In the Middle East, ancient carvings say people have had the ability to swim for over 4,000 years. It started out to be a survival skill, and eventually it became really popular and well know in the 19th century.

The first strokes were the sidestroke, the breaststroke, and different forms of the crawl (now known as the freestyle). The most recent stroke to be invented is the butterfly. Before butterfly became its own stroke in 1952, it was used in the breaststroke race.

In the early 19th century, swimming was just a popular way to pass time. The pools had changing rooms along the side, and swimming was split into men and women only. Two talented swimmers from the past were Johnny Weissmuller and Mark Spitz.

Weissmuller was one of the most famous swimmers from America because in the Olympics of 1928, he took home a title of almost every sprinting event. Mark Spitz competed in the Olympic games in 1972 at Munich, Germany. Spitz made himself one of the best swimmers to ever live.

He swam a variety of individual events along with being on three American relay teams. Spitz not only won seven individual events but he swam them all in world record time! Another amazing thing form the history of swimming is the swimsuits.

They have changed a lot since swimming became popular. Back then, swimsuits were made of wool and they were cumbersome and not of light weight. Today swimsuits are  completely different.

	Home Page            Strokes           Equipment           Famous Swimmers