Swimming is one of the oldest sports around. It dates back to prehistoric times. Some drawings from the Stone Age were found in "the cave of swimmers" near Wadi Sora (or Sura) in the southwestern part of Egypt. there are written references that date from 2000 B.C. including Gligamesh, the IIilad, the Odyssey, The Bible (Ezekiel 47:5, Acts 27:42, Isaiah 25:11) Beowulf and other sagas. It was in 1538 Nicolas Wynman, German professor of languages, wrote the first book about swimming title "Colymbetes". Competitive swimming began in Europe around 1800 and the breaststroke was the premiere stroke used at the time. The front crawl (freestyle) yet at that time was called the trudgen which was introduced by John Arthur Trudgen in 1873. this particular style of swimming was copied by Trudgen from the Native Americans. However, in 1902 the trudgen was improved by Robert Cavill, using the flutter kick.
In 1896 swimming was made part of the first modern Olympic games in Athens Greece. the Butterfly was at first considered a variant of the breaststroke, but it was in 1952 that it was finally accepted as a separate swim style.
As you all can see, swimming has roots dating back to the prehistoric era. There is more to share about the history of swimming so stay tuned for part 2.
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