History
Swimming has been dated back to 2500 B.C, which is proven in Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. In 78A.D the Romans introduced swimming to Britain and in the 18th century, king George  III popularized sea swimming. Actual competitions began in 1837 for men, held in London by the National Swimming Society in England. Women's competitions began in 1892.
For men, the first international competition was held in Sydney, Australia in 1845. In 1896, swimming became an Olympic sport for men, only in the 100m(meters) and  1500m freestyle races. Soon after, backstroke, breastbone, and butterfly were added to the Olympic sport. In 1912 women were permitted to swim in the Olympics as well, but were still stereotyped as poor athletes.
In 1924 America was introduced to true "fast swimming" when a young competitor by the name of Johnny Weissmuller set 67 world records. Johnny became the star sprinter of the U.S Olympic team, and was the original captain of the men's U.S swimming team in the 1930 Olympic games in Amsterdam. After Johnny's swimming career he later played Tarzan on the big screen and on television.

The competitive swimming people see today is much different than it used to be. Swim suits were made of woolen cloth or cotton fabric until the late 60's. Even in the 70's and 80's swimmers didn't worry about the quality of their suits, and most didn't even wear bathing caps or goggles. It wasn't until the aqua blade swim suite was introduced in the early 90's when fabric became a necessity. The aqua blade swim suite is made of a fabric of that looks like stripes. The one stripe is is a special material that allows swimmers to glide through the water more easily. The other stripes are a spandex like material which still allows the swimmer to glide through the water more easily.
Today most competitive swimmers wear a "fast skin" swim suit which was developed in 1999 and available to swimmers in 2000. The fast skin swim suit allows swimmers to glide through the water like a shark would, which is why there are special markings on the suit. These special markings are a fabric which imitates a sharks dermal skin, so the swimmers have the full gliding, smooth affect through the water.

 

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