Times Missing 

Only Meet Results Submitted to the USA SWIMS Database are included in Rankings

Rankings reflect capability of SWIMS Database and the data entered.  Results may be affected by missing results, meet results not yet entered, status showing  Arizona  LSC  affiliation, official Top 16 events only . 

The times tabulation is a report based system pulled from the SWIMS database.  The times tabulator pulls reports for AZ and these reports are preformatted and limited.  They can not be edited and therefore may be incomplete in certain rare circumstances.  Host teams are required by the LSC to submit meet results within a week, however enforcement is difficult and not 100%.  The times tabulator pulls reports typically once per week and times listed are those which are in the SWIMS database, not those achieved.  If your time is missing from the Arizona report it may not yet have been loaded into the SWIMS database.  

If you believe your times are missing - before you contact the times tabulator first.

1. Check USA Swimming SWIMS database to see if the time is in the database

2. Double check the date stamp at the top of the AZ Times Table to see when it was last updated, wait until the next update to see if indeed the times are in the database and are not appearing in the AZ ranks.

3. If you want to understand more about the process of loading times, read the article that follows by Jeff Gudman of Oregon Swimming- it provides excellent insight into the process for all LSC's.:

4. In certain cases a swimmer may achieve a top time and then transfer to another LSC and achieve an improved time for the same age which will have the effect of eliminating the AZ LSC top time from these reports.  In these rare cases the Marlins "All Time"  Arizona Listings (www.azmarlins.com) should continue to catch these swims, or you can email the marlins to have them edited into the all time listings.

Still have questions - email Rob Weinstein

USA Swimming SWIMS Database

At a recent swim meet I was asked about USA Swimming SWIMS program, how it worked and why at times did it

appear to take more than a few days to get results posted on the USA Swimming web site and the Oregon

Swimming web site. Plus, what was the relationship between SWIMS (USA Swimming) and the Oregon

Swimming times database. All these are good questions.

The process begins with the club hosting the meet. At the end of the meet you will often see coaches clustered

around the “crows nest” administration area waiting for the disk containing all the results of the meet. Copies of

the results are also forwarded to the appropriate person or persons in the Local Swimming Committee (LSC).

Oregon Swimming is one of 59 LSCs throughout the country. At this point the process splits into two parts…. the

Oregon Swimming part and the USA Swimming part although both parts can use the tools from the USA

Swimming SWIMS program for exceptions and/or corrections.

At the Oregon Swimming level, the meet results are run against the SWIMS database for an exception report. What

kind of exceptions? Easy…when anything from the results of a swimmer’s race (including leading off a relay) does

not match the SWIMS database, an exception is noted. Exceptions include:

1) Finding the swimmer listed with one club on the meet results, but another club in the SWIMS

database.

2) Unregistered swimmers – these are the hardest to correct.

3) Names not matching.

4) Birthdates not matching.

5) Other variations

Correcting these exceptions can take up to one hour or more per meet. A volunteer does this work, and it is

appreciated. The results are then posted to the Oregon Swimming web site and top times database. The exact same

process or a similar process is used by LSCs around the country. However, these are fixes at the LSC level and not

at the national level, i.e. the SWIMS database.

The best and easiest way of minimizing exceptions is for the host team and the teams entering the meet to use Team

Manager as much as possible and to make sure their Team Manager software has all the information recorded the

same way as the USA Swimming registration form. The responsibility for this is with each team and swimmer.

That takes care of the LSC side. Now let’s explore the USA Swimming side. At the USA Swimming level, the

SWIMS database is used to authenticate the import file for the top times database.

So far, so good. At this point the challenges begin. Another volunteer will upload the files to the USA Swimming

database and the results in the file are compared to the registration database. If there are differences between the

two, the results of the meet are transferred to a “holding tank” until the differences are corrected. Does that mean

that all the swims from a meet where there are differences are placed in the “holding tank”? No, it does not. Just

the swims where there are discrepancies.

The person uploading the results must then verify the swimmers registration, or find the correct swimmer in the

registration database and match the record up to the swimmers in the meet results’ file. This sounds easier than it

is. As mentioned above, there are a lot of reasons why a result may go into the “holding tank” for correction.

When this happens, the person uploading may not be able to proceed without going back to the host club or teams

or individuals who entered the meet.

At the local level and the national level, the decision has been made that there is a higher priority on accuracy over

speed. Some LSCs make as many corrections as possible prior to uploading to USA Swimming. Other LSCs

upload and then wait and see what goes into the “holding tank”. In both cases, the LSC is doing what best fits their

circumstances and situation. That is one reason why it sometimes takes more than a few days after a meet is

completed before the results are seen on the USA Swimming web site.

Perhaps the easiest way of thinking about the process is visualizing information going both up and down with a

variety of checks and verification procedures built in to provide for accuracy and security of both the data and the

athlete. That process can take time.

Another challenge is when teams go to meets outside their own LSC. The responsibility for getting the meet results

into the USA Swimming database lies with the host team and the LSC of the host team. Oregon Swimming does a

pretty good job of getting the results for meets outside Oregon Swimming for its own internal Top 5 swims or

record, but for the meet results to get to USA Swimming, they need to go through the local host club and local

LSC.

Let’s look at the process in another way. There are approximately 230,000 year round swimmers registered in USA

Swimming. Let’s make some conservative assumptions about those 230,000 swimmers. Assume each swimmer

participates in 1 meet each month for a year and at each meet swims 6 races. How many swims would that produce

in a year? Answer… a lot and it is a conservative number.

230,000 swimmers * 12 meets per year * 6 races per meet =

Let’s go one step further. According to the USA Swimming office, there is an approximately 2% error rate in

swims reported to USA Swimming. What does that mean to an LSC like Oregon Swimming? Let’s follow the

math.

16,560,000 swims * 2% error = 331,200 swims to be checked.

331,200 swims to check divided by 59 LSCs divided by 12 months = 467 swims per LSC per month to be checked.

That is a lot of swims to check! What is remarkable is how quickly these swims are checked and then posted to the

USA Swimming web site. It is wonderful testament to the great work done by the volunteers and coaches

throughout the country.

Does that mean we cannot do better? Of course not. But compared to where we were and where we are now, great

progress has been made.

If you have not checked out the USA Swimming web site and its ability to slice and dice results, it is truly amazing.

See you at the next meet.