A mile is a mile is a mile, right? Well, no — not if you’re in a pool.
A mile in swimming is not always the same distance as a mile walking, running, or biking (or any other way of covering distance on the ground). While a mile is equivalent to 1,609 meters or 1,760 yards, a “mile” swim race is typically 1,500 meters or 1,650 yards.
Here’s why: Only three countries (the U.S., Myanmar, and Liberia) still use imperial units of measurement, including the mile. Everywhere else, metric is the standard. That includes the Olympics, which has included a 1,500-meter swim race — a distance known as the “metric mile” — since 1908.
For swimmers training or competing in a pool that’s measured in yards rather than meters, a 1,650-yard distance — just under 1,509 meters — offers the closest approximation of that 1,500-meter distance.
And when calculating how many laps are in a mile in swimming, it’s important to know exactly what a lap is. One length of a pool — that is, swimming from one wall to the other — is considered one lap.
(You may have heard that one lap equals two lengths — up and back — but “laps” and “lengths” are actually the same thing.)
So if you’re training for a triathlon or just swimming for the cardio benefits, how far are you supposed to swim if you want to go one mile?
How Many Laps Are in a “Mile” Swim?
It depends on where you’re swimming. In open water, a mile is a mile. But in a pool, it gets a little tricky, because pools vary in size:
- To swim a mile in a 50-meter, Olympic-sized pool, you’d have to swim 30 laps.
- Swimming a mile in a 25-meter “short-course pool” would require 60 laps.
- Finally, you’d have to swim 66 laps in a 25-yard pool (the size of most college and high school pools in the U.S.) to swim a mile.
Here’s a table comparing what you’d need to swim in each type of pool in order to complete a “mile” swim race.
| Pool Size | Laps Per Mile |
| 50-meter pool | 1,500 meters = 30 laps |
| 25-meter pool | 1,500 meters = 60 laps |
| 25-yard pool | 1,650 yards = 66 laps |
Now, if you want to swim a full mile in a pool — aka 1,609 meters or 1,760 yards — then add another 2 lengths in a 50-meter pool, 4 more lengths in a 25-meter pool, or 4½ additional lengths in a 25-yard pool.
(It won’t be exactly a mile, but you’ll be within a few feet.)
No matter the distance you choose to swim, you’ll get a great workout and burn calories.
At a moderate effort, a 150-pound person burns almost 200 calories while swimming for 30 minutes.
If they swim at a vigorous pace, that same person will burn about 335 calories in 30 minutes.
So dive in and work on your freestyle stroke, or try one of these swimming workouts.
