Recreational swimming can be traced back to prehistoric times. It became a competitive activity starting in 1830s England, and today, competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic sports.
In competitive swimming, the goal is to break personal or world records while beating competitors in an event. There are varied distance individual events in competition, including the butterfly, backstroke, freestyle, and individual medley as well as freestyle or medley relay (teams of four swimmers), and each swim stroke requires specific technique with rules governing the acceptable form. There are also regulations concerning athlete’s swimsuits, caps, jewelry, and injury tape and competition pool requirements. The international governing body for competitive swimming is the Fédération Internationale de Natation (“International Swimming Federation”), aka ‘FINA’, and there are a large number of recognized national federations throughout the world.
Training for competitive swimming requires many hours working out in the pool (usually twice a day, 6 days a week) and outside the pool (serious gym time lifting weights, running, yoga, pilates, etc). Prior to a competition, athletes typically decrease their training workload in order to rest their bodies.
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If you missed the live stream broadcast of the University of Aberdeen International Open Swim Meet (April 28 – 29), there’s still time to watch video recordings. Just click/tap the “Watch Again” button or select from the video posts on the media player below ↓
Swim Meet Events:
Age Group (11-13 years, 14-15 years, 16 years and over) Heats & Finals
50m Backstroke, Butterfly, Breaststroke and Freestyle 100m Backstroke, Butterfly, Breaststroke and Freestyle 200m Individual Medley
Age Group Open (Heat Declared Winner – swimmer in any heat with fastest time wins)
200m Backstroke, Butterfly, Breaststroke and Freestyle 400m Freestyle and Individual Medley
Team (Heat Declared Winner – swimmer in any heat with fastest time wins)
4 x 50m Mixed Freestyle Relay
4 x 50m Mixed Medley Relay
If you missed the live broadcast of 2017 Queensland Championships, there’s still time to watch a video recording of the swimming competition. Just click/tap the “Watch Again” button on the media player below ↓
WATCH 2018 Artistic Swimming Canadian Championships
Can’t swim? Why Not Now? Find inspiration and information on where and how you can learn this life saving skill and have fun doing it!
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Incredible athletes showing their stuff.