B BB A AA AAA AAAA

At one time, USA Swimming categorized swimmers as 'A', 'B' or 'C', referring to advanced, intermediate and beginner levels, respectively.  Labeling swimmers did little to inspire advancement, so they scrapped the whole scheme.  Some old timers continue to use the terminology, most notably with the term "BC meets", referring to meets designed for novice and intermediate swimmers.

The concept of Motivational Time Standards replaced the old ABC notation, by labeling swimmers' times, rather than the swimmers themselves.  USA Swimming now publishes a set of six times for each gender/age-group/event combination, and labels them B (slowest), BB, A, AA, AAA and AAAA (fastest).  

A swimmer can now compare, say, their 100 yard backstroke best time to the Time Standards and see where he/she ranks.  If their time is faster than the BB standard but slower than the A standard, they are said to have a BB time in that event.  In theory (and in practice), the swimmer would then be motivated to achieve the next higher standard.  A swimmer can have a B time in one event, an AA time in another, and nothing in another.

That's a lot of times USA Swimming has to come up with ... 2 genders x 5 age groups x 15 or so events x 6 standards.  Actually, they have to do it all three times, once for each pool configuration 25-yard (SCY), 25-meter (SCM) and 50-meter (LCM).  That's 2700 or so total times, but they didn't stop there.

Beginning this year, they decided to create motivational time standards for each single age, not just age group.  Those Time Standards can be found here.  In either document, one must wade through the many times to find the right gender/age group/event.  You'll get used to it ... just make sure you scroll down to the right pool configuration to start. 

The Top Times Report on DART's website under the Swimmers tab (must log on to see it), displays the personal best times for every active DART member, and their highest achieved time standard.