Heats, Preliminary, Semi Final 1, and SemiFinal 2 ???

Question

What do they mean? what comes first? whats the order before the final?

Answer 1

Heats and Preliminary are the same thing. This is the first round of competition. All the swimmers who made it to the Games compete to make the top 16 times. These top 16 swimmers move on to the semifinals. Semifinal 1 is the simply the first heat and Semifinal 2 is the second. They race these two races to get the top 8 times. These top 8 swimmers move on to the finals, where they compete for gold, silver, and bronze.

Answer 2

you just said the order. say there are 24 people. only 8 of them can be in the finals. so 24 on in the preliminary, and there are 3 heats. 8 people in each heat. the top 16 times go to the semi finals. same thing but less people. Now the top 8 of that group go to the finals. then whoever wins out of that gets the gold.