USA Swimming has released its “motivational times” for the upcoming 2024-2028 quad.
The time standards sets varying marks for swimmers aged 18 and under based on relative speed within the corresponding age group. The standards range from B to AAAA to give swimmers benchmarks for goal-setting and track improvement. Some local club meets will also set qualifying standards based on these times.
This document from the 2012 quad explains how the motivational times are determined. As a rough overview, they are built around a base “seed time”, determined by the 16th place time in a set of years. That seed time is then multiplied by an adjustment factor dependent on age group and by standard level.
Compared to the 2021-2024 standards, most of the times for the youngest age groups have gotten slower. Four years ago, we hypothesized this might happen due to the ban on the most advanced tech suits for athletes ages 12 and younger.
In fact, most of the standards have changed. You can see all the standards in the documents below by both age group (10 & under, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17-18) and by each age from 10 to 18. Times marked with an asterisk were updated for this quad.