Can my child swim up or down an age category?

Swim up: an athlete may swim up one age category in Duet, Mixed Duet, Team, Free Combination and Acrobatic Routine.

• A 12 and Under athlete aged 12 may swim up to Youth Duet, Youth Mixed Duet, Youth Team and Youth Free Combination, and must then enter Youth figures.
• A Youth athlete may swim up to Junior Duet, Junior Mixed Duet, Junior Tech or Free Team, Senior Tech or Free Team and the Acrobatic Routine. A 15-year-old can also swim Junior Solo and Senior events because they are age eligible.

Swim down: one first-year Senior (20-year-old female, 21-year-old male) can swim down on a Junior Team, and one first-year Junior (16-year-old female, 17-year-old male) can swim down on a Youth Team. Only one athlete per club per age group can do this. With 4 or more athletes in the age group no swimming down is allowed, and permission is granted by the Rules Committee on written request from the club. The rulebook says the measure is meant to help small clubs.

Age 12 and Youth solo: a 12-year-old may request an exemption to swim up to Youth solo from the CAS Rules/Technical Committee by showing physical and psychological maturity matching their skills.

Source: Canada Artistic Swimming Rulebook (revised November 2025), rules 1.6 and 5.11.