Butterfly stroke

Lore & Background

The butterfly stroke developed from the combination of a dolphin kick and an over-water arm recovery, taking just under 25 years to become a separate stroke. The dolphin kick has been credited to multiple inventors: George Corsan demonstrated it to David Armbruster in 1911, calling it the 'fishtail kick'; Volney Wilson invented it after analyzing fish at the Shedd Aquarium; and Jack Sieg discovered it while imitating a fish underwater, later beating the best flutter kickers at the University of Iowa. Armbruster and Sieg experimented with using the kick in breaststroke, calling it the 'dolphin' technique.

Reader's Guide

Butterfly is significant as the second fastest competitive swimming stroke, requiring precise coordination of symmetric arm movements and a dolphin kick. Each stroke cycle consists of two kicks and one full arm stroke, beginning when the arms enter the water. The arm movement is broken into five phases: entry and stretch, outsweep and catch, insweep, upsweep, and release and recovery. The leg movement involves an upbeat and downbeat in each dolphin kick. Wave-like coordination in butterfly facilitates energy transfer, with higher-skilled swimmers traveling further per stroke and exhibiting greater synchronisation. Wave propulsion can occur if the swimmer sharply decelerates the arms at the body's peak velocity, allowing the wake to catch up and propel them forward. The stroke uses a regular start, with a gliding phase and underwater dolphin kicks allowed for up to 15 meters. Turns and finishes require both hands to touch the wall simultaneously. Competitive training often uses interval sets combining sprint distances with longer aerobic repetitions to maintain efficiency under fatigue.

Did You Know?

• Butterfly is the second fastest competitive stroke, slower only than front crawl.
• Each butterfly stroke cycle consists of two kicks and one full arm stroke.
• The dolphin kick has been credited to George Corsan, Volney Wilson, and Jack Sieg.
• Swimmers are allowed 15 meters of underwater swimming after the start and turns.

The Sixty-One-Day Gauntlet Across the Great Lakes

In the summer of 1988, Vicki Keith undertook what no one in history had ever attempted: swimming all five Great Lakes in a single continuous campaign. Between July 2 and August 30, she conquered each lake in succession. The campaign opened with a 26-kilometer dash across Lake Erie from Port Colborne, Ontario, to Sturgeon Point, New York, completed in just over ten hours. The true test arrived with Lake Huron, where she covered 75 kilometers over nearly two full days, arriving at Goderich to a cheering crowd of 400 who watched her power the final half mile with her trademark butterfly stroke. Lake Michigan, though three kilometers shorter than Huron, demanded five additional hours to complete. Lake Superior required 17 hours for its 32-kilometer span, and she closed the campaign with a 44.2-kilometer traverse of Lake Ontario. The entire sixty-one-day effort raised $548,000 for the Variety Club, proving that her extraordinary physical feats carried a purpose far beyond personal glory.

The Butterfly as Identity

Keith made an early promise to herself: everything she did in marathon swimming would be a first. That philosophy crystallized in 1989, when she chose to conquer major open-water crossings exclusively with the butterfly stroke. On July 10, she became the first person to cross the 33-kilometer English Channel using butterfly, finishing in 24 hours and 44 minutes from England to France. Twelve days later, she crossed the Strait of Juan de Fuca—29.4 kilometers from Washington to British Columbia—in 14 hours and 1 minute, the first butterfly attempt in 33 years. In September, she completed a 49-kilometer butterfly crossing of Lake Ontario in 31 hours, and days later, after an earlier failed Catalina attempt due to jet lag, she powered through 32.3 kilometers of butterfly across the Catalina Channel in 14 hours 53 minutes, battling two-foot swells. The Channel Swimming Association honored her with both the Most Meritous Swim and Fastest Butterfly Swim awards, and her Channel record stood for thirteen years before being broken.

A Career Measured in Firsts and Records

From her first major crossing in 1986—a 45.8-kilometer, nearly 27-hour swim across Lake Ontario from the end of Leslie Street Spit to Port Dalhousie—Keith built a career defined by superlatives. By the peak of her competitive years, she held sixteen world records simultaneously. Her 1987 two-way Lake Ontario crossing of 95 kilometers in 56 hours and 10 minutes remains a landmark of human endurance. She set a world record distance of 80.2 kilometers swum entirely in butterfly stroke and completed a 100-hour swim. Even in 2001, at age 40, she was still covering 35 kilometers across Lake Ontario in under 19 hours. Her 2005 attempt at an 84-kilometer butterfly shoreline swim from Oswego to Kingston, though thwarted by three-meter waves that slowed her to one kilometer per hour, demonstrated that her ambition never diminished with age. Many observers simply regard her as the face of marathon swimming, a title earned through decades of pushing boundaries no one else had dared to test.

The Advocate Behind the Athlete

Beyond her extraordinary physical accomplishments, Keith has dedicated her platform to advocacy for disabled athletes and children's charities. Her 1988 Great Lakes campaign raised $548,000 for the Variety Club, and her 1989 Catalina Channel swim once again directed proceeds to Variety children's charities. In 2005, at 44 years old, she emerged from swimming retirement with a specific mission: raising funds for the Kingston YMCA to expand opportunities for children with disabilities. That goal drove her to attempt two grueling over-80-kilometer butterfly swims within a single August, battling strong winds, high waves, and shifting currents. Her post-swimming career as a coach and advocate for disabled athletes reflects a continuity of purpose that extends well beyond the pool. Her honors—CM, O.Ont, LLD, ChPC—acknowledge a life in which the water was never the destination but the vehicle for service to others. She remains, in the estimation of many, the public face of marathon swimming, yet her truest identity is that of someone who swam to open doors for those who could not swim at all.

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