Depending on how you look at it, either a weekend of torture or a couple of days of fun with your
swim team friends. Guaranteed to be
hectic and
insanely crowded with
throngs of
giggling girls and
guys in speedos. When you don't like them, they're really bad, when you do, they're a lot of fun.
People at swim meets always seem to be more idiotic than anyone you'd meet in the real world, and nomally like to endlessly debate things such as whether or not Chrissy needs another pair of goggles. About 40% of them are, of course, swim team parents.
During the course of a swim meet, many, many different events are run very quickly. However, even in spite of the tireless efforts of the volunteers who work the meet, it will inevitably last until 10:00 at night, if you have the evening session. People get disqualified, people false start and people trip and fall and break their necks on the slippery pool deck, all contributing to the general atmosphere of chaos.
Some swimmers are stimulated by this, however, others become tired and annoyed (and therefore, annoying) relatively quickly. When it's actually time to swim, the dumpy parents who are timing the race talk to you and you hang around behind the blocks for a while. Afterwards your coaches tell you what you did wrong. You scream for your friends, and you "get hyper" on jello powder and airheads. Wheeeeeee!