Declare your events for a meet

When your coach opens a club meet for declarations, you choose the events you want to swim. Your coach reviews your choices and builds the lineup. This guide walks through the form from start to finish.

On a high school team? Your coach enters you in events, so there's nothing to declare — see High School Meets.

Before you start

You can declare once the meet is Open for Declaration. You'll usually get an email titled Declarations are open for your meet, with a link straight to the form. Before it's open, the meet shows as Draft. Have your availability handy, and know whether you want to be considered for relays.

Declare your events

1. Open the meet from your Schedule and click Declare Your Events.
2. Check the bar at the top. It shows Declaration open, the meet's location and dates, and how long you have left (for example, Closes in 3 days). The countdown turns orange when you're within two days.
3. If the meet has sessions, mark each one Attend or Skip. Every session needs an answer before you can submit. Skipping a session means no events are entered for it. You can change your mind with Change to attending.
4. In each session you're attending, pick your events. Choose from Available events and click Join to add one. Events you've picked move up to Entered, and you can take one back out with Remove.
5. If a session has relays, turn on Available for relays if you'd like to be considered. You don't pick a relay yourself — your coach builds the teams.
6. Add a Note to coach if there's something they should know, such as a travel constraint or an injury. It's optional, up to 500 characters.
7. Check the summary on the side. Total events declared shows how many events you've picked and, if your coach set one, the maximum.
8. Click Submit declaration.

You'll see Declaration saved for your name once it goes through. You don't need to enter seed times — your coach handles those.

Event limits

Your coach may cap how many events you can enter. A counter on each session shows your progress, such as Events 3/4. When you hit the cap, the other events are greyed out and the session says Per-athlete limit reached. Remove an event to free a spot.

Events you're not eligible for

Events outside your age group or gender are hidden under an Ineligible events section. Open it if you want to look. If you want to swim one anyway, which is called swimming up, you'll see Enter a swim-up event? Click Enter anyway to continue.

A swim-up is a request, not a guarantee. It gets a small orange dot labeled Awaiting coach approval (swim-up), and your coach verifies it before the entry goes to the meet.

Change your declaration

Plans change. Reopen the form and the button reads Update declaration. Change anything and submit again. You can do this as often as you like until the deadline.

If you remove every event and submit, you'll be asked to confirm with Clear all event picks? — this clears everything you'd previously requested. If you leave the page with unsaved changes, your browser warns you first.

After you submit

Your coach reviews each request and decides what goes in the lineup. Once the deadline passes and the meet is Closed, you can't make changes. If something comes up after that, talk to your coach — they can reopen the meet or change your entries themselves.

Your confirmed events then appear under My Entries on the meet page, with your heat and lane once your coach finishes seeding.

Troubleshooting

I don't see Declare Your Events — the meet is still a Draft, or already Closed. Ask your coach.

It says the window hasn't opened yet — your coach set a start date. Declarations open on that date.

It says the window has closed — the deadline has passed. Ask your coach if they can reopen the meet.

I can't add an event — you may have hit the event limit, or the event is in a session you marked Skip. Mark the session Attend or remove another event first.

It won't save — check your connection and try again. If you see a message that your selections are no longer valid, refresh the page — your coach may have changed the meet.