If you want to know all about swimming, then this is the article for you. We will give you a brief history of the sport and also how it is played.
Table of Contents
Information About Swimming
Brief History of Swimming
The art of swimming has come probably thousands of years back. It has been mentioned in many religious books like the Holy Bible, The Quran, and The Bhagwat Gita. But swimming as a sport came out in the public domain during the year 1830 after the first-ever indoor swimming pool was made in England in the year 1828. From 1837 regular swimming competitions were held in six different artificial swimming pools and the Amateur Swimming Association was also formed. Apart from the indoor, outdoor swimming too started in the year 1875 when Captain Matthew Webb became the first man to cross the English Channel (the sea area between England and France).
Competitive Swimming
The competitive nature of swimming became popular only in the 19th century. When it was started the only aim of the competition was to beat the rivals with maximum speed. There were no records kept or players were not given ranks at all. The real swimming competition came when the game was introduced in the Summer Olympics in which both the male and female participants were allowed to participate in not less than 16 recognized events each! For the first few years, all the swimming events in the Olympics have been used to hold in a 50-meter pool which is called a long course pool. The governing body for the game of swimming is FINA (Federation Internationale de Natation). The game of swimming actually has 40 different categories, but the International Olympic Committee has recognized only 32 categories out of it.
The Open Water Swimming
Normally the open water swimming is not part of major swimming events, but it is played in the World Swimming Championship and Olympics. The Open Water Swimming means were the swimming competition is played in open, either in a sea or in a lake. There are 3 different categories in this which are 5 km, 10 km, and 25 km for both men and women. But in the Olympics, only a 10 km event is played.
