Swimming

Swimming was included as a sport at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens 1896 and has been included in every Games since.

At Singapore 2010, swimming events will include freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly and medley, testing the speed and endurance of participants in individual and team competitions. As a first, a mixed gender event for 4 x 100m freestyle relay and 4 x 100m medley relay will be contested.

Qualification

Nations that finished in the Top 16 (by total FINA points) at the 2009 FINA World Championships are entitled to send a maximum of eight swimmers  (4 youth men and 4 youth women) if the athletes have achieved the FINA qualifying Standard Times.

Australia meets these criteria and intends to send the maximum eight athletes to compete in swimming at Singapore 2010.

For all other teams with swimmers that meet qualification time standards a maximum of four athletes (2 youth men and 2 youth women) can be selected. For teams that do not have swimmers that meet qualification time standard: One male and one female can be entered regardless of times.

Achieving the qualifying standard time does not automatically give the right to participate in the Games. FINA will confirm the swimmers up to the total number of 140 Youth Men and Youth Women in accordance with the FINA Qualification System Timeline and FINA points table.

In case all Continents are not represented in the Top 16 teams from the 2009 FINA World Championships 2009, the highest finishing team from an unrepresented Continent will be allowed to enter up to eight athletes (4 youth men and 4 youth women) having achieved the required qualifying times.

The host country will automatically qualify eight swimmers (4 youth men and 4 youth women), regardless of qualification standards.

Competition Format

The YOG swimming competition consists of individual events, team relay events (single gender) and team relay events (mixed gender). There are 34 events in total (16 youth women’s events, 16 youth men’s events and two mixed events).

Individual events of 50m and 100m will consist of heats, semi-finals and final. Individual events of 200m and 400m will consist of heats and final. Relay events will consist of heats and final.

Australia and Olympic Swimming

Australia has been a dominant force in swimming throughout Olympic history. Australia has secured 58 gold, 59 silver and 62 bronze and produced countless Olympic heroes that have inspired the nation.

Venue – Singapore Sports School

The Singapore Sports School is located in the north-west part of Singapore. Opened in 2004, it is Singapore’s premier sports and educational training institute. Its intake is made up of students between 13 and 17 years of age.

It is built on a 7-hectare site and fully-equipped with sports training, education and residential facilities. The Sports School has two Olympic-sized swimming pools, covered by a four-storey high shelter. The Sports School has hosted the 2006 Asian Swimming Championships and the Singapore Open National Swimming Championships for the past three years. In 2008, the best of the world’s swimming fraternity also competed at the Singapore Sports School during the FINA Swimming World Cup 2008.

The Sports School also has a 400-seater indoor multi-sports auditorium, a 10-court badminton training centre, a table tennis centre which can accommodate up to 32 tables, an eight-lane 400-metre synthetic rubber running track, a synthetic soccer field, and a two-storey gym and strength and conditioning centre. A total of 1,800 temporary seats are also installed for the swimming competitions.

The various components of modern pentathlon will make use of the swimming pool, table tennis hall and field within the school. It is also the first time that the Singapore Sports School opens up its door for an international competition in shooting, which is a niche sports programme offered in the Sports School.