Aquatics - Swimming

At the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, swimming competitions took place in the Yachting Marina at Zea (Piraeus). The swimmers boarded a boat that took them out into the cold waters of the Saronic Gulf, where they dove into the sea and raced toward the finish line at the Marina Zeas' shore.

Now, there are five swimming disciplines as well as relays held in state-of-the-art pools and raced by swimmers who wear aerodynamic suits. Swimmers race the individual medley, freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke, as well as freestyle and medley relays over a number of distances. The 2008 Olympic Games marked a new event: the marathon 10 km open water.

The Olympic and Pan American pool is 50 metres long, divided into eight 2.5-m lanes. Each stroke has its own regulations regarding proper starts, leg and arm movements during the races and how the swimmer must touch the wall at the end of each length. Where backstroke begins in the water, all other events begin from the starting block.

The freestyle events are those in which the swimmer may swim any stroke. In backstroke, swimmers must remain on their backs throughout the race except during the flip-turn. Breaststroke is a fairly complex swimming style that demands perfect coordination of arm and leg movements – which move simultaneously on the same horizontal plane.

The individual medley is made up of equal distances of the four swimming strokes in order: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. Four swimmers from the same team compete together in a relay event, each using one of the four swimming strokes. Once the first relay swimmer touches the wall, the next dives in. The more recent open water event is a 10-km race held in a river, lake or ocean.

Athletes

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