Meet day eating is its own sport. Your swimmer needs enough fuel to race hard across multiple events over several hours, but eat too much (or the wrong thing) at the wrong time and they'll feel sluggish, nauseous, or worse — get that side stitch that turns a 50 fly into a miserable experience.
After a few meets, you'll figure out what works for your kid. But if you're still dialing it in, here's what most experienced swim parents have learned through trial and error.
Why Meet Day Is Different
On a normal training day, your swimmer eats a meal, shows up to practice, and swims for an hour or two straight. Meet day is totally different. They might swim a 30-second race, then sit around for 45 minutes, then swim again, then wait two hours. It's a weird pattern of short bursts of intense effort separated by unpredictable gaps.
That means you can't just pack a lunch and call it good. You need a strategy — small amounts of the right foods timed around their events.
The Timing Principle
The most important factor in meet day nutrition isn't what your swimmer eats — it's when they eat relative to their next race. Here's a general framework:
15-30 Minutes Before a Race: Quick Carbs Only
If your swimmer's next event is coming up fast, stick to simple carbohydrates that digest quickly and give an immediate energy boost:
- Banana or applesauce pouch
- Pretzels or goldfish crackers
- A few gummy bears or fruit snacks
- White bread or a plain tortilla
- A sip of sports drink
Nothing heavy, nothing with a lot of fat or protein. The goal is quick energy, not a meal.
30-60 Minutes Before a Race: Light Snack
With a little more time, you can add some substance:
- Half a PB&J sandwich (white bread)
- A granola bar (not the super dense, nut-heavy kind)
- Crackers with a thin layer of peanut butter
- A small handful of trail mix
- Toast with honey
1-2 Hours Before a Race: Real Food
If there's a bigger gap between events, this is when your swimmer can eat something more substantial:
- PB&J or turkey sandwich
- Bagel with cream cheese
- Turkey and cheese roll-ups
- Pasta salad (make it ahead, pack it cold)
- A wrap with lean protein
2+ Hours: Full Meal Territory
At longer meets with big breaks between sessions, your swimmer can eat a proper meal. Keep it balanced — lean protein, complex carbs, and don't go overboard on volume:
- Chicken wrap
- Rice bowl
- Pasta with light sauce
What to Avoid
Some foods just don't play well with racing. Steer clear of these on meet day:
- Heavy, greasy food — No burgers, pizza, or fried anything between events. Save it for the post-meet celebration.
- High-fiber foods — Whole grain bread, raw vegetables in large quantities, beans. Fiber is great normally, but it digests slowly and can cause stomach issues during racing.
- Candy and sugary junk — A few gummy bears for quick energy is fine. A bag of Skittles and a Snickers bar is not. The sugar crash is real.
- Dairy in large amounts — Some kids handle it fine, others don't. A little cream cheese on a bagel is probably okay; a big glass of milk before the 200 free is risky.
- Anything new — Meet day is not the time to try that new protein bar or the interesting flavor of sports drink. Stick with foods your swimmer has eaten before and knows they tolerate well.
Breakfast Before the Meet
This is the meal that sets the tone for the day. Eat it at least 90 minutes before the first event — ideally 2 hours.
Good meet-day breakfast options:
- Oatmeal with banana and a little honey
- Toast or a bagel with peanut butter
- Scrambled eggs with toast (keep it light on the eggs)
- Pancakes or waffles (easy on the syrup)
- Cereal with milk (nothing super high in fiber or sugar)
If your swimmer has an early warmup call and can't eat 2 hours before, go lighter — a banana and a piece of toast, or half a bagel. Something is better than nothing, but less is better than too much when the timeline is tight.
Hydration
Water is your swimmer's best friend all day long. They should be sipping water consistently, not just when they're thirsty.
- Water is usually enough for most meets. Your swimmer is in the pool, not running a marathon in the sun.
- Sports drinks make sense for long meets (4+ hours), outdoor meets in the heat, or when your swimmer is racing a lot of events. They replace electrolytes and provide some quick carbs. Dilute them 50/50 with water if the sweetness is too much.
- Avoid energy drinks entirely. This shouldn't need saying, but they're not appropriate for young athletes.
- Chocolate milk is actually a great post-meet recovery drink. The carb-to-protein ratio is solid.
A good rule of thumb: your swimmer should need to use the bathroom a couple of times during the meet. If they don't, they're probably not drinking enough.
Planning Around the Timeline
Here's the tricky part — knowing when your swimmer's events are so you can time their eating. If events 12 and 18 are 45 minutes apart, that's a light snack window. If events 18 and 30 have a two-hour gap, you can fit in a real meal.
The SwimDeets timeline feature shows you the gaps between your swimmer's events after you upload your heat sheet. It makes planning a lot easier than flipping through 15+ pages trying to estimate when event 24 will actually start.
Packing Your Meet Day Cooler
Here's a sample packing list that covers most scenarios:
- A few bananas
- PB&J sandwiches (pre-made, cut in halves or quarters)
- Bagels with cream cheese (wrap individually)
- Pretzels or goldfish in snack bags
- Applesauce pouches
- Granola bars
- Fruit snacks or gummy bears (small amounts)
- A turkey and cheese wrap
- Lots of water bottles
- One sports drink (just in case)
Pack everything in a cooler with ice packs. Label your swimmer's food if you've got multiple kids or are sharing a team area — food has a way of disappearing at swim meets.
One More Thing
Every swimmer is different. Some kids can eat a full sandwich 30 minutes before a race and feel great. Others need an hour with nothing but water before they're comfortable racing. Pay attention to what works for your kid and adjust accordingly.
The goal is steady energy throughout the day — no huge meals, no empty tanks, no sugar crashes. Get the timing right, pack smart, and your swimmer will have the fuel they need to race their best.