Humans have been playing and moving in water for thousands of years. Previously seen as a leisure or training activity, swimming became a more structured sport in the 19th century, and a host of other aquatic disciplines followed. Now, swimming, diving, artistic swimming, and water polo are just a few of the water-based events that host regular, elite-level competitions across the globe.
📜 History of Swimming
Records from Ancient Egypt show that people have been swimming – and even building private swimming pools – since around 9000 BCE. Egyptians may even have swum in the Nile, although the abundance of crocodiles would have made it a risky proposition.
Several guides to swimming were published in Europe in the 16th century, and the Emperor of Japan stated in 1603 that all schoolchildren should learn to swim. More than 200 years later, competitive swimming began to emerge as a sport in England. In 1844, Ojibwe men Wenishkaweabee (Flying Gull) and Sahma (Tobacco) were invited to compete in a race of the British Swimming Society. The Native Americans’ style was much faster than the British breaststroke, but the press denounced their version of front crawl as “totally un-European,” and front crawl was not widely adopted in Europe for several more decades.
The 1896 Olympic Games featured the first official international swimming competition, and women were allowed to compete in Olympic swimming from 1912 onwards. Modern swimming strokes include freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly, and backstroke, and competitions typically feature both single-stroke and medley events, plus team relay races.
Along with swimming races, aquatic competitions often host diving, artistic swimming, and water polo events. Open-water swimming is also popular, with athletes covering a set course in an open body of water rather than a pool. Men’s water polo joined the Olympics in 1900, with the women’s event appearing a century later in 2000. Diving became an Olympic sport in 1904, and synchronised swimming followed in 1984.
💯 Swimming Rules & Scoring
Swimming
Most swimming competitions are quite simple in structure: a group of athletes races simultaneously over a set distance, and the swimmer who finishes first is the winner. Races are split according to the gender of the athletes, the stroke used (freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly, and backstroke), and the distance covered. Medley races include more than one stroke, and team relays involve several swimmers who each cover part of the overall distance.
Open water swimming takes place in open bodies of water, rather than a man-made swimming pool. Typically, courses are marked in the water and swimmers must consider tides and currents in planning how to race.
Diving
Diving events involve athletes jumping off a platform and performing poses or routines on their way towards the water. Divers are scored by a panel of judges, who factor the difficulty of the dive and the quality of the execution into their overall score. Diving events are split by the gender of the diver, the height of the platform, and the number of athletes involved. Synchronised diving features 2 divers who jump simultaneously, and they are judged on their synchronisation as well as their individual performances.
Artistic Swimming
Artistic swimming, formerly known as synchronised swimming, involves practised routines performed by individuals, pairs, or groups. These routines feature a range of technical elements, such as leg and arm movements and lifts. Technical experts rate the difficulty of the routine, while judges give scores for elements and overall impression.
Water Polo
Water polo matches feature 2 teams of 7 players each. Each team has a goalkeeper, and the aim of the game is to throw the ball into the opposing team’s goal. At the end of each match, the team who has scored the most goals is the winner. The pools used for water polo are deep enough that the players cannot touch the bottom, so they must tread water throughout the 4 match periods of 8 minutes each.
