The Olympics - Competitive Swimming
The Olympics are a huge event in the world of competitive swimming. Considering there is only one major international meet a year (World Championships), and the fact that there is only 2 major international meets that are held in Long Course Meters every four years, having the Olympics every four years provides the sport with its biggest competition. The Olympics also provides the sport of competitive swimming international attention from people of all sports.
The qualifying process for the Olympics differs from country to country, but there is usually a national level meet called "Olympic Trials" that determines who goes. Typically, the top two swimmers in each event qualify for the Olympics, excluding the 100m Freestyle and 200m Freestyle events where the top four go due to relays.
Even if you make the top two for an event at Olympic Trials, there is a chance you still won't get to go. There is also the FINA Olympic Qualifying Standards, which are a list of times for each event that every swimmer around the world have to exceed. If any of the top two swimmers do not make these standards, no matter if they're top two or not, they do not get to go to the olympics. It's rather unfortunate that they have this rule; people can miss out on their life dreams by one one-hundredth of a second even if they come in the top two in their country. The Qualifying Standards are found here: http://www.fina.org/H2O/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1691&Itemid=764
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