The History

of
Swimming
1.1

The Origins of swimming,

Swimming civilizations in
ancient time
 1.1
Caveman showed their swimming
technique in the paintings on the cave wall. It is
likely that they overcame water obstacles dog-
peddling and doing propulsive arm movements
similar to today’s freestyle arm-stroke, or clung
to logs and animal bladders. In some cave
paintings from the stone-age we can discover
some kind of swimming- like moves but it is not
easy to identify the style.
1.
1
On an ancient Egyptian clay
tablet from 4000 – 9000 B.C. it is
easier to identify the swimming style.
The arm-stroke clearly shows the
moving phase of the freestyle arm-
stroke: one arm is depicted in the
recovery phase above the water, while
the other arm carries out the pulling
action under the water
 1.
1

The ancient Greeks

--swimming was a measure of culture. “Those uneducated who can
neither swim nor read and write, cannot hold a public position”, said
Plato. Although swimming was not included in the programme of the
Olympic Games, it was an important part of education. In Athens, Solon
made the acquisition of the science of swimming compulsory in 594 B.C.,
and Lykourgos, the lawmaker of Sparta, prescribed the same in a strict Act on
education in the 9th century.
 1.1
In Mesopotamia
we can find swimming and the pictorial or written records hereof in
almost every nation’s culture from the Sumerian to the Assyrian. Their
scientific achievements include water pools and swimming pools.
Excavations in Syria revealed four-thousand-year old baths, the water
temperature of which could be regulated as desired. Many records
related to swimming remained from the Assyrians too. When exploring
the ruins of Nineveh, several reliefs were dug out from royal tombs from
1200 B.C. which represented the swimming trainings of Assyrian
warriors. Swimming was an integral part of combat training of the
Assyrians as well as young people in Israel received obligatory
swimming lessons. Herod the Great (73 B.C. – 4 A.D.), king of Judea,
made swimming compulsory to all male children.
 1.
The rest of the ancient people 1
left us with less records of their bath culture, but we at least know that the Germanic
peoples used swimming as a tactical exercise, and that the Finnish considered it as natural a
movement as running. The Icelandic folklore also reports a number of swimming deeds,
which shows that both men and women were excellent swimmers. In Japan, swimming had
an important role in the training of the Samurai. It was one of the noble skills. According to
the historical records the first known swimming competition was held in the isolated island
country in 36 B:C., organized by Emperor Su Gui. In the remote India, the ancient records
of swimming can also be found. One of the first pools used for swimming is located here, in
Mohenjo-daro, dating back to 2800 B.C. and measuring 30x60 meters. Within the military
caste it was mandatory to learn how to swim and fight in water.
1.2
 After the fall of the Roman Empire (476 A.D.), water has lost its popularity.
Any contact with it was considered unclean and sinful. “Everyday bathing and
swimming in open water are extremely harmful to health”, they professed. This,
of course, had some base as the plague and leprosy imported by the Byzantine troops
around 542 reorganised Europe’s population. Water may have been the source of
diseases and illnesses, and it was better to stay away from it. Water is not a divine
but a vicious legacy, spread the Christian missioners. Certain authors have even
written that it is “disgusting” when a man lying on his abdomen, swimming with big
and wide gestures, touches the water even with his mouth. Swimming was like a
sexual pleasure, seducing like a sinful woman: “as one of the sources of bodily
pleasures it is synonymous with evil, sin and temptation”
 The contempt of “bodily vanity”, the de-
emphasis of body culture and of the
hygiene education characterized the man
of the early Middles Ages. As ascetic
lifestyle led to the purgation of the soul
and to the gain f salvation, physical
exercise, and so is swimming, was
relegated. Due to the wide- spread of
Christianity, swimming and bathing
culture fully declined. The Church
prohibited physical exercise, swimming
and even bathing, as “pure body covers
impure soul”.
Defying the Church and its prohibition, the first
swimming manual written by Nicolaus Wynmann, a
university professor in Ingolstadt, published in 1538,
also encouraged the practice of swimming and
emphasized the importance hereof. In his work entitled
“The art of swimming”, the author presents not only the
swimming styles and how to teach them but also
describes how to jump in the water, how to dive and how
to save someone from drowning. He propagates the
primacy of teaching breaststroke. This work by
Wynmann was put on index by the synod of Trident. As
an effect of Winnman’s work, books on swimming were
published one after the other. In 1587, Everard Digby
wrote De Arte Natandi, and in 1696 Melchisédech
Thevenot published “The Art of Swimming Represented
in Images, and Instructions for Useful Bathing”, a
popular work of the author throughout Europe.
 Bachstrom also struggled for the integration of swimming lessons in the
school curricula. His thoughts and ideas anticipated the Renaissance already:

“humans, like animals, can swim from birth, only the sufficient
courage has to be added to make movements similar to the
movements made by frogs”.

In 1786, a work propagating similar humanist thoughts was published in Paris: “Art
de nager”. Its author says that a man can swim originally, only civilisation distorted
him. As we got alienated from Nature, we have forgotten this inherent ability that
animals (frogs, dogs) still use.
1.3
The Renaissance of
Swimming
 The boom of the Renaissance body culture has overcome all the
medieval prejudices against swimming. People in the Renaissance discovered
the beauty of the human body and that of physical activity, returned to the
ancient values of body culture. Swimming and bathing in open waters have
become popular again. The scientific thinking of the period had its effects on
the experts of swimming, too. Swimming figures appeared in the works of art.
(Durer, Leonardo, Cranach, Gentile.) The majority of the humanist thinkers
have committed themselves to swimming. John Locke, whose work was also
published in Hungary, reasons as follows:

“It is necessary, when a certain age is reached, to teach

children how to swim”, “which is useful to know, and
often saves one’s life and the lives of others”.
 By the 18th and 19th centuries, open water swimming has
become more and more popular. In default of swimming pools, bathing
cabins were installed on the riverside and seaside, or mobile “ambulant
cabins” were set up. In the second half of the 18th century swimming
pools started to be built. The first facilities were wooden framed
swimming pools on rivers. On the bottom, down to the bottom of the
river, nets closed them from the river or the lake. They were fixed by
chains and ropes, and they were moored due to the stream of the river.
 Due to the influence of the Philanthropists, organised mass swimming
lessons took a favourable turn. The revolutionary new features of physical
education in the 18th and 19th centuries became prevailing also in swimming
lessons. Basedow (1723-1790) and Guts-Muths (1779-1839) initiated
swimming and water saving lessons in schools. They fought for that swimming
lessons also become instituted by the State. This, however, did not happen at
that time.
1.4

The origins and evolution

of competitive swimming
 Captain Boyton was also considered to be a great long-course swimmer. In 1876, he drew attention
to himself when he swam from Linz to Budapest in a specific way, lying on his back, with oars in his hands
and a sail attached to his feet. He covered the distance in 52 hours. These long-course swims have primarily
increased the popularity of swimming as a sport. For a long time swimmers were not motivated by the time
or the speed, but by the distance they were able to cover. For a long time the stories of river, lake or, related
to coastal peoples, gulf-crossing swims have been reported. The first competitions were also held in rivers,
lakes or gulfs. Overseas countries have got ahead of Europe, as the first tournaments were held in Japan in
1810 and in Australia in 1846. The first official swimming competition in Europe was organized in the UK in
1869, the year of the formation of the British Swimming Federation. The competition was organized on the
River Thames for the distance of an English mile (1609 m). The programme of the championship has
expanded gradually, beside the long-course swimming, swimmers competed on 100 yards (about 91 meters)
in 1878, then on 500 yards, and from 1880 on 200 yards. At the beginning of competitive swimming
distances were rated in in yards, and the longer distances in miles.
From the first Olympic Games in 1896 swimming has
been included in the programme of the Olympics. At the
first Olympic Games in Athens swimmers competed only
in four events: 100, 500, 1200 metres freestyle and the
event organised for the Greek seamen, where everyone
could swim in a style as he wanted or as he could. From
1900 backstroke, then from 1904 breaststroke and finally
in 1956 butterfly were also included in the events of the
Olympics programme. The individual medley only got
into the Olympic swimming events in 1964 at the Tokyo
Games.
 At the first three Olympics participants still swam in open water. In Athens, the
Games were held in the extremely cold water of 11-12 degrees of the Bay of Zea, at the
second Olympics in 1900 in Paris, in the backwater of the Seine, the Marne River, while
at the Games in St. Louis in 1904 on an artificial lake. Since the Olympic Games held in
London in 1908, swimming competitions have been hold in a pool. In England, home
country of water sports, the 100-meter-long swimming pool was built in front of the
main box of the Olympic Stadium, which housed the event. This was the first Olympics
where the events similar to those of our days became permanent: 100, 400 and 1500-
yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke, 200-yard breaststroke and the 4 times 200-yard
freestyle relay. Although women had been admitted to the Olympic Games from 1900,
until 1912, only men were allowed to enter the competitions.
 Ladies then were allowed to enter the Games, but were only tolerated by the
people. It was difficult for them to compete as they were to wear swim suits covering
their whole body from neck to ankle, which were not suitable for swimming, even
bathing was difficult in them. Ladies were allowed to swim first at the Olympics in
1912, and even then only in the events of 100 metres freestyle and of the 4 times 100-
metre team relay. The outrageous backstroke style, which exposed the lady swimmers’
belly and breasts, was banned until 1924. The 50-metre-long pool was used in Paris in
1924 for the first time. This was also the first time to use lane dividing ropes, which
were made of coloured cork. At this Olympics the navigation helper lines at the bottom
of the pool appeared as well for the first time. At the start, swimmers have started from
the edge of the pool, but this was already a step ahead, since in 1886 they had to start
from a boat, or later from a floating bridge. Starting blocks at the ends of the pool have
been used only from 1936.
1.5
Organizations of
competitive
swimming
 The international organisation of swimmers, FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) was
founded on 19 July, in London, in the Manchester Hotel. At the inaugural meeting, the swimming
federations of eight countries, Belgium, England, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Sweden and
Hungary were present. The current head office of FINA is in Switzerland, in Lausanne. FINA oversees
the organisation of competitions in five aquatic sports (swimming, diving, synchronised swimming,
water polo, open water swimming). Its current president is Dr Julio C. Maglione (Uruguay).

On the initiative of the Hungarian Leó Donáth, the European Swimming Association,
LEN was established in 1927. With the exception of the short-course European championship of
swimming, that takes place each year , the LEN organises its competitions and tournaments every
two years: the long-course European Championship of swimming, the water polo European
Championship, the Masters Swimming Championship, the Junior European Championship of
swimming and the open water European Championship. In addition to swimming, the rest of
aquatic sports are subject to the supervision of the federation: waterpolo, diving, synchronised
swimming and long-course (open water) swimming. The current President of the European
Swimming Federation is Paolo Barelli (Italy), its former Vice- President (2008-2012) and its
current treasurer is the Hungarian Tamás Gyárfás.
Among the swimming competitions which are organized by FINA the most
important ones are:

FINA Swimming World Cup

Short-Course Swimming World Cup

Swimming World Cup

Junior World Cup

Marathon World Cup (10 km or longer distance).

 The first swimming World Championship was held in 1973, and
since 2001 it has always been organised in odd years. Within the
framework of the World Cup champions are announced not only in
swimming events, but in the events of synchronised swimming, diving and
open water long-course swimming as well. The water polo World Cup
takes place at the same time. The “Aquatic World Cup” is formally known
as

“swimming, long-course swimming, diving, synchronised

swimming and water polo World Cup”. The English name for it
is “FINA World Aquatics Championship".
 The first European Championship was held in Budapest, Hungary
in 1926. The 50 m pool The European Swimming Championship is usually
organised every two years (in spring and in summer) in a 50-metre-long pool
by the European Swimming Federation (LEN). LEN organises competitions
in a 25-metre-long pool as well, which are held each year, during the winter
(November, December). The first Short-Course Swimming Championship
was held in Gelsenkirchende in 1991. Hungary has only once organised a
European Short-Course Championship, Debrecen hosted the event in
2007. Before 1996 the name of the competition was European Sprint
Swimming Championship because the contestants could only enter short-
course events.
 Within the framework of the European Championships swimming is
not the only one sport, but there are events in synchronized swimming and
the diver as well, furthermore the open water Championship is held at the
same time. Until 1999 the European Water Polo Championships were also
held at this time, but the management hereof has changed, and nowadays
another city has been hosting the event, although at the same time. It is
known under the umbrella term of “European Aquatic
Championships”.
THE EVOLUTION OR
WORLD RECORDS IN
COMPETITIVE
SWIMMING
1.6
Thank you!