SWIMMING

The aquatic sport of swimming involves competition amongst participants to be the fastest over a given distance under self propulsion. It has been part of the modern Olympic Games since inception in 1896. Along with the other aquatic disciplines of diving, synchronised swimming and water polo, the sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA).

Competitive swimming in Europe started around 1800, mostly using breaststroke. In 1873 John Arthur Trudgen introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native Americans. Due to a British disregard for splashing, Trudgen employed a scissor kick instead of the front crawl's flutter kick. Swimming was part of the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens. In 1902 Richard Cavill introduced the front crawl to the Western world. In 1908, the world swimming association, Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), was formed. Butterfly was developed in the 1930s and was at first a variant of breaststroke, until it was accepted as a separate style in 1952.

The goal of competitive swimming is to be the fastest over a given distance. Competitive swimming became popular in the nineteenth century, and comprises 36 individual events – 18 male events and 18 female events, however the IOC only recognizes 34 events – 17 male and 17 female events. Swimming is an event at the Summer Olympic Games, where male and female athletes compete in 13 of the recognized events each. Olympic events are held in a 50 meter pool. Competitive swimming's international governing body is FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation), the International Swimming Federation.

The four competitive strokes are the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and (freestyle). "Freestyle" and "front crawl" are often used interchangeably, but "freestyle" properly refers to an unregulated competitive event rather than to any particular stroke. Swimmers generally choose to swim front crawl in a freestyle event since it is the fastest stroke. In events that require specific strokes, disqualification will occur if the stroke is not swum correctly, for example if the swimmer does not touch the wall with two hands during breaststroke or butterfly. These strokes can be swum individually or together in an individual medley (IM). The stroke order for such events is: 1) butterfly, 2) backstroke, 3) breaststroke, and 4) freestyle.

Team competitions take the form of relay events in the freestyle and medley styles. The medley relay has a different stroke order to the individual IM event. The relay order is: 1) backstroke, 2) breaststroke, 3) butterfly, and 4) freestyle. Teams consist of four swimmers, each swimming one quarter of the overall race distance.

The backstroke, also sometimes called the back crawl, is one of the four swimming styles regulated by FINA, and the only regulated style swum on the back. This has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disadvantage of the swimmer not being able to see where they are going. It is also the only competition swimming style that starts in the water. The swimming style is similar to an upside down front crawl. Both backstroke and front crawl are long-axis strokes.

Backstroke is an ancient style of swimming. It was the second stroke to be swum in competitions other than the front crawl. Backstroke was first inducted into the Olympics at 1900 Paris Olympics. Those Olympics included a 200 m backstroke race. The backstroke is also usually swum with bent arms underwater.

Backstroke is of similar speed to butterfly. Race times for the butterfly are superior to those for the backstroke mostly because the former allows a racing start from poolside and the latter does not. In races beyond 200 meters, backstroke would actually be the faster of the two. The maximum swimming speed for backstroke is around 1.84 meter per second. Due to its position on the back, backstroke uses different muscles in the upper body than other styles.

There are three common distances swum in competitive backstroke swimming, both over either a long course (50 m pool) or a short course (25 m pool). The United States also employs short course yards (25 yard pool). Of course, other distances are also swum on occasions.

i. 50 m Backstroke

ii. 100 m Backstroke

iii. 200 m Backstroke

Backstroke is also part of the medley over the following distances:

i. 100 m Individual Medley (short 25 m pool only)

ii. 200 m Individual Medley

iii. 400 m Individual Medley

iv. 4X100 m Medley Relay

These are the official FINA rules. They apply to swimmers during official swimming competitions.

Before the starting signal, the swimmers shall line up in the water facing the starting end, with both hands holding the starting grips. Standing in or on the gutter or bending the toes over the lip of the gutter is prohibited.

At the signal for starting and after turning, the swimmer shall push off and swim upon his back throughout the race except when executing a turn as set forth in SW 6.4. The normal position on the back can include a roll movement of the body up to, but not including 90 degrees from horizontal. The position of the head is not relevant.

Some part of the swimmer must break the surface of the water throughout the race. It shall be permissible for the swimmer to be completely submerged during the turn, at the finish and for a distance of not more than 15 meters after the start and each turn. By that point, the head must have broken the surface.

During the turn, the shoulders may be turned over the vertical to the breast after which a continuous single arm pull or a continuous simultaneous double arm pull may be used to initiate the turn. Once the body has left the position on the back, any kick or arm pull must be part of the continuous turning action. The swimmer must have returned to the position on the back upon leaving the wall. When executing the turn there must be a touch of the wall with some part of the swimmer’s body. Upon the finish of the race, the swimmer must touch the wall while on the back. The body may be submerged at the touch.

The breaststroke is a swimming style in which the swimmer is on their chest and the torso does not rotate. It is the most popular recreational style due to its stability and the ability to keep the head out of the water a large portion of the time. In most swimming classes, beginners learn either the breaststroke or the front crawl first. But in competitive swimming, the breaststroke is regarded as one of the most difficult strokes, requiring comparable endurance and leg strength to other strokes.

The history of breaststroke goes back to the Stone Age, as for example pictures in the Cave of Swimmers near Wadi Sora in the southwestern part of Egypt near Libya. The leg action of the breaststroke may have originated by imitating the swimming action of frogs. Depictions of a variant of breaststroke are found in Babylonian bas-reliefs and Assyrian wall drawings.

In 1538 Nicolas Wynman, a German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book, Colymbetes. His goal was not to promote exercise, but rather to reduce the dangers of drowning. Nevertheless, the book contained a good, methodical approach to learning breaststroke.

In 1696, the French author Melchisédech Thévenot wrote The Art of Swimming, describing a breaststroke very similar to the modern breaststroke. The book (Benjamin Franklin became one of its readers) popularized this technique.

In the pre-Olympic era, competitive swimming in Europe started around 1800, mostly using breaststroke. A watershed event was a swimming competition in 1844 in London, notable for the participation of some Native Americans. While the British raced using breaststroke, the Native Americans swam a variant of the front crawl. The British continued to swim only breaststroke until 1873.

Captain Matthew Webb was the first man to swim the English channel (between England and France), in 1875. He used breaststroke, swimming 21.26 miles (34.21 km) in 21 hours and 45 minutes.

The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis were the first Olympics featuring a separate breaststroke competition, over a distance of 440 yards (402 m). These games differentiated breaststroke, backstroke, and freestyle.

1928 was the start of the scientific study of swimming by David Armbruster, coach at the University of Iowa, who filmed swimmers from underwater. One breaststroke problem Armbruster researched was that the swimmer was slowed down significantly while bringing the arms forward underwater. In 1934 Armbruster refined a method to bring the arms forward over water in breaststroke. While this "butterfly" technique was difficult, it brought a great improvement in speed. One year later, in 1935, Jack Sieg, a swimmer also from the University of Iowa developed a technique involving swimming on his side and beating his legs in unison similar to a fish tail, and modified the technique afterward to swim it face down. Armbruster and Sieg combined these techniques into a variant of the breaststroke called butterfly, with the two kicks per cycle being called dolphin fishtail kick. Using this technique Sieg swam 100 yards (91 m) in 1:00.2. However, even though this technique was much faster than regular breaststroke, the dolphin fishtail kick violated the rules. Butterfly arms with a breaststroke kick were used by a few swimmers in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin for the breaststroke competitions. In 1938, almost every breaststroke swimmer was using this butterfly style, yet this stroke was considered a variant of the breaststroke until 1952, when it was accepted as a separate style with its own set of rules. In the early 1950s, another modification was developed for breaststroke. Breaking the water surface increases the friction, reducing speed; swimming underwater increases speed. This led to a controversy at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, and six swimmers were disqualified, as they repeatedly swam long distances underwater. However, a Japanese swimmer, Masaru Furukawa, circumvented the rule by not surfacing at all after the start, but swimming as much of the length underwater as possible before breaking the surface. He swam all but 5 m underwater for the first three 50 m lengths, and also swam half underwater for the last length, winning the gold medal. The adoption of this technique led to many swimmers suffering from oxygen starvation and even to some swimmers passing out during the race, so a new rule was introduced by the FINA, limiting the distance that can be swum underwater after the start and after every turn, and requiring the head to break the surface every cycle.

Since then, the development of breaststroke has gone hand-in-hand with the FINA rules. In about the mid 1960s, the rules changed to prevent the arm stroke from going beyond the hip line, except during the first stroke after the start and after each turn. In about the mid 1980s, swimmers were allowed to break the water with parts of the body other than the head. This led to a variant of the stroke in which the arms are brought together as usual under the body after the pull but then are thrown forward over the water from under the chin until the arms are completely extended. There was a controversy at the 2004 Summer Olympics at Athens after Japan’s Kosuke Kitajima won the gold medal in the 100 m breaststroke race over American Brendan Hansen, the world-record-holder. Video from underwater cameras showed Kitajima using a dolphin kick at the start and at some of the turns. Officials claimed that these kicks were not visible from above the surface of the water, so the result stood. In July 2005, FINA changed the rules to allow one dolphin kick at the start and at each turn, this change taking effect on 21 September 2005. The breaststroke starts with the swimmer lying in the water face down, arms extended straight forward and legs extended straight to the back.

The butterfly, (fly for short) is a swimming stroke swum on the breast, with both arms moving simultaneously. The butterfly kick was developed separately, and is also known as the "dolphin kick". While other styles like the breaststroke, front crawl, or backstroke can be swum easily even by beginners, the butterfly requires very good technique to be feasible. Many students consider it the most difficult style of swimming. It is the newest swimming style swum in competition, first swum in 1933.

In 1933 Henry Myers swam a butterfly stroke in competition at the Brooklyn Central YMCA in late 1933. The butterfly style evolved from the breaststroke. David Armbruster, swimming 'coach' at the University of Iowa, researched the breaststroke, especially considering the problem of drag due to the underwater recovery. In 1934 Armbruster allegedly refined a method to bring the arms forward over the water in a breaststroke. He called this "new" style "butterfly". While the butterfly was difficult, it brought a great improvement in speed. One year later, in 1935, Jack Sieg, a swimmer also from the University of Iowa, developed a kick technique involving swimming on his side and beating his legs in unison, similar to a fish tail, and then modified the technique afterward to swim it face down. He called this style Dolphin fishtail kick. Armbruster and Sieg quickly found that combining these techniques created a very fast swimming style consisting of butterfly arms with two dolphin kicks per cycle. Richard Rhodes, (p422 hc Making of the Atomic Bomb) claims that Volney Wilson invented the 'Dolphin' after studying fish, and used it to win the 1938 US Olympic Trials, earning him a disqualification. The provenance of the Butterfly stroke is, however, contested by 'Cambridge school' Historians of the art of swimming [see below].

There are other claimants to the title of 'inventor' of the butterfly stroke, however. Jack Stephens (involved in project Ultra at Bletchley Park during WWII), claimed to have invented the stroke almost 30 years before David Armbruster. Circa. 1907, at a public swimming bath in Belfast, 'Butterfly' Jack Stephens claimed to have perfected the rudiments of a stroke later to become known as 'butterfly'. Dr Philip Mcallister, of the Johns Hopkins and Cambridge Centre of Sporting Development Research, points to a swimming race conducted, in 1911, at the 'Holocokey' River in Belfast. Witness testimony reports of a "new stroke, something between that of a fish and a dolphin" which some contestants, in their bid for speed, reportedly adopted. However, the Irish Board of Swimming Ethics ruled that such a stroke was "ungodly", and excoriated the incidents from public records - thus explaining its only recent surfacing as a result of sustained archival enquiry. This stroke is used chiefly in racing and is adapted from the standard breast stroke. The swimmer's arms are lifted out of the water and extended, palms down, ahead of the body. The arms are then pulled vigorously, straight down under the body to the hips. The leg movement is the fishtail, or dolphin kick which consists of an up and down movement of the feet with the legs held…

Currently, the entire style is referred to as butterfly, but sometimes still also called dolphin, especially when referring to the dolphin kick.

This new style was considerably faster than a regular breaststroke. Using this technique Sieg swam 100 yards in 1:00.2. However the dolphin fishtail kick violated the rules of the FINA and was not allowed. Therefore, the butterfly arms with a breaststroke kick were used by a few swimmers in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin for the breaststroke competitions. In 1938, almost every breaststroke swimmer was using this butterfly style, yet this stroke was considered a variant of the breaststroke until 1952, when it was accepted as a separate style with a set of rules by the FINA. The 1956 Summer Olympics were the first Olympic games where the butterfly was swum as a separate competition, 100 m (women) and 200 m (men).