UNITED STATES MASTERS SWIMMING (USMS)

United States Masters Swimming (USMS) is a national, professionally managed, membership-governed, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides membership benefits to over 58,000 members across the country. These benefits include insurance, SWIMMER magazine, sanctioned events and many others. USMS and its 51 Local Masters Swimming Committees (LMSCs) provide direct support and club development resources to more than 1,100 regional clubs, local clubs, and workout groups.

USMS is the national governing body of adult swimming and one of five NGBs that comprise United States Aquatic Sports, which provides representation and advocacy within the international aquatics federations, namely World Aquatics (formerly FINA) and PanAm Aquatics.

USMS has an chief executive officer and small paid staff but is otherwise governed and run by volunteers, including the USMS president, board of directors, national committees, zones, and LMSCs.  USMS bylaws and rules are subject to the approval of the USMS membership via the House of Delegates at the USMS Annual Meeting.

When organized adult swimming started to become popular in the 1960s and 70s -- the early years of USMS -- the intent was for adults to stay in shape through swimming. Today about 30 percent of USMS members enter pool or open-water competitions. Contrary to popular belief, most USMS members do not compete.

NEW ENGLAND LOCAL MASTERS SWIMMING COMMITTEE (NELMSC)

The New England LMSC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit subordinate of USMS that serves as USMS's regional governing and administrative body, meaning it supports individual and club registration, event sanctioning and recording, officiating, awards and recognition, and other such matters in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The NELMSC had over 2,100 registered USMS members as of October 2024.

Masters Swimming clubs and workout groups come in all shapes and sizes -- big, small, incorporated, not incorporated, for-profit, not-for-profit, associated with a facility or organization (gym, university, YMCA, USA Swimming club, etc.) or not. These clubs and workout groups are not owned or operated by USMS, but many register with USMS, offer USMS programs, and follow USMS policies and procedures.

The structure and organization of USMS programs vary and are driven by factors such as pool availability, instructor or coach availability, community support, finances, and insurance considerations. Many locations offering USMS programs have on-deck coaches who write workouts and provide feedback and instruction.

To find USMS-registered clubs and workout groups, use the Club Finder tool and enter the team name and geographic location and radius you want to search. You can view LMSC, club, and workout-group rosters via the New England LMSC Membership Directory. USMS members can also access a user-generated list of pools by logging into your My USMS account and selecting Places To Swim.

Club affiliations are encouraged but not required. USMS members who choose not to affiliate with a club are considered "unattached" and assigned a club designation consisting of the letters "UC" followed by their LMSC number. The purpose of this designation is to keep USMS in compliance with World Aquatics’ rules concerning world records and rankings. Unattached (UC) swimmers are ineligible to score points for a team or participate in relays at sanctioned meets. A swimmer who wants to score team points or swim in relays must be formally affiliated with a USMS-registered club as indicated on that member's USMS card.

NEW ENGLAND MASTERS SWIM CLUB (NEM)

New England Masters Swim Club (NEM) is one of the largest USMS clubs in the country, with 40+ USMS-registered workout groups comprising over 1,200 USMS members. While many clubs across the country and throughout New England have multiple practice venues, NEM is the sole “regional club” within the NELMSC. NEM allows its constituent members and Masters programs to formally register "workout groups" with USMS and compete as local teams (under their workout group team name) within the NELMSC and receive certain USMS Program Resources.

NEM workout groups are structured various ways. Some have very few members, and others are as large or larger than most clubs but remain as workout groups because doing go allows their swimmers to compete as part of NEM's club team at USMS-sanctioned meets and open-water events outside of the NELMSC — e.g., national and international championships — and in other USMS-sanctioned events such as the USMS Virtual Championships.

Some workout groups (local teams), such as Charles River Aquatics Masters (NEM-CRM) or Boston University Masters Swimming (NEM-BOSMS), are associated with one pool, program, organization, or geographic area; others, such as SwimRI (NEM-SWMR) and Granite State Penguins (NEM-GSP), consist of multiple facilities and programs. Regardless of their structure, workout-group teams strive to maintain a unified team identify.

COMPETITION ELIGIBILITY


REGIONAL Club, LOCAL Club, & Workout Group Affiliations

Each year the USMS Championship Committee publishes a list of regional and local clubs.

A USMS-registered regional club consists of USMS-registered workout groups whose swimmers compete under their workout-group team name at pool meets or open-water events sanctioned by their home LMSC, but they compete under the regional club team name at national and international championships and other events sanctioned by other LMSCs or World Aquatics member organizations. New England Masters Swim Club (NEM) has over 1,200 members and is one of the largest regional clubs in the country.

A USMS-registered local club is one whose swimmers compete at sanctioned events (within and outside of their home LMSC) under the local club team name whether or not that club has USMS-registered workout groups. Great Bay Masters Swimming (GBM) and Maine Masters Swim Club (MESC) are the largest local clubs in the NELMSC. MESC is a local club that allows MESC-affiliated workout groups to register with USMS but whose members compete under the MESC club name and not their workout group name.

A USMS-registered workout group is a local team that, for USMS purposes, is an affiliate of a parent club. Charles River Aquatics Masters (CRM) and SwimRI (NEM-SWMR) are two of the larger registered workout groups in New England. CRM members practice at one venue (the Boston Sports Institute pool in Wellesley, Mass.) and always have coaches on deck, whereas SwimRI members practice at various venues, with varying levels of organization, some of which have on-deck coaches and some of which are swimmer-led practices. Some swimmers practice at multiple venues.

When a member of a USMS-registered club competes at a sanctioned national or international event — where workout groups are not recognized — or at any sanctioned event outside their home LMSC, they represent the club team (not the workout group) they are affiliated with in their USMS member record or declare unattached status. Unattached (UC) swimmers register official times but are ineligible to score team points or participate in relays.

Traditionally, when a swimmer submitted an application to transfer from one club to another, the transfer could not take effect until 60 days had elapsed since the swimmer last represented the former club in competition, unless the transfer took place at the time of annual registration. This rule has changed — starting with the 2025 membership year, any USMS member can transfer their club affiliation three times in a membership year without a waiting period. Changing your club affiliation while renewing your USMS membership and transferring to Unattached (UC) do not count toward this club transfer limit.

A swimmer may declare unattached status at any time without written application with one caveat — once a swimmer has swum in the first event at a meet the swimmer's club and workout group affiliation, if any, cannot change for the remainder of the meet.

At the annual Colonies Zone & NELMSC Short Course Meters Championship “WPI Meet” in December and the NELMSC Short Course Yards Championship “Harvard Meet” in March, registered NEM workout groups compete in the team-points competition as separate workout-group teams rather than as one parent-club team. Any swimmer who competes as a member of an NEM workout-group team in a sanctioned meet must be affiliated with that workout group in their USMS member record.

NEM members who are from different workout groups or not affiliated with a workout group may form an “NEM unattached” relay team, the time for which will be considered official for USMS purposes. However, any points scored by that relay team cannot be attributed to a workout group's point total. For a relay team's points to count toward a workout group's team total, all members of the relay team must be affiliated with the same NEM workout group.

USMS recently introduced an automatic membership renewal option. Whether you renew automatically or manually, your membership defaults to the current club and workout group affiliations in your USMS member record, unless you change them during the renewal process.

For more information about how club and workout-group affiliations affect competition eligibility, see USMS Rules 201.3 and 102.9.1 and NEM Swim Club’s workout-group policy.

MEMBERSHIP idS & FEES


USMS MEMBERSHIP IDENTIFICATION

A USMS membership number consists of four alphanumeric characters followed by a dash and five more alphanumeric characters — for example, 024G-S0UPY. The first two characters are the number of the LMSC in which that member is currently registered, in this case “02” for the New England LMSC. The third character is the year, in this case “4” for 2024. The fourth character is randomly generated. The five characters to the right of the dash are the member’s permanent ID, which remains the same year to year. Members may purchase a vanity permanent ID, for instance “S0UPY” in the above example. To avoid confusion, membership IDs never use the letter “O” and only use the number “0” for the circular character.

USMS membership types & fees

USMS club & workout group registration: $75, offered from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2025.

USMS Standard individual membership: $75, offered from Nov. 1, 2024 to Oct. 31, 2025.

USMS+ Premium individual membership: $249, offered from Nov. 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025.

USMS Year-Plus individual membership: $125, offered July 1 to Oct. 31, 2025 ($50 for 2025 + $75 for 2026). For swimmers registering between July and October, this option provides USMS membership through the following year with a discounted rate for the remainder of the current year.

USMS Bridge individual membership: Automatic complimentary USMS membership for registered members of College Club Swimming, who will be affiliated with their respective college club team in the national CCS LMSC (58).

USMS One Event individual membership (OEVT): $20 per event. New England LMSC policy permits OEVT memberships for sanctioned open-water events (offered at the event director’s discretion) but not for sanctioned pool meets.

USMS Trial individual membership: Complimentary one-time, 30-day, limited USMS membership for prospective members who want to attend USMS workouts, clinics, or swim lessons on a trial basis before formally joining a Masters program. Local fees may apply.

local program & facility fees

Your club, workout group, or facility may charge swimmers a facility or program fee (separate from your annual USMS membership fee) to cover pool, coach, lifeguard, insurance, and administrative expenses. For examples, see the local fees for SwimRI & South County Masters, for Charles River Aquatics Masters, and for Great Bay Masters Swimming.

One perk of registering your club or workout group with USMS is that it includes free liability insurance coverage for Masters Swimming programs that require all practice participants to be USMS members.

For more information about club, workout group, and individual USMS membership registration, see the NELMSC Join or Renew webpage or visit the USMS website.

resources & contacts

Info about joining USMS, membership fees and benefits, and starting a club or workout group:

Find your USMS number and/or club and workout group affiliations:

Contacts: