Waterhole Swimming
Auckland · North Island
A typical Waterhole swimmer in 2026 so far, stroke by stroke: faster than … of every 100 swimmers of the same age and gender in New Zealand. 50 is typical.
* Swimmers are those who raced at a meet in Swimming New Zealand’s results; club members who did not race are not counted.
Who raced for Waterhole?
15 swimmers raced for Waterhole in 2026 so far. Each has a page of their own.
Do they get faster?
8 of 11 swimmers who also raced in the same months of 2025 scored higher this year, with a typical change of +8 points, about the same as the +56 typical for swimmers of the same age.
Swimmers who scored higher than in the same months of 2025, per 100; only those who raced in both years.
| Per 100 | |
|---|---|
| Waterhole | 73 |
| Swimmers of the same age across New Zealand | 90 |
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov 2026 against the same months of 2025 · n = 11 swimmers
Who stays with Waterhole?
48 in 100 Waterhole swimmers from the same months of 2025 raced for Waterhole again this year, less than the 65 in 100 typical for swimmers of the same age.
Swimmers of 1 Jan to 10 Nov 2025, per 100: whether they raced for Waterhole in the same months of 2026.
| Swimmers of 2025 | Per 100 |
|---|---|
| Raced for Waterhole | 48 |
| Raced for another club | 9 |
| No race this year | 44 |
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov 2025 and 2026 · n = 23 swimmers of 2025 · shares are rounded, so they add to 101
Where do Waterhole swimmers come from, and go?
3 swimmers joined Waterhole from another club and 45 left for one, 2016 to 2026; the most went to Mt Eden (23).
Swimmers who raced for one club in a year and for another the next; each band as wide as the number who moved, and the clubs stand in the same order on both sides. Clubs with fewer than 3 moves are together as “other clubs”.
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov of every year 2016 to 2026, each year against the year before · n = 48 moves
Who is still racing for Waterhole years later?
Of Waterhole swimmers of a year, 54 in 100 raced for Waterhole again the next year and 33 in 100 two years on; swimmers of the same age and gender across New Zealand: 67 in 100 and 48 in 100.
Swimmers of each year since 2016 (1 Jan to 10 Nov): the share with a club race for Waterhole one, two, three… years on, in the same months. Peers are New Zealand swimmers of the same start year, age and gender.
Years on, per 100 swimmers of the start year.
| one year on | two years on | three years on | four years on | five years on | six years on | seven years on | eight years on | nine years on | ten years on | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waterhole | 54 | 33 | 20 | 13 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Same age and gender across New Zealand | 67 | 48 | 34 | 23 | 16 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov of every year 2016 to 2026 · n = 395 swimmer-years one year on
How has Waterhole changed over the years?
15 swimmers raced for Waterhole in 2026 so far (1 Jan to 10 Nov): 72% fewer than in the same months of 2016; 35% fewer than in 2025; the most were in 2017 (69); across New Zealand, 5% fewer than in 2016.
Swimmers with at least one race for Waterhole from 1 Jan to 10 Nov of each year.
| Year | Swimmers |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 54 |
| 2017 | 69 |
| 2018 | 51 |
| 2019 | 45 |
| 2020 | 42 |
| 2021 | 29 |
| 2022 | 23 |
| 2023 | 28 |
| 2024 | 31 |
| 2025 | 23 |
| 2026 | 15 |
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov of every year 2016 to 2026
Who joined Waterhole, and who left?
15 swimmers raced for Waterhole in 2026, against 23 in 2025 (1 Jan to 10 Nov): 11 stayed, 12 left (10 stopped racing, 2 raced for other clubs); 4 joined: 3 new to racing, 0 from other clubs, 1 back after a break.
Swimmers with a race for Waterhole in the same months of each year (1 Jan to 10 Nov), set beside the year before.
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov of every year 2016 to 2026
How fast are they for their age?
A typical Waterhole swimmer is faster than 57 of every 100 swimmers of the same age and gender across New Zealand. Yet they overlap: 44 in 100 of them are slower than New Zealand’s typical swimmer of their age.
Peers are New Zealand swimmers of the same age and gender, compared by the World Aquatics points of their best race (one scale for every stroke and distance; 1,000 is about world-record speed).
| Faster than … of 100 | |
|---|---|
| A typical Waterhole swimmer | 57 |
| A typical New Zealand swimmer | 50 |
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov 2026 · each set beside New Zealand swimmers of the same age and gender · n = 13 swimmers with points
How does Waterhole compare with other clubs?
It is 27th of 106 clubs in New Zealand for how fast its swimmers are for their age and 3rd of 29 clubs of 5 to 24 swimmers (10th of 15 in Auckland).
Places count clubs with at least 5 swimmers in the period, highest value first; equal values share a place.
Places
| Waterhole | In NZ | Clubs of 5 to 24 |
|---|---|---|
| Faster than … of 100 peers57 of 100 | 27th of 106 | 3rd of 29 |
| Swimmers15 | 87th of 106 | 10th of 29 |
| Kept, beyond their age−17 in 100 | 90th of 104 | 19th of 27 |
| Gained more than their peers27 in 100 | 89th of 100 | 14th of 23 |
| Under a NZ Age Group time0 | 86th of 105 | 13th of 29 |
Where are they strongest?
Beside swimmers of the same age and gender, Waterhole swimmers rank highest in backstroke (faster than 74 of every 100) and lowest in breaststroke (45).
Each stroke and distance sets a swimmer’s best race in it against the best of New Zealand swimmers of the same age and gender who raced it; 50 is the typical swimmer. Faded bars are not clearly different from 50, or have too few swimmers to tell.
By stroke
By distance
| Faster than … of 100 | Swimmers | |
|---|---|---|
| Freestyle | 61 | 13 |
| Backstroke | 74 | 11 |
| Breaststroke | 45 | 11 |
| Butterfly | 52 | 10 |
| Medley | 67 | 10 |
| 50 m | 54 | 13 |
| 100–200 m | 65 | 11 |
| 400 m and longer | 50 | 8 |
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov 2026 · each stroke and distance against peers who raced it · n = 13 swimmers with points
How many swim national qualifying times?
0 of 5 Waterhole swimmers aged 13 to 16 swam at least one race faster than the 2026 NZ Age Group qualifying time for their age; swimmers of the same age and gender across New Zealand: 34 in 100.
Swimmers aged 13 to 16, per 100, with a race faster than the qualifying time for their age, gender, event and pool, beside New Zealand swimmers of the same age and gender.
| Per 100 | |
|---|---|
| Waterhole | 0 |
| Swimmers of the same age and gender | 34 |
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov 2026 · age at the last race · n = 5 swimmers aged 13 to 16
Where did Waterhole race?
Waterhole swimmers raced at 13 meets in 2026 so far.
The latest threeEvery meet
Did Waterhole swimmers race at school meets?
1 swimmer from Waterhole swam 9 races at 1 school meet in 2026 so far.
School meets are entered for schools, not clubs: a school race counts for the club the swimmer raced for before and after the meet, or in the three months before it when there is nothing after yet. They count in how fast the club’s swimmers were, never as races for the club.
How old are the swimmers?
3 in 5 swimmers are 10 to 14 years old; across New Zealand, nearly 2 in 3.
Number of swimmers by age at their last race in 2026 so far; 9 of the 15 are 10 to 14 years old.
| Age | Swimmers |
|---|---|
| 8 and under | 3 |
| 9 | 0 |
| 10 | 1 |
| 11 | 1 |
| 12 | 4 |
| 13 | 1 |
| 14 | 2 |
| 15 | 2 |
| 16 | 0 |
| 17 | 1 |
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov 2026 · n = 15 swimmers
How often do they race?
A typical swimmer raced 21 times, at 4 meets; swimmers of the same age across New Zealand raced 18 times.
Number of swimmers by the number of races they swam in 2026 so far; typical is the median.
| Races | Swimmers |
|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | 5 |
| 11 to 20 | 2 |
| 21 to 30 | 5 |
| 31 to 40 | 2 |
| 41 to 50 | 1 |
| 51 or more | 0 |
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov 2026 · n = 15 swimmers
When do Waterhole swimmers race?
The busiest day in 2026 so far was 1 Feb, with 29 races; all told, 278 races and about 45 km of racing.
Each cell is a week of 2026, from the first of January; the darker, the more races. Empty cells are weeks without a race; the outline fades for weeks still to come.
| Week | Races |
|---|---|
| 1 | 0 |
| 2 | 0 |
| 3 | 0 |
| 4 | 0 |
| 5 | 66 |
| 6 | 0 |
| 7 | 0 |
| 8 | 20 |
| 9 | 39 |
| 10 | 0 |
| 11 | 18 |
| 12 | 21 |
| 13 | 18 |
| 14 | 0 |
| 15 | 0 |
| 16 | 0 |
| 17 | 14 |
| 18 | 0 |
| 19 | 0 |
| 20 | 0 |
| 21 | 9 |
| 22 | 0 |
| 23 | 24 |
| 24 | 0 |
| 25 | 8 |
| 26 | 20 |
| 27 | 0 |
| 28 | 0 |
| 29 | 21 |
| 30 | 0 |
| 31 | 0 |
| 32 | 0 |
| 33 | 0 |
| 34 | 0 |
| 35 | 0 |
| 36 | 0 |
| 37 | 0 |
| 38 | 0 |
| 39 | 0 |
| 40 | 0 |
| 41 | 0 |
| 42 | 0 |
| 43 | 0 |
| 44 | 0 |
| 45 | 0 |
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov 2026 · n = 278 races
How much slower is the second half?
A typical Waterhole swimmer swims the second half of a race 9.1% slower than the first; swimmers of the same age and gender in the same events across New Zealand: 8.7%.
Each swimmer’s typical race of 100 m or more in one stroke, beside New Zealand swimmers of the same age and gender in the same event and pool. The first half holds the start, so even an evenly swum race has a slower second half.
| % slower | |
|---|---|
| Waterhole | 9.1% |
| Swimmers of the same age and gender | 8.7% |
Source: Swimming New Zealand results, 1 Jan to 10 Nov 2026 · with the halfway split recorded in a race of 100 m or more · n = 9 swimmers