History of Swimming

The first recording of swimming was about 7,000 years ago, during the Stone Age. Early competive swimming in Europe started around 1800, mostly the breaststroke. John Aurther Trudgen, in 1873, introduced the front crawl, before used by the Native Americans. Today this stroke has evolved into the freestyle. Freestyle is probably the most recognized and easiest to master of all the strokes. Orginally, Trudgen used the scissor kick instead of the present day flutter kick. This was due to the British dislike of splashing.

Their were many earlier signs of swimming. Cave men were found in the "Cave of Swimmers" in Southwest Egypt, near the Libyan border. The images seemed to be showing breastroke and doggie paddle. The only downfall to this theory is that they might have been about a non-swimming topic or ritual. An Egyptian clay pot from between 9000 and 4000 BCE showed four swimmers doing variations of the front crawl. Other sights have been shown over the years all over the world.

Swimming was introduced to the 1896 Athen's Olympics. In 1902, Richmond Cavill gave the art of swimming to the Western world. The international swimming association, known as the FINA, was created in 1908. Butterfly, then a variation of breastroke, was made in the 1930's. It was later made its own stroke in 1952. New additions on all strokes are being made today. People are willing to do anything to make their sport faster.