Swimming is the movement by humans or animals through water, usually without artificial assistance. Swimming is an activity that can be both useful and recreational. It has been known since prehistoric times.
The English are considered the first modern society to develop swimming as a sport. In 1896, swimming became an Olympic sport for men with the 100 meters and 1500 meters freestyle competitions held in open water Soon after, as swimming gained popularity, more freestyle events were included, followed by the backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, and lastly, the individual medley.

Types of swimming strokes:

Dog Paddle
• One of the simplest strokes.
• Involves reaching forward with the arms underwater and using a modified flutter kick.

Butterfly stroke
• It is the most difficult and exhausting stroke.
• The body is in a prone position.
• Involves the dolphin kick with a windmill-like movement of both arms in unison.
• When swimming competitively, the swimmer must not swim underwater

Breast Stroke
• Involves frog kicking alternates with a simultaneous movement of the arms from a point in front of the head to shoulder level.
• When swimming competitively, the swimmer’s head must be kept above the surface of the water at all times.

Freestyle stroke
• Swimming where any stroke is used.
• When swimming competitively, only 15 meters can be spent underwater from the start or from each turn

Backstroke
• Involves alternate over-the-head arm strokes and a flutter kick in a supine position.
• When swimming competitively, only 15 meters can be spent underwater from the start or from each turn.

Rules according to the strokes

Freestyle: Walking on the bottom, pulling on the lane rope, not touching the wall on a turn, or not completing the distance.

Backstroke: Pulling or kicking into the wall once a swimmer has turned passed the vertical onto the breast. Turning onto the breast before touching the wall with the hand at the finish of the race.

Butterfly: Alternating movements of the arms or legs; pushing the arms forward under instead of over the water surface (underwater recovery); a breaststroke style of kick; touching with only one hand at the turns or finish.

Breaststroke: An illegal kick such as flutter (freestyle), dolphin (butterfly), or scissors (side stroke); not on the breast; alternating movements of the arms; taking two arm strokes or two leg kicks while the head is under water; touching with only one hand at the turns or finish.

Swimming can be continued for a lifetime because there’s no impact of it. It builds cardio respiratory fitness. It is a sport that gives you relief from the heat in summer and burns your calories.

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BEIJING (AP) _ Guo Jingjing and Wu Minxia of China grabbed the the first diving gold medal of the Beijing Games on Sunday. Both with their magnificient performance gave an opening to the host country’s bid to sweep eight golds medals. Guo and Wu, the current world champions, won the women’s 3-meter synchronized springboard title Sunday. China has a history of producing maximum Olympic medals in swimmimng.

The Chinese win came just minutes after American star Michael Phelps got going on his pursuit of eight Olympic swimming gold medals after winning the 400-meter individual medley. Like Phelps, the Chinese are also in attempts to sweep the gold medals for the first time since the Olympics expanded to eight diving events.
Guo and Wu defended the 3-meter synchro title they owned four years ago in Athens, finishing with 343.50 points. They led through all five rounds of the competition, and were cheered wildly by their red flag-waving countrymen.

After completing their final dive, a backward 2 1/2 somersault, Guo and Wu climbed out of the pool and Guo gave herself a fist bump to the heart before the duo took their traditional bows. Julia Pakhalina and Anastasia Pozdnyakova of Russia won silver with 323.61.

Ditte Kotzian and Heike Fischer of Germany won the bronze with 318.90. Americans Kelci Bryant and Ariel Rittenhouse missed a medal by 4.5 points,by finishing fourth with 314.40.

The United States hasn’t been successful yet in owning a diving medal since 2000, having been shut out in Athens. Bryant and Rittenhouse were tied for first after the opening round and tied for second through the next two rounds before dropping to third.

U.S. fans booed when the duo’s marks for execution ranging from 6.0 to 7.5 were posted after their fourth dive. Bryant and Rittenhouse were tied with the Germans going into the fifth and final dive, but the Germans earned the third-highest score of the competition, 76.50, to take the bronze.

Pakhalina came back to the podium targetting for her third Olympics, though, this time with a different partner. The Russian won gold in the event at Sydney and silver in Athens in partnership with Vera Ilyna.Fischer and Kotzian stood second to Guo and Wu at last year’s world championships. Guo and Wu will now face against each other later in the individual 3-meter competition. Guo, now 26, plans to retire after the Olympics.She is a huge star in China. Her relationship with a wealthy Hong Kong businessman is hot topic for the gossip mongers.

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BEIJING (AP) _ Michael Phelps was in full form on Sunday at Beijing. He dominated his first event of the Olympics by crushing down his own world record and all hopes of his challengers with in a span of 4 minutes,3.84 seconds in the 400-meter individual medley. This was thought to be a potential stumbling block in Phelps’ quest to win eight gold medals after Ryan Lochte matched him stroke for stroke at the U.S. Olympic trials a month back.

Both went under the previous world record in the 400 IM then, with Phelps touching first in 4:05.25. Laszlo Cseh of Hungary grabbed the silver in 4:06.16, while Lochte faded to third in 4:08.09 more than 4 seconds behind.

“I’m pretty happy. That was a pretty emotional race,” was the comment by Phelps. “I knew it was going to be a tough race all the way through. Well, it was for a while.”

The top three traded the lead over the butterfly and backstroke legs. Cseh made a quick start, touching the first wall just ahead of Phelps. While Lochte claimed the lead midway through the back.

Phelps had a slight lead at the 200 mark, and it began turning into a blowout from there. “Looking and seeing all three of us together pretty much at the 200, I wasn’t really comfortable with having that close of a race,” added Phelps. “I usually have more of a gap, but it made my breaststroke a lot stronger.”

Phelps stretched his lead and powered to the wall with nearly his entire body in front of the world-record line a green marker superimposed on the video screen to show the pace of the previous mark. Phelps calls the freestyle a just downhill. Phelps touched the wall and spun around so quickly to find his time that he bumped his head on the wall.

Michael Phelps pumped both his arms in the air, and quickly spotting his mother and two sisters in the massive stands at the Water Cube. On the other side there was President Bush was waving his American flag, accompanied by the first lady, their daughter Barbara and his father, former President George H.W. Bush.

Stephanie Rice of Australia also went on rampage to hold on at the end to win the women’s 400 IM in 4:29.45 nearly 2 seconds faster than the world record of 4:31.12 set by Katie Hoff at the U.S. Olympic trials.

The Down Under team didn’t fare as well in the men’s 400 freestyle. Park Tae-hwan of South Korea owned the gold medal, snapping the dominance of Australia of the event at the Olympics. Park, the current world champion, touched in 3:41.86. Zhang Lin of China succeeded in earning his country’s first swimming medal of the games, claiming silver in 3:42.78.

American Larsen Jensen took the bronze in 3:42.78. Australia team captain Grant Hackett, who was in the lead off the blocks, struggled home in sixth.

He was second four years ago to countryman Ian Thorpe, who won the second of two straight golds in the event. Hackett will get a chance to make up for it in his best event, the 1,500 free.

On the medal stand, Phelps’ eyes watered as the U.S. flag was raised to the rafters. The only glitch came during the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” which cut off a few seconds before the end. That was a great way to start off the meet for USA.”.

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