On August 12, 2022, the GSF unanimously adopted the BASE TIME PROXIMITY STANDARD to calculate the times and ranking of athletes to be selected for attendance at international off-island competitions which have a limited quota of participants, such as the World Aquatics Championships. Based upon a mathematical formula and sometimes called the “Highest Ratio” formula or the “Percentage of Time Standard,” variations of the criteria are used by World Aquatics and major swim federations as a way of establishing a uniform way to compare times and to rank athletes across different individual events. Regardless of which variation of the formula is used, the result is that a fair comparison can be made between differing athlete times and events.

The Base Time Proximity Standard compares an athlete’s time in an individual event to the “B” time standard (ie, the “Base Time”) for that same event as established by a competition’s meet organizers. The formula divides the athlete’s time by the Base Time, and the quotient is converted to a percentage. Athletes are ranked in order of their percentages, with the highest ranking athlete being the one whose swim time is closest to the Base Time (or “1.000”).

The Base Time Proximity Standard does not apply to the Olympic Games or to competitions which do not have a quota. For such competitions, athletes must meet the minimum qualifying entry times that have been established for the particular competition, together with any other qualifying criteria.

For the Olympic Games, the qualification and selection criteria shall be that as established by World Aquatics. If no athlete achieves the qualifying time, then at the sole and exclusive discretion of World Aquatics and GNOC, and subject to any other applicable criteria, the male and/or female athlete who has achieved the highest World Aquatics Points Table score in an individual 50M Olympic qualifying event during the relevant qualifying period may be invited to the Games.