Knowledge Base — Merging duplicate swimmers

What merging does

You pick which record to keep and which one to retire. Everything moves onto the record you keep:

• meet entries
• results (their swims)
• relay legs
• best times
• team roster spot

Nothing is deleted and no times are changed — they just end up attached to the right swimmer. If a merge turns out to be wrong, we can undo it; just contact support.

Before you start

You'll need:

• A MeetDirector account that's approved as a coach of the club.
• Both swimmers on your club's roster.
• Another coach on your club to confirm the merge. Merges take two people: you propose, someone else approves. That's deliberate — it stops a single mistake from combining two real swimmers.

Step by step

1. Sign in and go to the Coach portal.
2. Under My teams, click your club.
3. On the Roster tab, click Merge duplicates.
4. In the Propose a merge box:
• Keep this swimmer (survivor) — the record you want to keep.
• Merge & retire this duplicate — the one to fold in.

Each swimmer is listed as #id — Name (age) — USA-S #, so you can tell near-identical entries apart.

1. Click Propose.
2. Your request appears under Pending merge requests. It shows exactly what will move — 3 entries · 18 results · 2 relay legs · 6 best times — so you can sanity-check it.
3. Ask another coach on your club to open the same page and click "Confirm & merge." You can't confirm your own request. Until they do, you can Cancel it.

That's it. The retired record disappears from your roster and everything shows under the swimmer you kept.

Which record should I keep?

When in doubt, keep the one that:

1. has more results, then
2. has a USA-Swimming number, then
3. has a birthdate, then
4. is the older record.

Missing details on the record you keep aren't a problem — you can fill them in afterwards on the swimmer's edit page.

Messages you might see

"Different gender on the two records" or "Different birth dates" A caution, not a stop. Usually it's a typo on one of the records. Check it's really the same swimmer, then go ahead.

"These records have different USA-Swimming numbers — likely different people. An administrator must merge them." We won't let a coach merge across two different registration numbers, because that's usually two different people. If you're sure it's one swimmer — a number was mistyped, or they re-registered — click Ask an administrator to review on that message. It sends the pair to us and we'll take it from there.

"The duplicate/survivor swimmer is not on your club's roster" You can only merge two swimmers who are both on your club. If one of them sits on another club (a swimmer who transferred, for example), contact support and we'll merge it for you.

"A pending request for those swimmers already exists" Someone already proposed it. Scroll down to Pending merge requests and confirm or cancel it.

After uploading results

If you've just uploaded a results file, use the Review data button on the upload summary. It shows you, for that meet only:

• swimmers that look like duplicates — with Merge and Not a duplicate buttons
• swimmers missing a USA-Swimming number, birthdate or gender

Clicking Not a duplicate means we won't suggest that pair again. Working this list right after an upload is the easiest way to keep your roster clean.

How to avoid duplicates in the first place

• Put the USA-Swimming number on every swimmer, in MeetDirector and in your team software. It's the single best way for us to recognise a swimmer, and it beats everything else.
• Upload your roster before you upload results, so swimmers already exist when their swims arrive.
• Use legal names in files. Put "Katie" in the preferred name field, not the first-name field.
• Check birthdates when you add a swimmer — one wrong digit creates a duplicate later.

Still stuck?

Open a support ticket from the Coach portal, or email support@meetdirector.online. Tell us the swimmer's name and your team code, and we can merge, unmerge, or combine records across clubs for you.