Quick Swimming Facts

If you are a competitive swimmer, a swimming enthusiast or you are simply interested in learning more about swimming, here are some quick swimming facts to interest you:

Swimming Facts: History

• Ancient drawings and paintings found in Egypt depicting people swimming date back to 2500 AD.
  
• Swimming became an amateur sport in the late part of the nineteenth century.
  
• Swimming became a part of the Olympic Games in 1896.
  
• Swimming in the Olympics started as a men’s event only but women were able to participate starting in 1912.
  
• The first man to cross the English Channel swimming from England to France is Englishman Captain Matthew Webb in 1875.
  
• The first woman to swim the English Channel is Gertrude Ederle, who was actually just a teenager at that time in 1926.
  
• Mark Spitz was the first Olympic swimmer to win seven gold medals in a single Olympiad in the 1972 games.

Swimming Facts: Strokes

• The oldest form of stroke used is the breaststroke.
  
• In butterfly stroke and breaststroke, swimmers need to touch the pool with both hands simultaneously when they finish. Swimmers touch the pool with only one hand when they finish in freestyle and backstroke swimming events.
  
• The most popular freestyle stroke is the crawl, considered the fastest stroke.
  
• The butterfly is the hardest and most exhausting of all strokes.

Swimming Facts: Health and Exercise

• An hour of vigorous swimming will burn up to 650 calories. It burns off more calories than walking or biking.
  
• Swimming strengthens the heart and lungs
  
• Swimming works out all of the body’s major muscles  
  
• Swimming help reduce stress
  
• Water’s buoyancy make swimming the ideal exercise for physical therapy and rehabilitation or for anyone seeking a low-impact exercise.
  
• Swimming is a great cardiovascular exercise because you are moving against the water’s resistance, which is over ten times that of the air.

Other Interesting Swimming Facts and Trivia:

• The first ocean liner with a swimming pool is the Titanic.
  
• The two-piece bathing suit known as bikini got its name from Bikini Atoll, a US nuclear test site in the South Pacific.
  
• Actress Esther Williams popularized synchronized swimming when she starred in movies known as “aqua musicals” produced by MGM in the forties and fifties. Aqua musicals were about synchronized swimming.
  
• Over 50% of world-class swimmers suffer from shoulder pain.