HISTORY OF SWIMMING

1830- Competitive swimming in Britain started, mostly using breaststroke

1896- Swimming was part of the first modern Olympic games in Athens.
1908- the world swimming association, Fdration Internationale de Natation
(FINA), was formed.

ANCIENT TIMES

10,000-year-old rock paintings of people swimming were found in the Cave of

Swimmers near Wadi Sura in southwestern Egypt. These pictures seem to
show breaststroke or doggy paddle, although it is also possible that the movements
have a ritual meaning unrelated to swimming. An Egyptian clay seal dated
between 9000 BCE and 4000 BCE shows four people who are believed to be swimming
a variant of the front crawl.

More references to swimming are found in the Babylonian bas- reliefs and Assyrian wall
drawings, depicting a variant of the breaststroke. The most famous drawings were
found in the Kebir desert and are estimated to be from around 4000 BCE. The Nagoda
bas-relief also shows swimmers inside of men dating back from 3000 BCE.
The Indian palace Mohenjo Daro from 2800 BCE contains a swimming pool sized 30 m
by 60 m. The Minoan palace of Knossos in Crete also featured baths. An Egyptian tomb
from 2000 BCE shows a variant of front crawl. Depictions of swimmers have also been
found from the Hittites, Minoans, and other Middle Eastern civilizations, in
the Tepantitla compound atTeotihuacan, and in mosaics in Pompeii.[1]
Written references date back to ancient times, with the earliest as early as 2000 BC.
Such references occur in works like Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible
(Ezekiel 47:5, Acts 27:42, Isaiah 25:11),Beowulf, and other sagas, although the style is
never described. There are also many mentions of swimmers in
the Vatican, Borgian and Bourbon codices. A series of reliefs from 850 BC in
the NimrudGallery of the British Museum shows swimmers, mostly in military context,
often using swimming aids. TheGermanic folklore describes swimming, which was used
successfully in wars against the Romans.

EARLY MODERN ERA

Swimming was initially one of the seven agilities of knights during the Middle Ages,
including swimming with armor. However, as swimming was done in a state of undress,
it became less popular as society became more conservative in the early Modern
period. Leonardo da Vinci made early sketches of lifebelts. In 1539, Nikolaus Wynmann,
a German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book Colymbetes. His
purpose was to reduce the dangers of drowning. The book contained a good methodical
approach to learning breaststroke, and mentioned swimming aids such as air filled cow
bladders, reed bundles, andcork belts.
In 1587, Everard Digby also wrote a swimming book, claiming that humans could swim
better than fish. Digby was a Senior Fellow at St. John's College, Cambridge and was
interested in the scientific method. His short treatise, De arte natandi, was written
in Latin and contained over 40 woodcut illustrations depicting various methods of
swimming, including the breaststroke, backstroke and crawl. Digby regarded the
breaststroke as the most useful form of swimming. In 1603, Emperor Go-Yozei of
Japan declared that schoolchildren should swim.
In 1696, the French author Melchisdech Thvenot wrote The Art of Swimming,
describing a breaststroke very similar to the modern breaststroke. This book was
translated into English and became the standard reference of swimming for many years
to come. In 1739, Guts Muts (also spelled as Guts Muth) fromSchnepfenthal, Germany,
wrote Gymnastik fr die Jugend (Exercise for youth), including a significant portion
about swimming. In 1794, Kanonikus Oronzio de Bernardi of Italy wrote a two volume
book about swimming, including floating practice as a prerequisite for swimming
studies.
In 1798, Guts Muts wrote another book Kleines Lehrbuch der Schwimmkunst zum
Selbstunterricht (Small study book of the art of swimming for self-study), recommending
the use of a "fishing rod" device to aid in the learning of swimming. His books describe a
three-step approach to learning to swim that is still used today. First, get the student
used to the water; second, practice the swimming movements out of the water; and
third, practice the swimming movements in the water. He believed that swimming is an
essential part of every education. The Haloren, a group of salt makers in Halle,

Germany, greatly advanced swimming through setting a good example to others by

teaching their children to swim at a very early age.

SWIMMING AS A COMPETETIVE SPORTS

1830s - Swimming emerged as a competitive sport in England.

1828 - the first indoor swimming pool, St George's Baths, was opened to the
public.[7]
1837 - the National Swimming Society was holding regular swimming
competitions in six artificial swimming pools, built around London. The sport grew
in popularity and by
1880 - the first national governing body, the Amateur Swimming Association,
was formed, there were already over 300 regional clubs in operation across the
country.
1844 - a swimming competition was held in London with the participation of
two Native Americans. The British competitor used the traditional breaststroke,
while the Native Americans swam a variant of the front crawl, which had been
used by people in the Americas for generations, but was not known to the British.

PERSONS WHO MADE BIG NAMES IN SWIMMING

Sir John Arthur Trudgen - picked up the hand-over stroke from South American
natives he observed swimming on a trip to Buenos Aires. On his return
to England in 1868, he successfully debuted the new stroke in 1873 and won a
local competition in 1875.

Captain Matthew Webb was the first man to swim the English
Channel (between England and France), in 1875. He used breaststroke,
swimming 21.26 miles (34.21 km) in 21 hours and 45 minutes.

Nancy Edberg - popularized women's swimming in Stockholm from 1847. She

made swimming lessons accessible for both genders and later introduced
swimming lessons for women in Denmarkand Norway..

EUROPEAN COUNTRIES WHO ESTABLISHED SWIMMING FEDERATION

Germany in 1882

France in 1890

Hungary in 1896