Swimming | Definition, History, Strokes, & Facts | Britannica
swimming
sport and recreation Actions Cite verified Cite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style Copy Citation Share Share Share to social media Facebook Twitter URL https://www.britannica.com/sports/swimming-sport Give Feedback External Websites Feedback Thank you for your feedbackOur editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
External Websites Olympic.org - Swimming Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand - Swimming Live Science - Is swimming cardio? Better Health Channel - Swimming - health benefits Verywell Fit - 7 Health Benefits of Swimming Britannica Websites Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. swimming - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11) swimming - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) Print print Print Please select which sections you would like to print: Cite verified Cite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style Copy Citation Share Share Share to social media Facebook Twitter URL https://www.britannica.com/sports/swimming-sport Feedback External Websites Feedback Thank you for your feedbackOur editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
External Websites Olympic.org - Swimming Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand - Swimming Live Science - Is swimming cardio? Better Health Channel - Swimming - health benefits Verywell Fit - 7 Health Benefits of Swimming Britannica Websites Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. swimming - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11) swimming - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Jan 25, 2024 • Article History Table of Contents Michael Phelps See all media Category: Arts & Culture Key People: Nathan Adrian Michael Phelps Ryan Lochte Katie Ledecky Missy Franklin (Show more) Related Topics: synchronized swimming 100-metre backstroke race crawl breaststroke butterfly stroke (Show more) On the Web: Better Health Channel - Swimming - health benefits (Jan. 25, 2024) (Show more) See all related contentswimming , in recreation and sports , the propulsion of the body through water by combined arm and leg motions and the natural flotation of the body. Swimming as an exercise is popular as an all-around body developer and is particularly useful in therapy and as exercise for physically handicapped persons. It is also taught for lifesaving purposes. For activities that involve swimming, see also diving , lifesaving , surfing , synchronized swimming , underwater diving , and water polo .
History
Archaeological and other evidence shows swimming to have been practiced as early as 2500 bce in Egypt and thereafter in Assyrian, Greek, and Roman civilizations. In Greece and Rome swimming was a part of martial training and was, with the alphabet, also part of elementary education for males. In the Orient swimming dates back at least to the 1st century bce , there being some evidence of swimming races then in Japan . By the 17th century an imperial edict had made the teaching of swimming compulsory in the schools. Organized swimming events were held in the 19th century before Japan was opened to the Western world. Among the preliterate maritime peoples of the Pacific, swimming was evidently learned by children about the time they walked, or even before. Among the ancient Greeks there is note of occasional races, and a famous boxer swam as part of his training. The Romans built swimming pools , distinct from their baths. In the 1st century bce the Roman Gaius Maecenas is said to have built the first heated swimming pool.
The lack of swimming in Europe during the Middle Ages is explained by some authorities as having been caused by a fear that swimming spread infection and caused epidemics . There is some evidence of swimming at seashore resorts of Great Britain in the late 17th century, evidently in conjunction with water therapy. Not until the 19th century, however, did the popularity of swimming as both recreation and sport begin in earnest. When the first swimming organization was formed there in 1837, London had six indoor pools with diving boards. The first swimming championship was a 440-yard (400-metre) race, held in Australia in 1846 and annually thereafter. The Metropolitan Swimming Clubs of London, founded in 1869, ultimately became the Amateur Swimming Association, the governing body of British amateur swimming. National swimming federations were formed in several European countries from 1882 to 1889. In the United States swimming was first nationally organized as a sport by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) on its founding in 1888. The Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA) was founded in 1909.
Competitive swimming
Katie Ledecky Katie Ledecky of the United States (centre) competing in the final of the women's 400-metre freestyle swim at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, August 7, 2016. (more)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 women’s 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. The kinds of strokes allowed were reduced to freestyle (crawl), backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly. All four strokes were used in individual medley races. 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.
Britannica Quiz Water Sports QuizInstruction 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. Courses taught by community organizations and schools, extending ultimately to very young infants, became common.
The early practice of simply swimming as much as possible at every workout was replaced by interval training and repeat training by the late 1950s. Interval training consists of a series of swims of the same distance with controlled rest periods. In slow interval training, used primarily to develop endurance, the rest period is always shorter than the time taken to swim the prescribed distance. Fast interval training, used primarily to develop speed, permits rest periods long enough to allow almost complete recovery of the heart and breathing rate.
Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now Why peeing in a swimming pool is a hazard Discover the hazardous effect of urinating in a swimming pool. (more) See all videos for this articleThe increased emphasis on international competition led to the growing availability of 50-metre (164-foot) pools. Other adjuncts that improved both training and performance included wave-killing gutters for pools, racing lane markers that also reduce turbulence, cameras for underwater study of strokes, large clocks visible to swimmers, and electrically operated touch and timing devices. Since 1972 all world records have been expressed in hundredths of a second. Advances in swimsuit technology reached a head at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing , where swimmers—wearing high-tech bodysuits that increased buoyancy and decreased water resistance—broke 25 world records. After another round of record-shattering times at the 2009 world championships, FINA banned such bodysuits, for fear that they augmented a competitor’s true ability.