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Competitive Swimming Begins!
Competitive swimming first started in Britian around 1830, mostly using breaststroke. Read more here! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_swimming -
The Development of the Stroke
In London in 1844, there was a race between two Native Americans and an Englishman. The Englishman lost the race. The Native American swimming swimming method proved to be much faster than the Englishman's breaststroke. His swimming was considered "un-European" and "barbaric".The sidestroke surpassed the breaststroke as the most popular racing stroke in England. Read more here! https://www.livestrong.com/article/342427-the-history-of-competitive-swimming/ -
The Development of Freestyle
After observing natives in Australia swimming in a style similar to the Native Americans, Englishman Fred Cavill began to practice the freestyle, teaching it to his sons. His son won a race with this stroke, and described the swimming style as a way of “crawling” through the water. Thus the stroke became known as the front crawl, aka freestyle! Here's how to swim freestyle!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH9z7eTfEvo https://www.livestrong.com/article/342427-the-history-of-competitive-swimming/ -
Early Swimming Competitions
While the English swimming organizations paid little attention to rules standardization and timing in the 19th century, Australians began to hold regular championship races. In 1846, William Redman won the 440-yard freestyle championship with a time of 8:43. Australia began to hold regular championships in 1889. Alfred Hajos became the first Olympic swimming champion at the 1896 Athens Olympics. Read more here! https://www.livestrong.com/article/342427-the-history-of-competitive-swimming/ -
Amateur Swimming Association
In 1880, the sport grew in popularity when the first national governing body, the Amateur Swimming Association, was formed. At this time, there were over 300 regional clubs in operation across the country. Read more here! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swim_England -
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20th Century Swimming Up Until Today
From 1908 to 1956, men swam only the freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke. Women swam only the freestyle at the Olympics until 1924. FINA also introduced medley relay events to competition. As of 2010, men and women swim the same number of events at the Olympics, including four freestyle races, two backstroke races, two breaststroke races, two butterfly races, two individual medleys, two freestyle team races and one team medley race. -
Current Rules and Regulations of Swimming
Here is a website and video that explains the current rules and relations of swimming as of 2017. http://www.fina.org/content/swimming-rules https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEWHheaQifs
