What is a good 50m freestyle time for a 10-year-old?

Among Australian competitive age-group swimmers, the median 50m freestyle long course time for 10-year-olds is 34.25 seconds for boys and 35.33 for girls. Around 31 seconds puts a 10-year-old in the top 10% of competitive swimmers of their age.

Are these average times for all children, or just competitive swimmers?

Competitive swimmers only. Every time in these tables comes from a swimmer racing at a sanctioned Australian competition, so the "median" here is the middle of the competitive field — already well ahead of the average child of the same age. A swimmer near these medians is doing well.

Why do the tables use long course (50m pool) times?

Long course is the standard for championship pathways in Australia, and it keeps the comparison fair: short course (25m pool) times are typically one to two seconds faster per 100m because of extra turns. If your swimmer's PB is short course, expect it to be a little faster than the equivalent long course benchmark.

My swimmer is slower than the median for their age. Should I worry?

No. Half of all competitive swimmers are below the median by definition, entry age varies enormously, and year-on-year improvement matters far more than any single benchmark. A swimmer who starts behind and improves steadily routinely passes swimmers who were faster at 10. Trajectory beats snapshot.

Australian data · 2022–2026

Average swim times by age in Australia

Median, top-25% and top-10% long course times for competitive swimmers aged 8–16 — by event and gender, from more than 100,000 Australian race results.

These tables show what Australian competitive age-group swimmers actually swim, event by event. For each age we take every swimmer's best long course time at that age and report the median, the top 25%, and the top 10%. One thing to hold onto while you read: every swimmer here races at sanctioned competitions, so the median is the middle of the competitive field — not the average child in a learn-to-swim lane. A swimmer anywhere near these medians is going well.

50m Freestyle (LCM)

Best long course times per swimmer at each age · seconds
Age	Boys median	Boys top 25%	Boys top 10%	Girls median	Girls top 25%	Girls top 10%
8	38.61	35.49	34.13	39.51	36.95	35.04
9	36.23	33.78	32.25	36.88	34.39	32.75
10	34.25	32.44	30.96	35.33	32.63	31.39
11	32.31	30.76	29.40	33.44	31.55	30.28
12	31.24	29.04	27.56	31.94	30.41	29.38
13	29.00	27.41	26.18	31.00	29.62	28.73
14	27.75	26.85	26.04	30.44	28.82	27.94
15	27.04	26.13	24.94	29.97	28.28	27.64
16	26.52	25.61	24.83	30.38	28.17	27.14

100m Freestyle (LCM)

Best long course times per swimmer at each age
Age	Boys median	Boys top 25%	Boys top 10%	Girls median	Girls top 25%	Girls top 10%
8	1:30.63	1:22.11	1:17.34	1:32.59	1:26.08	1:19.36
9	1:21.55	1:15.70	1:11.64	1:24.03	1:16.37	1:12.94
10	1:16.59	1:11.56	1:08.34	1:18.85	1:12.91	1:09.45
11	1:12.33	1:08.16	1:05.64	1:15.39	1:09.62	1:06.55
12	1:09.66	1:04.15	1:00.24	1:11.06	1:06.96	1:04.27
13	1:04.57	1:01.15	57.86	1:09.09	1:05.41	1:02.48
14	1:01.68	58.74	55.43	1:07.39	1:02.67	1:01.22
15	59.59	56.83	54.50	1:05.36	1:01.89	1:00.03
16	57.70	55.80	52.64	1:06.34	1:01.83	57.87

50m Backstroke (LCM)

Best long course times per swimmer at each age · seconds
Age	Boys median	Boys top 25%	Boys top 10%	Girls median	Girls top 25%	Girls top 10%
8	47.13	43.38	42.21	47.64	44.48	42.72
9	43.79	40.41	38.81	45.07	41.18	39.14
10	41.94	38.64	36.51	42.51	38.78	36.48
11	39.92	36.31	34.57	40.93	37.56	34.96
12	37.87	34.94	33.00	39.58	36.63	33.75
13	35.34	33.33	31.02	37.35	35.57	33.55
14	33.23	30.93	29.90	36.59	34.18	32.68
15	33.27	30.62	29.08	36.02	33.24	31.93
16	32.09	29.53	27.97	37.98	33.01	31.41

50m Breaststroke (LCM)

Best long course times per swimmer at each age · seconds
Age	Boys median	Boys top 25%	Boys top 10%	Girls median	Girls top 25%	Girls top 10%
8	54.03	50.81	47.26	55.49	51.73	48.90
9	50.71	46.51	43.23	51.39	47.78	44.46
10	48.12	44.27	40.67	48.99	44.45	41.48
11	44.89	41.73	37.92	45.74	42.20	39.70
12	42.54	38.23	36.06	45.00	41.10	38.62
13	40.06	36.91	34.12	42.48	38.24	36.09
14	37.31	34.18	32.61	41.72	37.94	36.45
15	37.08	33.43	31.66	39.95	36.39	35.33
16	34.93	32.48	30.84	40.10	35.47	34.40

50m Butterfly (LCM)

Best long course times per swimmer at each age · seconds
Age	Boys median	Boys top 25%	Boys top 10%	Girls median	Girls top 25%	Girls top 10%
8	46.64	40.57	37.30	47.93	42.46	39.62
9	42.44	37.90	35.35	43.02	38.98	36.61
10	39.19	35.67	34.06	40.05	36.28	33.91
11	36.90	34.54	31.93	38.45	34.88	33.17
12	35.18	32.32	30.21	35.95	33.43	31.79
13	32.91	30.36	28.70	34.34	32.55	31.04
14	31.13	29.21	27.80	33.03	31.38	30.32
15	29.63	28.19	26.48	33.53	30.59	29.60
16	28.58	27.27	25.71	34.49	29.82	29.22

How to read these tables

Median means half of competitive swimmers that age are faster and half are slower. Top 25% and top 10% mark the sharper end of the field — roughly the swimmers in contention at state-level meets in the older age groups. The gaps between columns shrink with age: at 8 the spread between median and top 10% in 50m freestyle is over four seconds, by 15 it is about two. That is the field converging as technique matures — and it is why small time drops matter more as swimmers get older.

You may notice girls' medians occasionally flatten or tick up at 15–16. That is not swimmers getting slower — it reflects smaller samples and the fact that girls typically reach mature performance earlier. Our companion analysis of how much swimmers improve each year covers this in detail. To check whether your swimmer is close to qualifying for a championship, try the qualifying times calculator.

Method: best long course time per swimmer, per event, per age (age at race date), aggregated across more than 100,000 publicly available Australian competition results (2022–2026). Every cell is based on a sample of at least 25 swimmers; most are well over 100. Anonymised and aggregated. Computed 5 July 2026.

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