Swimming
swimmers dive into the
pool to start a freestyle race
Swimming is moving in the water by moving
the arms and legs. Freestyle is the fastest swimming
stroke. Some freestyle races are short. The 50 metres freestyle
is the shortest. The 1500 metres is the longest freestyle event and at the Olympic Games and is an event for men.

Some swimmers swim breaststroke. They move both hands
forwards, outwards and then backwards. The legs are kicked like
a frog.

Backstroke
swimmers swim on their backs and rotate their hands backwards.
They kick their legs up and down.
To swim butterfly stroke, the swimmer lifts both arms out
of the water and flings them forward. The legs kick a dolphin
kick. There are 100 metre and 200 metre butterfly swimming events
for men and for women.
There are swimming
relay races for teams of swimmers
Synchronised swimming is an event for women. The team of swimmers
make shapes and patterns in the water. Sometimes the swimmers
are under the water.
Some Australian
swimming history
Swimming was
a popular activity in sea baths on Sydney Harbour from about 1830
but men and women were not allowed to swim in the pool at the
same time. It was thought to be rude!
Men often swam in nude. Women wore bathing dresses!

Women wore
uncomfortable swimming dresses and hats. They dressed and undressed
in bathing boxes like this.
In 1833 laws were passed that said that no one could swim at the
beach in daylight. Until after 1900 people who swam or even lay
on the beach could be arrrested.
Freddie Lane was Australia's first Olympic swimming champion.
He won 2 gold medals at the Paris Games in 1900. One of his medals
was for an obstacle race in which competitors climbed over a pole,
scrambled over a row of boats, and swam under another row of boats.
Fanny Durack was
Australia's first female Olympic champion. She won a gold medal
in 1912, the year that swimming became an Olympic sport for women.
Acknowledge this source in your bibliography like
this:
Thomas & Sydenham, Swimming. [Online] www.kidcyber.com.au (2008)
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