The Greatest Challenge in Swimming Since the Invention of Water
53 Events
3 Courses
0 Excuses
53 Events
3 Courses
0 Excuses
To challenge all Swimmers to do something never been done before
Until now our entire focus has been on the stopwatch, this is how we've measured, for good reason, our efforts and success.
There is much more to swimming than this path
This Challenge is open to all swimmers
to change the way we look at competitive swimming:
Y, US Swimming, AAU, High School, Summer leagues, Adult leagues, JUCO, NAIA, NCAA, Masters and World Aquatics.
This is the Greatest Challenge in Swimming Since the Invention of Water
What does it mean to Swim the Cycle?
You have to swim every individual event.
How does that work?
In practice or a meet?
How long do I have to do this?
What if I only swim in 25 Yard pools?
Some background......
In swimming we compete in three different official pool distances: 50 meters, LCM Long Course Meters
25 meters, SCM Short Course Meters
in the United States we have
25 yards SCY Short Course Yards
(Open Water is a different category)
In backstroke breaststroke and butterfly we compete in distances of 50, 100 and 200.
In freestyle we compete in distances of 50, 100 and 200 in addition we also compete in the 400/500, 800/1000 and 1500/1650 "distance" events.
In individual medley in the Short Course 25 Meter and Yard courses we compete in individual medley distances of 100, 200 400. In Long Course 50 meters we only compete in 200 and 400.
Freestyle
50, 100, 200, 400M/500Y, 800M/1000Y, 1500M/1650Y
Backstroke
50, 100, 200
Breast Stroke
50, 100, 200
Butterfly
50, 100, 200
IM-Individual Medley - one equal distance of each stroke in Butterfly-Back--Breast-Free order
100 (25M & 25Y only), 200, 400
Long Course 50 Meters have 17 official events
Short course 25 Meter and Short course Yards
have 18 official events
in total.......
53 total individual events over the three course lengths
Swim all 53 is to Swim the Cycle
The purpose is to have completed the cycle to being challenged and come through the challenge yourself and challenge others and really bring a new dimension to our sport
To "Swim the Cycle" a swimmer has to have competed in an official meet at least one time in each of 53 events, finished the race, not be disqualified and been given an official verified time.
There are variations of Swimming the Cycle
Complete the Cycle only in a 50 meters
Completed the Cycle only in either a 25 meters or 25 yards
Mini Cycles
Complete all of the butterfly events in all 3 courses
Complete all of the breaststroke events in all 3 courses
Complete all of the backstroke events in all 3 courses
Complete all of the IM events in all 3 courses
Complete all of the freestyle events in all 3 courses
and so on.....
You could have complete the cycle in a year you could have completed the cycle in your age group. Or even completing the cycle in your lifetime.
Personalize your challenge
This is your challenge, your journey
The purpose is to have completed the cycle to being challenged and come through the challenge yourself and challenge others and really bring a new dimension to our sport
As we roll this program out we will be adding Open Water events.
1. THE CHALLENGE: 53 events. 3 courses. 0 shortcuts
2. THE REWARD: The Patch that needs no explanation, just the eternal respect from anyone who ever swam
3. THE RULES: Legal races in real verifiable meets, not in practice....Legends aren't made in the backyard
53 events no excuses
Every stroke every distance. Collect each event, think Pokemon with a lot more chlorine
From age 6 to 106
No podiums. Just a patch, a story, and maybe PTSD from the 200 fly
You don’t have to be an Olympian. You just have to be unstoppable
The 400 IM isn’t a race. It’s a right of passage.
Where your heart is more important than a stopwatch
This is Swim for the Cycle: We challenge you to race EVERY competitive event - all 53 of them. From the 50 free to the 1650, every stroke, every distance. Earn the ‘All Guts. No Glory’ patch
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