Aquatics-Swimming
From En.2008
Aquatics wimming: Swimming is a technique used to move through water using only movements of the body. Swimming is an ancient discipline. Swimming is a method for survival in water. This exercise had been acquired by men in the prehistoric days when they had to cross rivers and lakes. Swimming got the status of sport event in early 19 th century.
Swimming in Summer Olympics : Swimming was included in the schedule from the very first Summer Olympic Games in 1896. From then on, this sport has been a regular event and the centre of attraction in the Olympic Games. In the early Olympic Games, events were conducted only in breaststroke or freestyle. Backstroke was included in the schedule in 1904 Summer Olympic Games. Then butterfly stroke was introduced in the swimming events. Women's swimming started in 1912 Olympics; since then men and women have been competing in the Olympic Games in almost identical program.
Men compete in the following events in the Summer Olympic Games?
100 meter backstroke for men 100 meter breaststroke for men 100 meter butterfly for men 100 meter freestyle for men 1500 meter freestyle for men 200 meter backstroke for men 200 meter breaststroke for men 200 meter butterfly for men 200 meter freestyle for men 200 meter individual medley for men 400 meter freestyle for men 400 meter individual medley for men 4x100 meter freestyle relay for men 4x100 meter medley relay for men 4x200 meter freestyle relay for men 50 meter freestyle for men marathon 10 kilometer for men
In Olympics, women compete in the following events?
100 meter backstroke for women 100 meter breaststroke for women 100 meter butterfly for women 100 meter freestyle for women 200 meter backstroke for women 200 meter breaststroke for wmen 200 meter butterfly for womn 200 meter freestyle for women 200 meter individual medley for women 400 meter freestyle for wome 400 meter individual medleyfor women 4x100 meter freestyle rela for women 4x100 meter medley relay for women 4x200 meter freestyle relay for women 50 m freestyle for women 800 m freestyle for women marathon 10 kilometer for women
Rules of Swimming: In Summer Olympic Games, four different strokes are used in swimmingreestyle, breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke. Apart from individual events for each of these strokes, individual medley events and relays are scheduled in the program. All four strokes are used in medley events; in the 400 meter individual medley, competitors have to swim 100 meter of butterfly, then 100 meter of backstroke, followed by 100 meter of breaststroke and finally 100 meter freestyle. The 4x 100 meter medley relay begins with backstroke followed by breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle. In Olympic Games, swimming events are held in a 50 meter pool. For this reason, events longer than 50 meter require laps to be swum. In freestyle and backstroke, swimmers have the option of touching the wall at the end of the pool with any part of their bodies. However, it is compulsory to touch the wall with hands at the end of the backstroke lap before switching to breaststroke, in individual medley events. In breaststroke and butterfly events, swimmers have to touch the end of the pool with both hands at the end of each lap.
For breaststroke, freestyle, butterfly and individual medley events, swimming starts with swimmers standing on blocks at the end of the pool. Swimmers are given a warning before a loud beep sounds to start the race. At the Olympics a swimmer is disqualified for a false start. Timing of the races is calculated using electronic devices fitted in the blocks and the walls at the end of the pool. In relays, a team is disqualified if a member of the team leaves the blocks more than 0.03 of a second before the team member in the water touches the wall. Maximum eight individual swimmers can compete in each event. Up to two swimmers per nation are permitted to swim in each event.
Categories of Swimming: Swimming can be categorized according to the strokes applied for swimming. According to the strokes, swimming can be of four types?
• Freestyleny stroke is permitted in freestyle swimming. Generally crawl stroke is chosen by the swimmers as it is the fastest stroke. For this reason, crawl stroke has got the name of freestyle.
• Butterflyutterfly stroke was invented in1956 Olympic Games. This stroke is swum face down, with arms swung forward together.
• Backstrokeackstroke is swum on the back with face towards sky. During backstroke, swimmer's legs have to remain under water.
• Breaststroke reaststroke requires swimmers to swim face down, moving their arms and legs at the same time in a horizontal plane. The swimmer's head must break the water surface after each complete stroke.
There are also various different styles of swimming which are mainly practiced during recreational swimming. These strokes can be swum on the breast, on the back or on the side. The swimming styles practiced for recreational swimming are as follows?
• The strokes swum on the breast are front crawl, trudgen, trudgen crawl, double trudgen, double trudgen crawl, dolphin crawl, catch up stroke, total immersion, head-up breaststroke, slow butterfly or moth stroke, dog paddle, human stroke, survival travel stroke, snorkeling and fin swimming. Among these styles, front crawling is the fastest style of swimming. The head-up breaststroke style is much used by the rescue swimmers during their approach towards a victim.
• The strokes swum on the back include back stroke or back crawl, elementary backstroke, inverted breaststroke, inverted butterfly, back double trudgen, flutter back finning and feet first swimming. The feet first swimming style is widely used during training.
• The strokes swum on the side are side stroke and over-arm side stroke.
• The other swimming styles are corkscrew swimming, underwater swimming, gliding, turtle stroke, life-saving stroke, water polo stroke, pushing rescue stroke, pulling rescue stroke, shoulder pulling rescue stroke, clothes swimming and rescue tube swimming. Most of these styles are used for rescue swimming.
• There are also some styles used for floating. These styles are back floating, survival floating, treading water and sculling.
Medal Winners in Swimming: The United States of America has been dominating the field of swimming in the Summer Olympic Games. however, Australian swimmers have also achieved much success in various swimming competition. The all time famous swimmers of the world are Mark Spitz, Matthew Biondi, Johnny Weissmuller, Ian Thorpe, Michael Phelps, Jenny Thompson, Krisztina Egerszegi, Dawn Lorraine Fraser, Shane Gould, Kristin Otto, Moss Burmester, Janet Evans, Duke Kahanamoku, Alexander Popov, Franziska van Almsick, Michael Gross and Pieter Van Den Hoogenband . among them, Mark Spitz is considered to be the best swimmer of the world.
Trivia: The greatest swimmer of the world, Mark Spitz won seven gold medals in a single Olympics. Spitz also set world records in all the seven events. Spitz proved the words of his father, 搒wimming is'nt everything winning is? to be true and made him proud.
Dawn Fraser of Australia participated in the 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games. After the Games, she was banned from swimming for ten years for her misbehavior at Tokyo. Fraser climbed the flagpole of the emperor's palace to take the flag as the souvenir. However, her punishment was later cut down to four years.
The great swimmer, Johnny Weissmuller was also a real life as well as reel life hero. In real life, he saved eleven people when a tourist boat turned over in the Lake Michigan. He was also filmed as 揟arzan the Ape-man?in various films.
