Removing Duplicate Swimmers

Covered in this Article:

• What happens when I merge athletes?
• How SwimTopia matches swimmer records during registration
• Why duplicate swimmer records are created
• How to remove the duplicates and sync their times
• How to identify duplicates
• What to do if a name or birth date has a typo
• How to prevent duplicates in the future

What happens when I merge athletes?

When you merge an athlete’s data, you end up with one “version” of the athlete with all their time history and family relationships intact. No data is lost.

How SwimTopia matches swimmer records during registration

During registration, SwimTopia automatically syncs a swimmer's imported roster and meet result data with the new registration data, matching them by their name, birthday (if captured), and competition category (when present).

Why duplicate swimmer records are created

Sometimes swimmers are registered with a different name (nickname -> legal name) or birthday (data entry error) than what was imported or there could be an error in the spelling in one place or the other.  In these cases, SwimTopia will create a new swimmer record instead of inadvertently overwriting an unrelated swimmer. 

For example, Jenny's 2010-2013 results are imported as:

• First name: Jenny
• Preferred name:
• Middle name:
• Last name: Smith
• Birthday: Jan 1, 2000

But her new registration looks like this: 

• First name: Jennifer
• Preferred name: Jenny
• Middle name: Lynn
• Last name: Smith
• Birthday: Jan 1, 2000

How to remove the duplicates and sync their times

Use the Athlete De-Duplication tool by going to Settings > Data Maintenance. This tool will allow you to review and merge potential duplicate athlete records.

In the above example, the names and competition category are an exact match, but the birthdates don't match. In that case, you should contact the parents to determine the correct birthdate.  

Once you determine which record is the correct record, you can select that record and click on the blue Merge button.

How to identify duplicates

Every now and then, some duplications are different enough that they won't show up on the Data Maintenance tool… Here are steps you can follow to identify duplicate swimmers:

1. Often parents will point out right away when their swimmer's past results times or past season affiliations with your team do not show up in their account.
2. Admins can also identify possible duplicated swimmers by looking for similar names in the "Years On Team Report" in Reports. This report lists the cumulative number of years on your team, even if a swimmer skips a season. Again, Jenny Smith might show 4 years on your team, but Jennifer Smith will only have 1.
3. Another way to accomplish this is to review the ”Rookie Athlete Report” with the “Non-returning Athlete Report”. Obviously, a swimmer couldn’t be on both.
4. Compare those two profiles in People to determine if you have an unsynced swimmer.

What to do if a name or birth date has a typo

Use the search feature in People to find the athlete with the typo in their information and correct it (so it matches the “good” info). Then De-Duplicate Athlete will be able to find the two versions of the athlete and properly merge them.  

How to prevent duplicates in the future

If the athlete information received from another system in results imports, etc. is different from that in SwimTopia, you will most likely have duplicate athletes created in your site.

To fix that, once the athletes are merged in SwimTopia, you can export a roster from Reports > Athlete Roster. Import the roster into the other system and address any duplicate athletes there. Likewise, you can export the Meet Roster from your meet along with your Meet Entries and load that roster into the other system to deal with any duplicate athletes there before loading your entries. Once both systems have the same athlete information, you’re all set!

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