Preliminaries Meaning in Swimming

Preliminaries are the qualifying rounds held during the morning session of a large swim meet. Swimmers compete in these heats to earn a spot in the final races later that day. Only the fastest eight or sixteen athletes move on to compete for the official medals. This round filters the large field of participants down to the top competitive performers. A swimmer finishes fifth in the preliminaries to qualify for the center lane at night. Athletes often try to swim just fast enough to qualify while saving energy for finals. These races set the tone for the entire competition and build excitement for the evening. Officials use these times to seed the final heats accurately for the championship session.