Swimming

Swimming

Speed, strength and stamina will be key for athletes in the Swimming competition at the London 2012 Games, which features no fewer than 34 medal events.

Did you know?

Underwater Swimming featured at the Paris 1900 Games. Competitors earned points for the length of time and distance they were underwater.

The crawl technique used in Freestyle Swimming was developed by a British swimming instructor named J Arthur Trudgeon, who based it on a Native American style of swimming that he had discovered during a trip to South America in the 1870s.

Johnny Weissmuller, the first man to swim 100 metres in under a minute, was just as famous out of the pool: he played the role of Tarzan in 12 times on the silver screen.

The first official tie for a gold medal in Olympic Swimming history came in Los Angeles 1984, when American teammates Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseifer swam identical times in the 100m Freestyle event.

The swimming pool for the London 1908 Olympic Games was built on the infield of the Athletics track at White City Stadium, and the competition was held outdoors.

Key facts

Venue: Aquatics Centre – Olympic Park (pool events); Hyde Park (Marathon Swimming 10km)
Dates: Saturday 28 July – Saturday 4 August (Aquatics Centre); Thursday 9 – Friday 10 August (Hyde Park)
Medal events: 34
Athletes: 950

Evidence of people swimming for sport dates all the way back to Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek times. Now hugely popular around the world as a leisure activity and a competitive sport, Swimming has featured at every modern Games and remains a real Olympic crowd-pleaser.

The basics

There are four strokes used in Olympic competition: Freestyle (essentially, front crawl), Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly. All four strokes feature in the Individual Medley and Medley Relay events.

Olympic races are conducted over a variety of distances, from 50m (one length of the pool) all the way up to 1500m. All the pool events begin with heats, with the best swimmers from the qualifying rounds eventually racing for gold in the final.

Olympic Swimming, past and present

At the first few modern Olympic Games, Swimming events were held in open water. At Paris in 1900, for instance, they took place in the River Seine. However, the rules were formalised in 1908, when the London Games staged the first Olympic Swimming competition to be held in a pool.

Other than the Marathon Swimming 10km event, held in the Serpentine within Hyde Park, the Swimming competition will take place in the dazzling Aquatics Centre, built in the Olympic Park especially for London 2012.

Jargon buster

Long course: A 50m pool of the type used in Olympic competition, as opposed to a short course measuring 25m.
Medley: A combination event in which a swimmer or team swims separate legs of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
Negative split: When an athlete swims the second half of a race faster than the first half.
Open turn: A type of turn for which swimmers must touch the end of the pool with their hands.
Tumble turn: An underwater roll at the end of a lap, which allows swimmers to push off from the end of the pool with their feet.

See the London 2012 Olympic Games competition schedule

Get involved

The best place to start swimming is at your local pool. You can search for the one closest to you at Active Places. If you want to know more about clubs, facilities and coaching schemes in your area, contact British Swimming, Scottish Swimming, Swim Wales or Swim Ulster. The International Swimming Federation has information on international competition, while the Swimfit website can offer advice on swimming fitness programmes.

Related news

Diving test event tickets to go back on sale
16 January 2012

Marathon Swimming test event free to watch in Hyde Park
10 August 2011

On the blog

Now and then: Diving
14 November 2011

Photos of the week: one year to go and counting
29 July 2011

Venue: Aquatics Centre

During the London 2012 Games, the Aquatics Centre will be the venue for Swimming, Paralympic Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming and the Aquatics discipline of the Modern Pentathlon.

Venue: Hyde Park

Spectators will enjoy a grandstand view of the finishing area for the London 2012 Triathlon, with many thousands more able to watch as the athletes swim, cycle and run on the course.

Who

Name: Michael Phelps
Date of birth: 30 June 1985
Country: Baltimore, USA
Height: 1.93m
Coach: Bob Bowman
Michael Phelps is one of the greatest Olympians of all time, with 16 Olympic medals – 14 of them gold.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics he became the first and only Olympian to win eight gold medals, beating the record of seven set by fellow swimmer Mark Spitz at the 1972 Munich Games.
Expand to read more

Name: Rebecca Adlington
Date of birth: 17 February 1986
Country: Mansfield, Great Britain
Rebecca Adlington won two gold medals at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, in the 400m and 800m freestyle swimming events.
In winning two golds in the pool Rebecca became the first British woman to win gold for Great Britain since Anita Lonsborough-Porter in 1960.
She also broke the 800m World Record which had stood since 1989, the year she was born.

Expand to read more

Name: Jessica Sylvester
Date of birth: 09 July 1987
Country: Cheddleton, Great Britain
Jessica was part of the 4 x 100m freestyle relay team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She won a bronze medal in the 100m butterfly at the 2009 British Championships. Jessica is currently studying for a Biochemistry degree at the University of Nottingham. Jessica is a Team 2012 athlete - being supported on her journey to the 2012 Games.

Expand to read more