Swimming NZ Competition Structure
Swimming New Zealand released its policy on events and its new structure of having "Officiated meets" and "Development meets” in May 2024. The Wellington region has consequently aligned the competition calendars and meets to this new structure. Regionally, Swimming Wellington has also taken into consideration the changing environment of competitive sport, understanding the broader environmental strategies in play associated to competitive sport and its role in society.
To that end, Swimming Wellington supports swimming both adapting and responding to this environmental shift and therefore supports the restructure of Swimming Wellington competitions into ‘Officiated’ and ‘Development’ meets in line with Swimming New Zealand’s policy. The structure means ‘Development’ meets (meets run at Tier 3 or below) focus on the joy of competitive racing and skills development, with ‘Officiated’ meets providing the opportunity for swimmers to achieve qualifying times for national events and a greater emphasis on performance.
Please note the 2025 calendar year (January - December) is currently under review by the Events Committee, some events are also dependent heavily on pool availability.
The SW Events Committee are tasked each year with producing the regional calendar. From January 2025, the SW Board have approved the following structure:
5x SW championship meets.
12x SW non-championship and club ‘officiated’ meets per year, consisting of:
a. 4x SW non-championship meets (i.e 3 x SW NQ meets and the Junior Sprints).
b. 8x ‘NQ’ single-session inter-club meets.
In addition to the above, there may be a further officiated 10 single-session meets, that may be NQ or club-championships and arranged by the clubs.
Development meet can be run by clubs at any point, and should be focused on a fun experience for novice swimmers and use the smallest possible number of officials. Flyers for these meets should clearly specify that the meet is a development meet.
What is an Officiated Event? And Who is it Aimed At?
This event targets the competitive swimmer who is aspirational and has an emphasis on performance. These athletes are typically at an advanced stage of their development. These events tend to provide opportunities to qualify for national championship events and recognition into SNZ HP athlete development programmes. These events are officiated to a national and international standard.
What is a Development Event? And Who is it Aimed At?
This event targets the competitive, club and recreational swimmer who is developing their skills as a competitive swimmer. These events recognise that participants do the sport for different reasons and allow clubs and SW to structure events that align to the participants needs. It also offers competitive swimmers the opportunity to practice aspects of their performance in a non outcome focused environment, before progressing onto the designated events.
Development events provide the athlete and coach a safe environment to build more than just sport skills by taking away the focus of results on the scoreboard and focusing on the development of the person and concepts associated to growth mindset and psycho social skills and behaviours.
If you have any questions on the new structure for the events in our region please do contact events@swimwn.co.nz to discuss further.
Comments