Assignment of swimmers to dual meet events

Abstract

Every fall, thousands of high school swimming coaches across the country begin the arduous process of preparing their athletes for competition. With a grueling practice schedule and a dedicated group of athletes, a coach can hone the squad into a cohesive unit, poised for any competition. However, oftentimes all preparation is in vain, as coaches assign swimmers to events with a lineup that is far from optimal. This paper provides a model that may help a high school (or other level) swim team coach make these assignments. Following state and national guidelines for swim meets, we describe a binary integer model that determines an overall assignment that maximizes the total number of points scored by the squad based on the times for swimmers on the squad and for the expected opponent.

50 years of OR in sport

“…Other sports to be analysed include: American Football (Brimberg et al, 1999)-where to place 'punt returners'; basketball (Annis, 2006)-when to foul; volleyball (Lee and Chin, 2004)-whether to serve when there is a choice; cycling (Scarf and Grehan, 2005)-which route to choose; yachting (Golding, 2002)-route choice again; pentathlon (Ladany, 1975b)-optimizing training schedules; swimming (Nowak et al, 2006)-team selection; curling (Kostuk et al, 2001)-when to be cautious, when aggressive; and skating (Kuper and Sterken, 2004)-choice of clothing.…”