A swimming gala is a swimming competition between clubs or groups of swimmers, usually of young people. This term is primarily used in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. In Australia ''swimming carnival'' is the norm.

Overview

In the UK swimming galas are traditionally held at the end of the summer and through the autumn. Typical groups that compete at galas include

school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compu ...

Girl Guides Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...

and Scouts other youth groups and between swimming clubs and between individual swimmers. As well as the usual swimming events, there are sometimes more fun or unusual events such as swimming backwards or varieties of mixed relays and special races are often staged for the group leaders. This could also be extended to others as well as leaders many others will have a go at the race. Swimming galas serve several purposes including competition, fund raising Whitney and District Swimming Club - Fundraising gala
and social bonding. There are a variety of galas, some of which are listed here. League galas are a set of galas (often three) between different clubs where in each race points are awarded, and whichever club get the most points win and get promoted to the next division. County galas are for individual swimmers that have achieved the qualifying times and wish to compete at a county level. After these come regional galas which have the same concept as county galas but for bigger areas so they have faster qualifying times. The next stage up are national galas which are for the best swimmers in the country. Open galas are galas hosted by clubs/organizations to raise money. Other galas include club galas which include swimmers from the same club competing against each other and galas hosted purely for fun.

References

gala {{Swimming-stub