Swimming is the most traditional discipline of Aquatics and one of the most traditional of all Olympic sports. During the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the swimming competitions are going to be held at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium, located within the Rio Olympic Park, in Barra da Tijuca.
Composed by 17 male and female events, swimming is a discipline of speed, endure and strength. But it is basically a discipline in which the athlete race against water, time and the competitors.
Besides the four known strokes – backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle – the events are divided into a range of distances, relays and the aquatic marathon.
Rewinding
Pre-historic men used to swim across rivers and lakes in order to find food and new housing locations. The earliest records of swimming date back to Stone Age paintings from around 7,000 years ago.
Swimming is part of the Olympic Programme since the first Games of the modern era in 1896, when the events were held in open sea. The competitions begin to be held in pools as of the London 1908 Olympic Games, year in which the swimming rules were officialised. Women officially started competing only in 1912.
Till 1956, the butterfly style did not exist. It was born from the breaststroke style, as breaststroke swimmers began to bring both arms forward over their heads in order to go faster, creating, without knowing, the butterfly stroke.
It was only in Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games that women finally had the same number of events to race in as men. Nowadays, both men and women race in the same events, except for the 1,500m freestyle (only men) and 800m freestyle (only women).
Technological advances
From 1908 to 2008, the Olympic records of 100m freestyle were reduced in 17 seconds, for instance. This was possible, of course, because of the hours of training that athletes dedicate to it, but there were also some technological advances in swimsuits, equipments and pools that contributed to a faster swimming.
Swimsuits and equipments
Athletes usually wear goggles (swimming glasses), a swimming cap and a swimsuit. Men's swimsuits may maximally cover the area from the waistline to the knee, and women's counterparts, from the shoulder to the knee. Swimsuits reduce friction and drag in the water, increasing the efficiency of the swimmer's forward motion. Around the year of 2000, engineers started to develop suits similar to the skin of sea based animals.
Swimming goggles and hats have also changed over time. They are now engineered to reduce drag and therefore help the swimmer to achieve a faster time. Goggles also have a built in anti-fog, scratch resistant and anti-leakage systems.
Swimming Pool
A pool may be referred to as fast or slow, depending on its physical layout. Some design considerations allow the reduction of swimming resistance making the pool faster: namely, proper pool depth, reduction of waves, increased lane width, water gutters, among others innovations.
