HISTORICAL OLYMPIC SWIMMING FACTS

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  • The oldest form of stroke used is the breaststroke.
  • Ancient drawings and paintings found in Egypt depicting people swimming date back to 2500 BCE.
  • Swim fins were invented by Benjamin Franklin.
  • Swimming became an amateur sport in the late part of the nineteenth century.
  • Swimming first became an Olympic event in 1896.
  • Swimming in the Olympics started as a men’s event only but women were able to participate starting in 1912.
  • The deep eddy swimming pool, built in 1915, is the oldest known concrete swimming pool and was built in Texas.
  • After World War-I and the departure of “Long John” style swimming costumes, interest in competitive swimming grew. Standards improved and training became essential.
  • The first woman to swim the English Channel is Gertrude Ederle, who was actually just a teenager at that time in 1926.
  • Home swimming pools became popular in the USA after world war ii and the publicity given to swimming sports by Hollywood films like Esther Williams million-dollar mermaid made a home pool a desirable status symbol.
  • Actress Esther Williams popularized synchronized swimming when she starred in movies known as “aqua musicals” produced by MGM in the forties and fifties. Aqua musicals were about synchronized swimming.
  • In 1956, the us national swimming pool institute was founded. It was later renamed to the association of pool & spa professionals, and now develops pool construction standards and provides training to pool builders and service technicians.
  • President Gerald ford had the outdoor swimming pool built at the white house in 1975. In 1976, a pool house was added — with a secret, underground passage that lets the first family and their guests to get from the white house to the pool without going outside.
  • Synchronized swimming first appeared in the Olympics during the 1984 games.