Competitive Swimming - Theoretical Basics

A swimmer, who swims a given distance in the least amount of time, wins a Competitive Swimming event. Competitive swimming, which was introduced in 19th century, has 34 competitive swimming events held today, which are 17 each in number, for male and females.

In Summer Olympic Games, men and women compete in 13 events. Olympic events are held in 50 meter pool. The governing organization for these events is called Federation Internationale de Natation (FINA), and also known as the International Swimming Federation.

There are four strokes in competitive swimming, which are the backstroke, the breaststroke, the butterfly and freestyle, where swimmers can use any stroke. Swimmers can swim individual strokes or a combination of strokes in an event called the individual medley or IM. In the individual medley, the order of the strokes is butterfly then backstroke, breaststroke and, lastly, freestyle.

Medley relay and Freestyle relays are 2 kinds of Competitive swimming relays. Backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and lastly, freestyle are sequentially used in these relays. Four swimmers compete in relays; swimming a divided distance, out event's total length. Total length of event could be 200, 400 or 800 meters. However, only freestyle stroke must be used in the 800 meters event.

Usually, a full-size pool used for competitive swimming in the United States is 50 meters long and 25 meters wide. This pool size allows both short and long racecourses. In competitive swimming, the equivalent of the referee or the umpire is the official. Disqualification of a swimmer happens when an official catches that swimmer breaking any rule regarding the particular stroke that he or she is using.

United states has many organizations, communities and schools which are sponsoring swimming leagues for teenagers and children. These leagues consist of swimming teams, which are trained in following standard rules and in usage of proper swimming strokes. Competitive swimming events that are held in these leagues however, are lengthwise shorted. In summer time, the leagues schedule their swim meets, which are without any association with any international or national organization.

The swimmers associated with these swim leagues often join a national team consequentially. Hence, most parents motivate their siblings to be a part of such clubs, which is agreed to by most youngsters in the interest of giving a start to their goals of being a part of competitive swimming.