Competitive swimming

Competitive swimming is a racing sport, either individual or team-based, where swimmers use their whole body to propel themselves through water. Events are held in pools or in open water like lakes and seas. The sport is a major part of the Summer Olympics, featuring races of various distances in butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and individual medley. Besides individual events, teams of four can compete in freestyle or medley relays; in a medley relay, each swimmer uses a different stroke in the order of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle.

Each stroke has its own set of technical rules that must be followed in competition. There are also regulations on swimwear, caps, jewelry, and injury tape. While swimming offers many health benefits, competitive swimmers can develop injuries such as tendinopathy in the shoulders or knees.

Evidence of recreational swimming dates back to prehistoric times, with Stone Age paintings from around 10,000 years ago. Written references appear as early as 2000 BC in works like the *Iliad*, the *Odyssey*, the Bible, *Beowulf*, and the Quran. The first known book entirely about swimming was written in 1538 by Swiss-German professor Nikolaus Wynmann. Swimming became a competitive activity in England during the 1830s. The first indoor pool, St George’s Baths, opened in 1828, and by 1837 the National Swimming Society was organizing regular competitions in six artificial pools around London. The sport grew quickly, and by the time the Amateur Swimming Association formed in 1880, there were over 300 regional clubs in England.

In 1844, two Native American swimmers introduced the front crawl to a European audience at a London competition. Sir John Arthur Trudgen later adapted a hand-over stroke from South American natives and used it to win a local English competition in 1873; this stroke remains one of the most powerful today. Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the English Channel in 1875, using breaststroke to cover 21.26 miles in 21 hours and 45 minutes. His record stood for 36 years until T.W. Burgess repeated the feat in 1911. Other countries soon formed swimming federations: Germany in 1882, France in 1890, and Hungary in 1896. The first European amateur swimming competitions took place in Vienna in 1889, and the first women’s swimming championship was held in Scotland in 1892. Men’s swimming debuted at the first modern Olympics in 1896 in Athens. In 1902, Australian Richmond Cavill introduced freestyle to the Western world. The international swimming federation, FINA (now World Aquatics), was founded in 1908. Women’s swimming joined the Olympics in 1912, and the first international women’s swim meet outside the Olympics was the 1922 Women’s Olympiad. Butterfly was developed in the 1930s as a breaststroke variant and became a separate stroke in 1952. FINA renamed itself World Aquatics in December 2022.

Competitive swimming became popular in the 19th century. The goal at high levels is to break personal or world records while beating competitors. Swimmers aim to create as little resistance as possible for maximum speed. Some professionals without national or world rankings are still considered technically excellent. Training typically involves a cycle where the body is overloaded early and mid-cycle, then the workload is reduced as competition approaches. This reduction is called tapering, which allows rest without stopping exercise entirely. The final stage is often “shave and taper,” where swimmers shave all exposed hair to reduce drag and remove dead skin for a more hydrodynamic feel, potentially shaving milliseconds off their time.

Swimming is a Summer Olympic event, with men and women competing in 17 events each. In 2025, the IOC announced it would add 50m butterfly, backstroke, and breaststroke events, raising the total from 35 to 41. Olympic events are held in a 50-meter long course pool. World Aquatics recognizes 40 official individual pool events, though the IOC only recognizes 32. The international governing body is World Aquatics, formerly FINA. In open water swimming, events of 5 km, 10 km, and 25 km are held for both men and women.