Meet licensing

Licensed Meets levels, calendar and resources

Licensed Meets are swimming events licensed by Swim England. This means they have to meet certain standards to ensure fair competition.

The English swimming licensed meets calendar contains a range of ‘open’ meets, designed to give all competitive swimmers in England the chance to achieve their true potential.

Swim England licensed meet calendar.

More information

You will find a lot of information about applying for a licence and running a meet in the Swim England Meets Library.

The library contains a range of Word and PDF documents for swimmers and organisers alike. Everything from criteria for entry into events to a list of regional co-ordinators to contact is there. Any new help or guidance created for Licensed Meets will be added to the library.

If there is something you feel is missing or incorrect please contact Swim England.

Swim England East Region have more information about running a meet and what support they can provide.

Guide to the four levels of licensed meets

All licensed meets are subject to Swim England Regulations and Technical Rules. They are graded into four levels. For a detailed description of each level download the Swim England Open Meet Licensing Criteria (27 January 2020).

Level 1 Meets are long course (50m) only and cover National, Regional and County Championships. Their purpose is to enable athletes to achieve qualifying times for entry into National, Regional and County Championships.

Level 2 Meets are short course (25m) only and cover National, Regional and County Championships. Their purpose is to enable athletes to achieve qualifying times for entry into National, Regional and County Championships in short course.

Level 3 Meets are long and short course events. Their purpose is to enable athletes to achieve times for entry into Regional and County Championships and other Meets at Level 1 or Level 2.

Level 4 Meets are entry level events in pools 25m or greater. Borough Championships are an example. They are for inexperienced athletes and swimmers seeking to compete outside their club environment. If times are good athletes progress to Level 3 Meets.

The importance of insurance

All clubs, promoters and competition organisers are reminded that, for insurance purposes, all those officiating on poolside at any competition must be a member of a club affiliated to Swim England, Scottish Swimming or Swim Wales.

Swim England licensed meet documents