A Brief History of Swimming

The history of swimming dates back to ancient times. Drawings and paintings found in caves that depict swimming came from the Stone Age period and others are about five to six thousand years old. Archaeologists found these drawings, which show the ancient history of swimming, in the deserts of Egypt as well as in the old worlds of Babylon and Assyria, which is now the Middle East, and the region of today’s Italy.

Many well-known ancient writings refer to people swimming including the Bible, the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Gilgamesh among others. Nikolaus Wynmann, a German language professor, wrote the first book on swimming in 1538.

The history of swimming as a competitive sport started in 1837 in London. Around this time, London had six swimming pools where England’s National Swimming Society held competitions. As swimming became more popular, more pools sprouted all over the city. In these early swimming races, the most popular stroke used was the breaststroke. In an 1844 competition, Native Americans joined the race and one of them won by swimming a distance of 130 feet in only 30 seconds. People took notice of the stroke they used, which was the early version of the front crawl.

This particular stroke continued to develop throughout the history of swimming. John Arthur Trudgen introduced his version of the front crawl in 1837; hence, people referred to it as the “trudgen” at that time. Later in 1902, Richard Cavill improved the trudgen by adding the flutter kick.

The history of swimming in the Olympic Games started in 1896 when it became one of the events of the first modern Olympic held in Athens. However, Olympic swimming competitions during this period were strictly for men. There were two swimming events – the 100-meter and 150-meter swimming competitions both freestyle. A Hungarian swimmer named Alfred Najos won the first Olympic 100-meter freestyle competition in 1 minute and 22 seconds. Later, they added more events including the backstroke, the breaststroke, the butterfly and the individual medley.  

The succeeding Olympic Games in 1906 still did not allow women to participate in swimming because of the common perception during this period that women are simply too weak or too delicate to venture into competitive sports. Of course, women swimmers proved this notion wrong when, finally, they were able to join the Olympics in 1912, thanks to the support of the group now known as the International Olympic Committee.

As the history of swimming shows, people throughout the ages, men and women alike, truly enjoy swimming and it is set to remain the world’s favorite water activity.