Olympic Swimming - Videos

Olympic Swimming - Gallery

 

The Swimming competition at the 2012 Olympics are scheduled to be held:
Pool: 28 July – 4 August 2012 at the London Aquatics Centre, and open water: on 9 & 10 August in The Serpentine in London's Hyde Park. Olympic Swimming Tickets are available at Sport Ticket Exchange at reasonable prices. SportTicketExchange  is an excellent place for Olympic fans to buy or sell Olympic Tickets especially Swimming Tickets.

Olympic Swimming Tickets

Sport Ticket Exchange

Olympic Swimming - Swimwear

Swimsuit: Competitive swimwear seeks to improve upon bare human skin for a speed advantage. swimsuit has rubber or plastic bumps that break up the water close to the body.
Swim cap: A swim cap keeps the swimmer's hair out of the way to reduce drag. Caps may be made of latex, silicone or Lycra.
Goggles: Goggles keep water and chlorine out of swimmers' eyes.

Swim-fins: Rubber fins are used to help kick faster.
Paddles: Training equipment used for ease of pulling. These are plastic, and attach to the hand with thick rubber tubes.
Snorkel: A standard snorkel is made out of rubber and is used to keep the head straight while swimming.

Olympic Swimming - Swimming Pools

Most swimming sport events are held in special competition swimming pools, which are either long course pools such as those used in the Olympic Games (50 m) or short course pools such as those used in the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m). Competition pools have starting blocks from which the competitor can dive in, and possibly also touch-sensitive pads to electronically record the swimming time of each competitor.

Olympic Swimming - Swimming Styles

Freestyle is an unregulated swimming style used in swimming competitions according to the rules of FINA. The term freestyle is often used as a synonym for the front crawl. Competitors in freestyle swimming can use any of the unregulated strokes such as front crawl, dog paddle, or sidestroke, etc. This style provides the greatest speed.

The breaststroke is a swimming style in which the swimmer is on his or her chest and the torso does not rotate. It is the most popular recreational style due to its stability and the ability to keep the head out of the water a large portion of the time. But in competitive swimming, the breaststroke is regarded as one of the most difficult strokes, requiring comparable endurance and leg strength to other strokes.

The backstroke or back crawl, is one of the four swimming styles regulated by FINA, and the only regulated style swum on the back. This has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disadvantage of swimmers not being able to see where they are going. The swimming style is similar to an upside down  front crawl.

The butterfly is a swimming stroke swum on the breast, with both arms moving simultaneously. The butterfly kick was developed separately, and is also known as the "dolphin kick". It is the newest swimming style swum in competition, first swum in 1933. Younger swimmers needs months and even years of practice.

Olympic Swimming - Overview

Swimming is one of the most popular recreational sports that can be enjoyed by all ages. The ability to swim enables people to participate in a wide variety of water sports such as snorkelling, water skiing, jet skiing, wind surfing, sailing, boating, fishing, rowing, and canoeing, without the fear of getting into trouble, and reduces the risk of drowning. Fear of water, particularly if a person suddenly gets out of their depth, prevents a lot of people going into a swimming pool or enjoying beach holidays. Many of the newer watersports require expertise in handling a craft as well as swimming proficiency.

Olympic Swimming - Swimming Principles

The basic principle of swimming is buoyancy. The human body has a high water content and its density is close to the density of water. Due to its cavities (most prominently the lungs), the average density of the human body is lower than that of water, so it naturally floats. There are two ways to swim faster:
    * increase power
    * reduce water resistance

Because the power needed to overcome resistance increases with the third power of the velocity the first option is not really effective.

Olympic Swimming - Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur

In 1908, the world swimming association, Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), was formed in several European countries from 1882 to 1889. It was recognized by the International Olympic Committee  (IOC), administering international competition in the aquatic sports. Its headquarter is in Lausanne, Switzerland. Now 171 countries affiliated with this organization.Current President of FINA is Dr. Julio César Maglione.

Olympic Swimming - History of Swimming

Swimming has been recorded of swimming dates back to Stone Age paintings from around 7,000 years ago. Written references date from 2000 BC. In 1578, Nikolaus Wynmann, a German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book, The Swimmer or A Dialogue on the Art of Swimming. Competitive swimming in Europe  started around 1800. The English are considered the first modern society to develop swimming as a sport. By 1837 swimming competitions were being held in London’s six artificial pools, these competitions were organized by the National Swimming Society in England. As the sport grew in popularity many more swimming pools were built, and when a new governing body, the Amateur Swimming Association of Great Britain, was organized in 1880, it numbered more than 300 member clubs. Swimming is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA).

Olympic Swimming - History

Swimming was part of the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens with the 100 meters and 1500 meters freestyle competitions held in open water. Soon after, as swimming gained popularity, more freestyle events were included. The first modern Olympic Games had only four swimming events, three of them freestyle. The second Olympics in Paris in 1900 included three unusual swimming events, the third was a 4,000-metre event, the longest competitive swimming event ever. The Olympics have now developed to 32 swimming races, 16 for men and 16 for women. The Special Olympics includes competitive swimming for people with disabilities and has 22 events for men and 22 for women.