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Encyclopedia Britannica
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Michael Phelps
Michael PhelpsAmerican swimmer Michael Phelps competing in the 100-meter butterfly final at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing; he won a gold medal in the event.

swimming

sport and recreation
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swimming, in recreation andsports, the propulsion of the body through water bycombined arm and leg motions and the natural flotation of the body. Swimming as anexercise is popular as an all-around body developer and is particularly useful in therapy and as exercise for physically handicapped persons. It is also taught for lifesaving purposes. Moreover, swimming is practiced as a competitive sport and is one of the top audience draws at theOlympic Games. For activities that involve swimming,see alsodiving,lifesaving,surfing,artistic swimming,underwater diving, andwater polo.

History

Archaeological and other evidence shows swimming to have been practiced as early as 2500bce in Egypt and thereafter in Assyrian, Greek, and Roman civilizations. InGreece andRome swimming was a part of martial training and was, with the alphabet, also part ofelementary education for males. InEast Asia swimming dates back at least to the 1st centurybce, there being some evidence of swimming races then inJapan. By the 17th century animperial edict had made the teaching of swimming compulsory in the schools. Organized swimming events were held in the 19th century before Japan was opened to the Western world. Among the preliterate maritime peoples of the Pacific, swimming was evidently learned by children about the time they walked, or even before. Among the ancient Greeks there is note of occasional races, and a famous boxer swam as part of his training. The Romans built swimmingpools, distinct from their baths. In the 1st centurybce the RomanGaius Maecenas is said to have built the first heated swimming pool.

The lack of swimming in Europe during theMiddle Ages is explained by some authorities as having been caused by a fear that swimming spread infection and causedepidemics. There is some evidence of swimming at seashore resorts ofGreat Britain in the late 17th century, evidently inconjunction with water therapy. Not until the 19th century, however, did the popularity of swimming as both recreation and sport begin in earnest. When the first swimming organization was formed there in 1837,London had six indoor pools with diving boards. The first swimming championship was a 440-yard (400-meter) race, held in Australia in 1846 and annually thereafter. The Metropolitan Swimming Clubs of London, founded in 1869, ultimately became theAmateur Swimming Association, the governing body of British amateur swimming. National swimming federations were formed in several European countries from 1882 to 1889. In theUnited States swimming was first nationally organized as a sport by theAmateur Athletic Union (AAU) on its founding in 1888. TheFédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA; from 2023 called World Aquatics) was founded in 1909.

Competitive swimming

Katie LedeckyAmerican swimmer Katie Ledecky (center) competing in the final of the women's 400-meter freestyle swim at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, August 7, 2016.
St. Louis 1904 Olympic swimmersSwimmers diving into the water at the 0.5-mile (805-meter) championship race at the St. Louis 1904 Olympic Games.

Internationally, competitive swimming came into prominence with its inclusion in the modernOlympic Games from theirinception in 1896. Olympic events were originally only for men, but women’s events were added in 1912. Before the formation of FINA, the Games included some unusual events. In 1900, for instance, when the Games’ swimming events were held on theSeine River inFrance, a 200-meter obstacle race involved climbing over a pole and a line of boats and swimming under them. Such oddities disappeared after FINA took charge. Under FINA regulations, for both Olympic and other world competition, race lengths came increasingly to be measured in meters, and in 1969 world records for yard-measured races were abolished. The kinds of strokes allowed were reduced tofreestyle (crawl),backstroke,breaststroke, andbutterfly. All four strokes were used in individual medley races. Many countries have at one time or another dominated Olympic and world competition, includingHungary, Denmark, Australia,Germany, France, Great Britain, Canada, Japan, and the United States.

Notable Olympic swimmers

Instruction and training

Swimming for recreationSeveral women preparing to dive into an indoor swimming pool, 1936.
Johnny WeissmullerAmerican freestyle swimmer Johnny Weissmuller at a meet, 1924.
Modern Olympic swimming poolThe National Aquatic Center pool and audience seating at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The earliest instruction programs were in Great Britain in the 19th century, both for sport and for lifesaving. Those programs were copied in the rest of Europe. In the United States swimming instruction for lifesaving purposes began under theauspices of theAmerican Red Cross in 1916. Instructional work done by the various branches of the armed forces during both World Wars I and II was very effective in promoting swimming. Courses taught bycommunity organizations and schools, extending ultimately to very young infants, became common.

Assorted sports balls including a basketball, football, soccer ball, tennis ball, baseball and others.
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American Sports Nicknames

The early practice of simply swimming as much as possible at every workout was replaced byinterval training and repeat training by the late 1950s. Interval training consists of a series of swims of the same distance with controlled rest periods. Inslow interval training, used primarily to develop endurance, the rest period is always shorter than the time taken to swim the prescribed distance.Fast interval training, used primarily to develop speed, permits rest periods long enough to allow almost complete recovery of the heart and breathing rate.

The increasedemphasis on international competition led to the growing availability of 50-meter (164-foot) pools. Other adjuncts that improved both training and performance included wave-killing gutters for pools, racing lane markers that also reduce turbulence, cameras for underwater study of strokes, large clocks visible to swimmers, and electrically operated touch and timing devices. Since 1972 all world records have been expressed in hundredths of a second. Advances inswimsuit technology reached a head at the2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, where swimmers—wearing high-tech bodysuits that increased buoyancy and decreased water resistance—broke 25 world records. After another round of record-shattering times at the 2009 world championships, FINA banned such bodysuits, for fear that they augmented a competitor’s true ability.

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