Swimming Level is a swimming standards platform created by Michael Clark and launched in 2021. It helps swimmers compare times across distance, age and gender using the same clear percentile scale as the other Strength Level fitness sites.
Enter your distance, time, age and gender in the Swimming Level Calculator. The result reports your 100m pace and, for yard input, your 100-yard pace, then compares the performance with swimmers of the same gender and age.
The original standards model used distributions of public swimming results for men and women and modelled how performance changes across distance. This lets the calculator compare non-identical swims and lets the public swimming times cover metre, yard, kilometre and mile distances.
Beginner means faster than 5% of swimmers, Novice 20%, Intermediate 50%, Advanced 80%, and Elite 95%. These population percentiles are general fitness benchmarks, not governing-body qualification standards; pool length, stroke, start conditions and open-water conditions can all affect a real swim.
This timeline is based on the original implementation and analysis records, launch references and public web archives.
Strength Level defined Beginner, Novice, Intermediate, Advanced and Elite at the 5th, 20th, 50th, 80th and 95th percentiles. Swimming Level later applied that exact scale to swim times, allowing performance to be interpreted consistently across strength and four cardio sports. See the Strength Level standards timeline.
On , the first Swimming Level model fitted log-normal performance distributions and connected distances through a fatigue curve. The calculator and standards pages were adapted for swimming on the same day, including 100m and 100-yard pace output.
Strength Level introduced Swimming Level across the public fitness network on . That completed one Beginner-to-Elite percentile system across strength, running, indoor rowing, cycling and swimming. Compare the current calculator with the earliest useful public archive.
Swimming Level added yard input and dedicated yard-distance standards in October, with both 100m and 100-yard pace views. This made the same comparison system practical for swimmers using metric and US pool conventions.
Michael Clark created Swimming Level and is its lead developer. He holds a master's degree in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge and previously worked as a Technical Lead at Redgate Software. Michael designed the site's performance model and leads its software development and operation. Read more about Michael Clark's work.
Strength Level Limited (company number 14076102) was incorporated in England and Wales on 28 April 2022. It operates Swimming Level and the wider Strength Level family of fitness standards websites.
We improve Swimming Level using feedback from swimmers, coaches and researchers. Report a problem or suggest an improvement through our feedback form, email support@strengthlevel.com, or contact us on Facebook.