swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

, the term short course (abbreviated SC) is used to identify a pool that is in length. The term is also often included in meet names when conducted in a short course pool. "Short course" is the second type of pool configuration currently recognized by

FINA FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administer ...

and other swimming bodies for pool competition; the other/primary pool length being "

long course An Olympic-size swimming pool conforms to regulated dimensions that are large enough for international competition. This type of swimming pool is used in the Olympic Games, where the race course is in length, typically referred to as "long cour ...

", where the pool is 50 meters in length.

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

and the

World Aquatics Championships The FINA World Championships or World Aquatics Championships are the World Championships for aquatics sports: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo. They are run by FINA, and all swimming events ...

are conducted in a long-course pool. In the United States, the term "short course" is more commonly applied to competition, which is more common in that country. Short-course yards is generally abbreviated as "SCY" to differentiate it from short course meters (SCM). The US national federations,

USA Swimming USA Swimming is the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States. It is charged with selecting the United States Olympic Swimming team and any other teams that officially represent the United States, as well as the overal ...

and U.S. Masters Swimming, both maintain SCY

USA records USA Records was an American, Chicago based independent record label. Jim Golden started the USA label as part of Chicago's Allstate Distributors in 1960, which was owned by Paul Glass. USA Record Co., Inc. had its office at 1448 South Michigan A ...

, FINA does not currently recognize records set in SCY, but does recognize/keep SCM records. USA college (including

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

competition) and high school swimming are traditionally swum in SCY. Short-course meter competitions are also denoted by listing of the actual meter distance: "25m" (in swimming, a space is not placed between the number and the ''m'' for meter).FINA World Swimming Championships (25m)
page of the FINA website (www.fina.org); retrieved 2011-07-30 Short-course records are traditionally faster than long-course records for the same distance. This is assumed to be connected to the increased number of wall push-offs, where swimmers can get powerful leverage from the wall.

References

Swimming {{swimming-stub

See also

References