Swimming Event Timeline

England was the first country to participate in swimming as a recreation and competitive sport. In 1837, competitions were held in man-made pools in London. The National Swimming Society in England organized the competitions which grew quickly in popularity.

John Trudgen introduced the front crawl to Britain used with a scissor or flutter kick. This enhanced speeds and made swimming competitions new and exciting. Improvements to the front crawl, either by different kicks or different ratios of kicks to strokes, resulted in the fastest swimming style known today, now called the freestyle stroke.

Swimming joined the Olympics in 1896 as a men’s sport. They competed in the categories of 100-meter and 1500-meter Freestyle. These were held in open water. More Olympic events were soon added during the history of swimming, including breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly, and individual medley.

Swimming was included and there were four swimming contests held. They were: 100 m, 100 m for sailors, the 500 m and the 1200 m competitions. Hungary’s Alfred Hajos won the first gold medal in the history of swimming in the 100 m freestyle and the 1200 m race.

n 1900 the Olympic Games were held in Paris, France and had the 200 m, 1000 m and 4000 m and 200 m backstroke and a 200 m relay race. The Paris Games also had an underwater and a swimming against the current races. The 4000 m freestyle race was won by British swimmer John Jarvis.

In 1904 the Olympic Games in St Louis, Missouri, held the 50 yards (46 m), 100 yards, 220 yards (200 m), 440 yards, 880 yards (800 m) and one mile (1.6 km) freestyle; 100 yards (91 m) backstroke and 440 yards (400 m) breaststroke; and the 4 × 50 yards freestyle relay.

In 1908 the Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA), which is the world’s first swimming association, was formed.

In 1912 at the Olympic Games in Stockholm, women swam competitively for the first time. Women’s races were held in the 100 m freestyle and the 100 m freestyle relay. The men’s events were the 100 m, 400 m, and 1500 m freestyle; 100 m backstroke; 200 m and 400 m breaststroke; and a 4 × 200 m freestyle relay.

Johnny Weissmuller became the first person to swim 100 m in under a minute. Weissmuller went on to win five Olympic medals and 36 national championships, igniting an interest in competitive swimming that was never seen before. Weissmuller never lost a race over a career spanning ten years. His record of 51 seconds in the 100 yard freestyle event was unbroken for the next 17 years.

Mark Spitz in 1972 broke all records in the history of swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics and won seven gold medals. Spitz was a phenomenal swimmer and won a total of 9 Olympic gold medals, a silver, a bronze, five Pan Am golds, 31 other amateur titles, and 8 college titles. He accumulated this impressive total of titles between the years of 1968–1972.