championship Cuts
USA Swimming publishes motivational standards for 10 & under, 11–12, 13–14, 15–16 and 17–18, in SCY, SCM and LCM. The current set runs 2024–2028.
| Level | Roughly what it means (rough guide, not official labels) |
|---|---|
| B | Entry level for organized competition |
| BB | Developing competitor |
| A | A solid age group swimmer, often the entry to many championship meets |
| AA | Strong at the regional level |
| AAA / AAAA | Among the faster swimmers in the country for that age |
A real example: a girl aged 10 or under needs 32.09 in the 50 Free SCY for her A time, and 30.89 for AA (USA Swimming 2024–2028 Motivational Standards, PDF).
On top of the letters, specific meets publish their own cuts every season: your LSC's championships, Sectionals, Futures, Junior Nationals and Nationals. Those are what actually decide meet entry. Our USA Swimming time standards guide walks through each one, and the Junior Nationals 2026 cuts are a good example of a championship table.
Swimming Canada: A Ladder of Meets, Not Letters
Canada does not have a national B-to-AAAA chart. The pathway is a ladder of meets, each with its own qualifying times:
| Step | Who sets the times |
|---|---|
| Club and local meets | Often no cut, or a local standard |
| Regional and provincial championships | The provincial section (Swim BC, Swim Ontario, Swim Alberta, the Quebec Swimming Federation and the others) |
| Western Region and East Coast Championships | Each championship's own age-group table |
| Canadian Open | Swimming Canada (short and long course) |
| Canadian Swimming Trials | Swimming Canada (long course, Senior and Junior, plus a U Sports route) |
Source: Swimming Canada's 2026–2028 standards (PDF).
Some Canadian clubs still talk about "B times" or "A times." Those labels are local or motivational, not a Swimming Canada national system. For the full Canadian picture, see our Swimming Canada standards guide.
How to Look Up the Right Standard
You need four things:
- Age group (or single age, depending on the table)
- Gender
- Event (50 Free, 100 Back, 200 IM...)
- Pool type: SCY (25 yards), SCM (25 metres) or LCM (50 metres). Times differ a lot between them, so never compare across pool types. See what SCY, SCM and LCM mean.
Then find the current PDF on the organization's website and compare. For one event, that is fine. For every event, in two pool types, across a provincial and a national standard, it gets tedious fast.
How Gophin Does It for You
Gophin pulls your swimmer's times from official meet results, so there is nothing to type. Then:
- Standards lets you browse official qualifying times by organization, age group, gender and pool type.
- Compare → Standards puts your swimmer's best official time next to the cut in every event, with the exact gap and which standards are already met.
- Compare → Seasons shows how each event moved from one season to the next.
Gophin holds 60+ official time standards from the US, Canada and Brazil, from USA Swimming's motivational times to provincial championship cuts.
Compare your swimmer with the standards that matter to you
Standards Are Not Everything
Standards are a useful tool, not the measure of a young swimmer's worth. Kids develop at different ages, and progress naturally slows in the teens: a large study of age group backstroke results found yearly improvement of close to 10% at ages 8 to 10, about 5% at 11 to 14, and 1 to 2% at 15 to 18 (Alshdokhi et al., 2020).
That slowdown matters for motivation. USA Swimming's 2024 membership report shows athlete retention of 66.9% overall, dipping at 14 (66.2%) and 17 (63.0%) (membership report, p. 13). Celebrate standards when they come, use them as targets when they are close, and do not let them turn every meet into a pass-or-fail exam. More on this in why plateaus are normal.
Related Guides
- Is my swim time good for my age? B/BB/A/AA standards by age group
- USA Swimming time standards by age, the complete guide
- Swimming Canada standards, the complete guide
- What is a good swim time for my child's age?
- How to compare your times to swimming standards in Gophin
To see which cuts your swimmer already has, open Compare → Standards in Gophin and pick the organization that matches the meet. Free.
Sources
- USA Swimming. 2024–2028 Motivational Standards, age group (PDF) and Time Standards page.
- Swimming Canada. 2026–2028 Swimming Canada Standards (PDF).
- USA Swimming (2025). 2024 Membership Demographics Report (PDF), p. 13.
- Alshdokhi, K., Petersen, C. & Clarke, J. (2020). Improvement and Variability of Adolescent Backstroke Swimming Performance by Age. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 2:46. doi.org/10.3389/fspor.2020.00046
