Focus on Swimming
One of the main sports of the London Olympics will be swimming. Swimming has been in every Olympic games since 1896. Men and women swim a variety of distances using the four main strokes.
Freestyle
Backstroke
Breaststroke
Butterfly
Did you know?
The first Olympic swimming took place in the Mediterranean Sea!
There used to be an underwater race.
Swimming goggles were first allowed in 1976
The tumble turn was first seen in the 1952 Olympics
They only started swimming in lanes in 1924
Until 1956, you could swim butterfly in the breast stroke race!
The swimming pool for the 1908 Olympic games was 100m long and was in
the middle of the athletics track.
If you live in Nottingham, you will have heard of Rebecca Adlington. In 2008 Olympics, she won two gold medals. In over one hundred years, GB has only won 15 swimming gold medals. To win two golds is amazing!
This summer, Rebecca will try to add to that total.
