Archive for the ‘Swimming’ Category
Competitive swimming is one of the most watched events in the Summer Olympic Games. The competition consists of 36 events, including 18 for males and 18 for females, though the International Olympic Committee only recognizes 34 events (17 for males, 17 for females).
Swim meets at the Olympic Games are held in regulation 50 meter swimming pools that are divided into lanes for each swimmer. Distances typically swam include 50, 100 and 200 meters or yards and the strokes that are used in competition include the following: the breaststroke, the butterfly stroke, the backstroke and the freestyle stroke.
The breaststroke involves kicking your legs, making sure knees stay as close together as possible, scooping water towards your chest, and then thrusting your arms forward, extending them as far as they will go just before the kicking is repeated. Breaths are taken as the arms are coming down from being extended.
The butterfly stroke, known as the fastest modality in swimming, borrows a few key movements from the breaststroke; however, the butterfly, or “fly” as it’s known to most swimmers, is slightly more complicated and involves synchronizing arm and leg movements in order to maintain movement and speed. The proper technique involves extending your arms beyond your head, palms facing slightly down, and using your arms to push through the water in a sort of semicircle movement that ends with releasing your arms at the waist. While the arms are extended, you’re periodically coming up for air, then pulling your arms down. Meanwhile you are synchronizing your legs with your arm movements, kicking with both feet together in sequence with two kicks per stroke.
The backstroke style involves floating on your back while using one arm at a time to glide through the water, all while kicking both of your feet simultaneously.
The freestyle stroke is based on whatever stroke you choose, though the most popular stroke is the front crawl. This involves breathing to the side with one ear in the water, and alternating leg and arm movements. The swimming distances vary during freestyle competitions and can go up to 1,500 meters.
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Chlorine is widely regarding as the most effective way to disinfect and prevent bacteria from forming on swimming pools. However, recent research reveals that too much exposure to chlorine can lead to significant respiratory issues, as evidenced by the following two studies:
A recent study conducted by researchers in Belgium and published in the September 2009 issue of Pediatrics found that teenagers who spent more than 1,000 hours in a swimming pool had more than eight times the risk of developing asthma, allergies or other breathing disorders, compared to teens who swam in pools that were disinfected using copper-silver disinfectants.
In another study, researchers at the American College of Sports Medicine found that chlorine levels such as those found in public and home swimming pools may lead to increased breathing problems and a condition known as exercise induced bronchoconstriction in trained swimmers.
The researchers studied the effects of chlorine in two different concentrations, including 0.5 parts-per-million (PPM) and 1.0 PPM (the latter of which is typically found in home and public pools) had on the lung capacity of trained swimmers. Testing was conducted after the swimmers swam in pools with different chlorine concentration levels, as well as after they ran or cycled next to the pools. The researchers found the incidence rate for respiratory trouble was slightly less than 20% when swimmers swam or exercised near the pool with 0.5 PPM; however the incidence rate for respiratory issues climbed to more than 60% when swimmers were exposed to the pool containing a concentration of 1.0 PPM. These findings were regardless of whether the swimmers had a history of prior breathing problems.
The researchers said they had suspected that chlorine played a significant role in the respiratory health of swimmers and cautioned those who swam regularly to be aware of the chlorine concentration levels in the pools in which they are swimming.
They noted that swimming is an exercise that’s generally recommended for those who already have breathing problems, such as asthmatics, and recommended that those with respiratory issues should seek out pools with chlorine concentrations of less than 0.5 PPM.
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Swimming with kids can be a fun, healthy activity for the whole family. And families who own pools say nothing beats the convenience and enjoyment of swimming in their own backyards—anytime, year round. But owning a pool comes with the responsibility for safety awareness, especially if children are nearby.
Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death in children in the U.S. And recent studies show that, in some states in the nation’s Sunbelt, where more families own pools, drowning is the number one cause of accidental in children under age five.
What are other key statistics regarding children’s risks and dangers when they’re around swimming pools?
• Nationwide more than 300 children under age five drown in residential swimming pools every year. More than 2,000 children in this age group are treated every year in emergency rooms for submersion-related injuries.
• Medical costs for submersion patients can start from about $2,000 for a victim who fully recovers to nearly $100,000 if the patient has brain damage. Victims with severe brain damage can require extended hospital stays (more than four months) and costs can exceed $150,000.
• A recent study by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) showed that 65 percent of children’s drowning and submersion incidents took place in a pool at the child’s house. Thirty-three percent of the incidents were in a pool at the residence of friends or relatives.
• The CPSC study showed that pool submersion incidents happen fast. Seventy-seven percent of the victims had been missing from sight less than five minutes.
• The study showed that, during most incidents, a parent was on site, but 69 percent of the children were not expected to be near the pool.
• Toddlers are most at risk, reported the CPSC study, because they are most likely to engage in unexpected behaviors. Seventy-five percent of submersion victims were between the ages of one and three. Most (65 percent) were boys.
• The victim’s welfare depends on how quickly the breathing process is restarted, said the study. Seconds matter when trying to save a child from death or brain damage
There are many different types of swimwear that are available to women on the market today. But when it comes to swimming for fitness or competition versus swimming for recreational fun, there is a big difference on what type of swim suit that should be worn.
Many styles are available to choose from in the area of swimwear for fitness with many neat patterns and colors, but there are some elements about them that are similar. First of all, the swim suits usually have a high neck so that the water resistance doesn’t drag you down. Also, the straps on the suit are crossed in the back for more stability and so that they don’t fall down when moving your arms during swimming.
Additionally, the swim suits used for fitness or competition are usually one-piece rather than two-piece. It is pretty impractical to wear a bikini or a tankini type of swimming suit when really actively swimming because they aren’t made to resist the water very well and won’t stay where you want them to when pushing off a wall or doing a turn. However, there are some two-piece swimming suits made specifically for fitness swimming that can be used that are made with a higher waist and sports-bra like top, but they do tend to be more expensive than the one-piece ones. And the one-piece swimming suits are still considered the standard and are what is worn during swimming competitions.
Some common variations occur in the different types of swimming suits. The thickness of the straps varies from style to style and really is based on personal preference. Depending if you are outside in the sun and how often you are swimming tan lines might play a role on the strap you prefer. Also, the type of material used to make the suit can differ from being polyester or nylon/lycra. Most of the swimming suits are made from nylon/lycra, but they tend to become stretched out and wear out quickly. A polyester suit might be harder to find, but they don’t wear out as fast and are great for practice.
Although we have no early records, surely even the first humans enjoyed the health, spiritual and recreational benefits of submerging themselves in water. Our earliest visual records of swimming are Stone Age cave paintings done more than 7,000 years ago in southwest Egypt. Early written references to swimming are found in two of the oldest works of Western literature, the Greek epics the Iliad and the Odyssey, attributed to Homer, written in 8th century B.C.
In 1696, the French writer Melchisédech Thévenot published The Art of Swimming, in which he described a breaststroke similar to the one we use today. This book was became the standard reference for swimming, and one of its many readers was a young American named Benjamin Franklin. In fact, Franklin, an avid swimmer, is credited with the invention of swimming fins. In 1708, the first known lifesaving group began in China. Early swimming clubs (primarily focused on lifesaving) were also formed in Sweden, Holland and Great Britain, and soon similar groups were established all over the world.
By 1844 swimming was well established as a competitive sport in England, but British swimmers used the breaststroke. In a swimming exhibition that year, a group of North American Indian swimmers demonstrated a speedy but unconventional technique that shocked onlookers called “totally un-European.” Europeans shunned the technique for more than 30 years until an Englishman named John Arthur Trudgen reintroduced a variant of the stroke, later known as the front crawl, to the British after he learned it from Native Americans while in South America. The stroke, then called “the Trudgen,” quickly became popular in England and around the world, revolutionizing competitive swimming.
Swimming was an event in the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens. There were three freestyle events, open only to men, and one freestyle event open only to Greek sailors. The swimming competitions were held in the cold waters of the sea (the Bay of Zea, off the Piraeus coast) because organizers were unwilling to spend money to construct an indoor pool.
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The first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens included four swimming events, all freestyle, open only to men. Alfred Hajos of Hungary won the first swimming gold medal in the modern Olympics for his time of 1:22.20 in the 100-meter freestyle.
At the next Olympic Games in Paris in 1900, women were still excluded from swimming events. Baron Pierre de Coubertin, a French scholar and sportsman who developed the modern Olympic Games, held the belief (common in Victorian times) that women were too frail for athletic competition. The swimming events at the Paris Olympics included three unusual experiments: an obstacle course for swimmers, a test of underwater swimming endurance, and a 4,000-meter event—about 2.4 miles, or 80 lengths of a 50-meter pool, the longest swimming event in competition thus far. (British swimmer John Arthur Jarvis won the event, clocking in at just under one hour.) None of these events was included in future Olympic Games.
Australian swimmer Richmond Cavill (known as “Playboy Dick”) used his own improved version of the “Trudgeon” crawl in the 1902 International Championships in England. His improvement: the flutter kick. He set a world record in the 100 yards, leaving in his wake all Trudgeon-style swimmers. His technique, labeled the “Australian crawl,” rapidly gained popularity. In 1950 the term “Australian crawl” was shortened to “crawl,” and then became known as the “front crawl.”
In 1907 the Australian swimmer and vaudeville performer Annette Kellerman brought to the New York Hippodrome Theater her “water ballet” act, which she performed in a glass tank. She is now credited with inventing the sport of synchronized swimming. Her snug-fitting one-piece bathing suit caused a scandal, and she was arrested on a Boston beach for “indecent exposure.” (At that time women were expected to wear a layered outfit consisting of a dress, bloomers and leggings when swimming.) She thereafter became an advocate for a woman’s right to wear a one-piece bathing suit, and she introduced her own line of women’s one-piece swimwear, which became known as the “Annette Kellerman,” now seen as a pioneering step toward modern swimwear for women.
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Women were first allowed to compete in Olympic swimming events in the 1912 Summer Games in Stockholm. Twenty-seven female swimmers from eight nations participated. The Australian swimmer Fanny Durack, in the 100-meter freestyle, won the first gold medal in a women’s Olympic swimming event. The 1912 Summer Olympics are also notable for being the first Games in which electric timing devices were used.
In 1922, the German-American swimmer Johnny Weissmuller became the first person to swim 100 meters in under one minute, using the Australian crawl. Weissmuller, in his 10-year swimming career, won five Olympic gold medals, 52 U.S. National Championships and set 67 world records. His worldwide popularity helped spur interest in swimming as a competitive sport and recreational activity, and the 1920s are regarded as a “golden age” for the sport of swimming. Also in 1922, the American swimmer Sybil Bauer, competing in the 440-meter backstroke, became the first woman to break a men’s world record.
For swimming events at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, pool-lane dividers made of cork were introduced, as well as lines on the bottom of the pool to help orient swimmers.
New York-born Gertrude Ederle became the first female swimmer to complete the 35-mile swim across the English Channel in August 1926. Her swim began at a cape in northern France and ended 14 and a half hours later on the southeast shores of England. Her record held until 1950, when American swimmer Florence Chadwick traversed the Channel from France to England in 13 hours and 20 minutes. The following year, Chadwick crossed the Channel again, from England to France, making her the first female to swim across the Channel in both directions.
In the late 1920s the competitive swimming community began the scientific study of swimming to improve technique. University of Iowa coach David Armbruster devised the underwater observation window and began filming swimmers underwater. The Japanese also used underwater filming to study the mechanics of swimming strokes, and Japanese swimmers excelled at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, winning 12 swimming medals, the most of any country.
To achieve faster swimming speeds, competitive swimmers and coaches in the late 1920s began to study swimming technique. University of Iowa coach David Armbruster, a pioneer in the observation and study of swimming movements, started the practice of photographing swimmers underwater. In the early 1930s Armbruster discovered that breaststroke swimmers who brought their arms forward out of the water in a “butterfly” motion achieved a much faster stroke.
Armbruster combined these arms movements with a “dolphin kick” (performed with the legs kept together to move like a fish tail) developed at the same time by University of Iowa swimmer Jack Sieg. The “dolphin kick” was not allowed in competition, but a few swimmers used the new “butterfly arms” in breaststroke competitions in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Two years later most competitive breaststroke swimmers were using the butterfly style, but the stroke was not accepted in competitions until 1952, when it was recognized as a separate stroke with its own rules.
By mid-20th century, Australian competitive swimmers had refined backstroke movements so that the arms were bent underwater instead of held straight, thereby increasing speed and reducing exerted force. This modified stroke eventually became the preferred backstroke method used in competitions worldwide.
Breaststroke swimmers, in search of greater speed, began trying to reduce the number of times they needed to break the water surface. At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Japanese swimmer Masaru Furukawa surfaced only into and out of his turns, and won the gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke. After the 1956 Olympics, breaststroke swimmers copying the technique of swimming without surfacing led to cases of oxygen deprivation and swimmers losing consciousness during races. FINA, the international governing body of swimming, thereby introduced stricter rules limiting the distances that breaststroke swimmers were allowed to swim underwater.
![Cover of "It's a Wonderful Life [Blu-ray]...](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51cwuIuw8mL._SL300_.jpg "Cover of \"It's a Wonderful Life [Blu-ray]...")
- Cover of It’s a Wonderful Life [Blu-ray]
The GraduateOne of the most acclaimed American movies of the 1960s, The Graduate (1967) is about Benjamin Braddock (played by a young Dustin Hoffman), a recent college graduate who has no idea what he wants to do with the rest of his life. The summer after college, he spends lots of time lounging on an air mattress on his parents’ backyard swimming pool, while the soundtrack plays Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sounds of Silence.”
It’s a Wonderful LifeRanked high on many “best movies of all time” lists, It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) follows George Bailey (James Stewart), a troubled savings and loan manager who contemplates suicide. A memorable flashback has George on a date with Mary (Donna Reed) during which they’re dancing the Charleston at a high school hop—and the gymnasium floor opens to reveal a swimming pool underneath. This famous pool, located at Beverly Hills High School, is still in use.
Harold and MaudeNumber 45 on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Funniest Movies of All Time, Harold and Maude (1971) is about Harold (Bud Cort), a young man obsessed with death who likes to stage his own suicide. During one brief, hilarious scene, Harold, wearing a suit, lies face down in his mother’s backyard pool while she swims by, blithely ignoring him.
Bathing Beauty (Esther Williams)The swimmer/movie actress Esther Williams had her first starring role in Bathing Beauty (1944), a musical about a swimming teacher (Esther Williams) at a girl’s college. The extravagant “water ballet” scene, featuring female swimmers who dive one by one into a pool and then surround their “queen” as she performs graceful swimming maneuvers, became internationally famous.
Something’s Got to GiveThis 1962 American film was Marilyn Monroe’s last movie, and was abandoned after she died in August 1962. Much of the footage was not seen for years after Monroe’s death. The movie is now known for its famous scene in which Monroe’s character is swimming nude in a pool at night and she is calling out to the character played by Dean Martin to join her.
