Why did a competitor end up Fast / Medium / Slow?

The key principle

Banding is calculated within each class. Competitors are never compared across classes.

If the competitor has usable points

If the system can calculate seed points from the raw input (previous swim score / previous run score), then:

• The class is sorted from highest points (fastest) to lowest
• Top ~⅓ → Fast
• Middle ~⅓ → Medium
• Bottom ~⅓ → Slow

If the competitor has no usable points

• Declared Fast / Medium / Slow is respected
• Blank or unknown values default safely to Slow

Why banding can feel surprising

• Small class sizes exaggerate the thirds split
• Excel formatting changed the original meaning
• Many competitors had no prior data

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