Caballero, Maryjane R.

BSED II-C

HISTORY OF SWIMMING
Although humans have been swimming for thousands of years, swimming only became a
competitive sport in the early 1800s. Today, swimming is the third most-watched sport in
the Olympic Games.

Crossing the English Channel

In 1875, Matthew Webb ignited public interest in swimming when he became the first
person to swim across the English Channel. Swimming only breastroke, it took him more
than 21 hours to complete this feat. Thirty-one years would pass before another person
would successfully swim across the Channel.

The Debut of Modern Olympic Swimming

In the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, men competed in four swimming events, all
contested in the choppy open water of the Mediterranean Sea. Four years later at the
1900 Summer Games in Paris, all the swimming events (which included an obstacle
course) were contested in the Seine River.

Freestyle Evolves

In the early years of recreational and competitive swimming, breastroke was the only
stroke swum. In 1902, Australian Richard Cavill was the first to swim with an up-and-down
kick and alternating over-arm recoveries. This stroke, dubbed the Australian crawl, was
the beginning of modern freestyle. Johnny Weissmuller (who went on greater fame playing
Tarzan in the movie of the same name) became the first man to break the one-minute
barrier in the 100 Freestyle in 1912.

Women Make Splash Entering Swimming Record Books

For a variety of reasons, women had not been allowed to compete in Olympic swimming
(or most other Olympic sports, for that matter) prior to 1912. But that year, women made
their Olympic swimming debut, racing in the 100 meter Freestyle and the 4 x 100 meter
Freestyle Relay.

In 1926, Gertrude Ederle, at age 19, became the first woman to swim the English Channel.
She beat the contemporary mens record by two hours, and secured her place in history as
the first woman in a major sport to best a mens record.
The next year the Channel Swimming Association was founded. The organization would
not only establish rules for crossing the English channel, but have tremendous influence
over the growth and development of open water swimming as a sport.

Butterfly Emerges as a New Stroke

As the sport of swimming grew, many swimmers and coaches began experimenting with
new technique, particularly in an attempt to make breastroke faster. In the 1930s
Americans David Armbruster and Jack Sieg came up with the double over-the-water arm
recovery and the dolphin kick, respectively, which combined to form butterfly. It was
allowed as an alternative form of breastroke until the 1950s, when it was declared a
separate stroke. Also in the 1950s, flip turns, or tumbleturns, were first used in Olympic
competition.

At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Mark Spitz won a record seven gold medals in one
Games, while sporting his famous drag-reducing mustache. (Later in life he would admit
that the mustache provided no hydrodynamic advantage, and that he had made the claim
in an attempt to psych out his Russian competitors.)
The following Olympiad, in 1976, swimmers were finally allowed to wear goggles.

Open Water Swimming Goes Very, Very Cold

Lynne Cox, inspired by Gertrude Ederle and gifted with a unique physiology, swam across
the Bering Strait in 1987 without a wetsuit. Her swim was also a feat of international
political persuasion, as it took place at a time when Cold War tensions between the United
States and the USSR were running high. Later, she would be the first person, man or
woman, to swim just over a mile in the icy waters of Antarctica.

Backstroke Goes Underwater, Forcing a Rule Change

In 1988, American David Berkoff and other backstroke swimmers demonstrated that they
could go much faster by doing underwater butterfly kicks on their back than by swimming
on the surface. As a result, Japanese swimmer David Suzuki and Berkoff, the Olympic gold
and silver medalists in the 100 Backstroke, went more than thirty-three meters under
water at the Summer Games that year. FINA quickly amended the swimming rules to state
that backstrokers must surface at or before the ten meter mark. (FINA later revised the
rule to fifteen meters.)

The Most Decorated Swimmers of All-time

Also at the 1988 Games in Seoul , Korea, Kristin Otto of East Germany set the current
record for the most gold medals won by a woman in a single Olympic Games, with six.
In 2004 Michael Phelps tied Mark Spitz record of seven Olympic gold medals in one
Games, and eventually beat it in 2008, when he won eight gold. One of those medals
came thanks to an astonishing swim by his teammate Jason Lezak, who caught and
ultimately out-touched a French swimmer in the 4 x 100 Freestyle Relay.

Just Add Open Water to the Olympics

In the early 21st Century, swimming seems headed back to its open water roots. South
Africas Midmar Mile race attracted over 17,000 entrants in 2004, setting a participation
record for open water events. Accomplished pool swimmers began training for and
competing in open water events. In 2008, the International Olympic Committee
acknowledged the rising popularity of open water swimming and added for the first time a
10km open water marathon to the list of events contested at the Summer Games.

Competitive swimming
Internationally, competitive swimming came into prominence with its inclusion in the
modern Olympic Games from their inception in 1896. Olympic events were originally only
for men, but womens events were added in 1912. Before the formation of FINA, the
Games included some unusual events. In 1900, for instance, when the Games swimming
events were held on the Seine River in France, a 200-metre obstacle race involved
climbing over a pole and a line of boats and swimming under them. Such oddities
disappeared after FINA took charge. Under FINA regulations, for both Olympic and other
world competition, race lengths came increasingly to be measured in metres, and in 1969
world records for yard-measured races were abolished. Many nations have at one time or
another dominated Olympic and world competition, including Hungary, Denmark,
Australia, Germany, France, Great Britain, Canada, Japan, and the United States.

Instruction and training

The earliest instruction programs were in Great Britain in the 19th century, both for sport
and for lifesaving. Those programs were copied in the rest of Europe. In the United States
swimming instruction for lifesaving purposes began under the auspices of the American
Red Cross in 1916. Instructional work done by the various branches of the armed forces
during both World Wars I and II was very effective in promoting swimming.

Strokes
The earliest strokes to be used were the sidestroke and
the breaststroke. The sidestroke was originally used
with both arms submerged. That practice was modified
toward the end of the 19th century by bringing forward
first one arm above the water, then the other, and then
each in turn. The sidestroke was supplanted in
competitive swimming by the crawl but is still used in
lifesaving and recreational swimming. The body stays
on its side and the arms propel alternately. The leg motion used in sidestroke is called the
scissors kick, in which the legs open slowly, under leg backward, upper leg forward, both
knees slightly bent, and toes pointed. The scissoring action of the legs coming smartly
together after opening creates the forward propulsion of the kick.

The breaststroke is believed to be the oldest of strokes

and is much used in lifesaving and recreational
swimming as well as in competitive swimming. The
stroke is especially effective in rough water. As early as
the end of the 17th century, the stroke was described
as consisting of a wide pull of the arms combined with
a symmetrical action of the legs and simulating the
movement of a swimming frog, hence the usual term
frog kick. The stroke is performed lying face down in
the water, the arms always remaining underwater. The
early breaststroke featured a momentary glide at the
completion of the frog kick.

The butterfly stroke, used only in competition, differs

from the breaststroke in arm action. In the butterfly the
arms are brought forward above the water. The stroke
was brought to the attention of U.S. officials in 1933
during a race involving Henry Myers, who used the
stroke. He insisted that his stroke conformed to the
rules of breaststroke as then defined. After a period of
controversy, the butterfly was recognized as a distinct
competitive stroke in 1953. The frog kick originally used was abandoned for a fishtail
(dolphin) kick, depending only on up-and-down movement of the legs. Later swimmers
used two dolphin kicks to one arm pull. Breathing is done in sprint competition by raising
the head every second or third stroke.
The backstroke began to develop early in the 20th century. In that stroke, the swimmers
body position is supine, the body being held as flat and streamlined as possible. The arms
reach alternately above the head and enter the water directly in line with the shoulders,
palm outward with the little finger entering the water first. The arm is pulled back to the
thigh. There is a slight body roll. The kick was originally the frog kick, but it subsequently
involved up-and-down leg movements as in the crawl. The backstroke is a competition
stroke, but it is also used in recreational swimming as a rest from other strokes, frequently
with minimum arm motion and only enough kick to maintain forward motion.

The crawl, the stroke used in competitive freestyle swimming, has become the fastest of
all strokes. It is also the almost unanimous choice of stroke for covering any considerable
distance. The stroke was in use in the Pacific at the end of the 19th century and was taken
up by the Australian swimmer Henry Wickham about 1893.

Races
In competition there are freestyle races at distances of 50,
100, 200, 400, 800, and 1,500 metres; backstroke,
breaststroke, and butterfly races at 100 metres and 200
metres; individual medley races at 200 metres and 400
metres; the freestyle relays, 4 100 metres and 4 200
metres; and the medley relay, 4 100 metres.
Starts are all (with the exception of the backstroke) from a
standing or forward-leaning position, the object being to get
the longest possible glide before the stroke begins. All races
are in multiples of the pool length, so that the touch before
turning, which is varied for different stroke races, is important for success. In relay races, a
swimmer finishes his leg of the relay by touching the starting edge of the pool, upon which
his next teammate dives into the water to begin his leg.

Distance swimming

Any swimming competition longer than 1,500 metres (1,640 yards) is considered distance
swimming, an activity not governed by FINA. Most long-distance races are in the 24- to 59km (15- to 37-mile) range, though some, such as the Lake George marathon (67 km [41.5
miles]) and the Lake Michigan Endurance Swim (80 km [50 miles]), both in the United
States, have been longer. In 1954 a group of amateur and professional marathon
swimmers formed the Fdration Internationale de Natation Longue Distance; and in 1963,
after dissension between amateur and professional swimmers, the World Professional
Marathon Swimming Federation was founded. Throughout the 1960s the latter group
sanctioned about eight professional marathons annually, the countries most frequently
involved being Canada, Egypt, Italy, Argentina, and the United States. The British
Long Distance Swimming Association has sponsored races on inland waters of from 16.5 to
35.4 km (10.25 to 22 miles).