Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Swimming

The Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) organizes and regulates swimming races in the freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and individual medley events, as well as competitions in diving, synchronized swimming, water polo, and open-water swimming. Since 1908, FINA has recognized and verified world records, established and modified the rules for each discipline, and organized the aquatics events at the Olympic Games and FINA world championships. Women have accomplished many feats in the sport of swimming but have faced many challenges as well.

Bathing emerged as a popular leisure activity in the early 1800s to enhance cleanliness and good health. Consequently, cities and private clubs built numerous baths and indoor pools, and swimming became an acceptable recreational pursuit for women in most areas of the world. Strict rules and social norms separated women and men at public swimming facilities because mixed bathing contravened acceptable standards of behavior. In many countries, public swimming facilities remained segregated by sex until the 1950s. The cycling craze of the 1890s facilitated the growth and acceptance of women's swimming. The invention of the safety bicycle enabled women to travel to the water to swim without their husbands and families, which led to dress reform, greater independence, and an increased number of recreational activities for women.

Competitive Sport

Competitive swimming emerged as a sport in the mid-1800s, but women, often the unmarried daughters of swimming instructors, did not begin entering swimming races until the 1870s. Prior to this time, women's roles in swimming involved passively watching and supporting the male competitors. Carnivals known as swimming galas, where participants demonstrated “scientific swimming” techniques, were popular at the end of the 19th century. Combining swimming, dance, and gymnastics, swimming galas were considered less rigorous and physically demanding than competitive swimming and, therefore, more appropriate for women to participate.

In 1907, Annette Kellerman of Australia performed “water ballets” throughout the United States in a glass tank filled with water, and many spectators found her sleeveless and legless attire controversial. At that time women's swimming costumes were designed to preserve women's modesty, not facilitate ease of movement through the water. Charlotte Epstein, considered the mother of American swimming, fought for bathing suit reform as well as the addition of women's water polo events and longer swimming races equal to the men's distances. Advocates from the National Women's Life Saving League campaigned for women to be permitted to swim without stockings. The popularity of sunbathing in the 1920s, the rationing of fabrics during World War II, and the introduction of the bikini in Paris ultimately led to relaxed social expectations regarding women's swimming attire. The size of swimsuits reappeared as an issue of contention in 2008 after swimmers wearing full-body, highly engineered bathing suits that increase swimmers’ buoyancy and reduce their drag through the water set numerous world records. As of 2010, competitive swimsuits must not extend beyond the neck, shoulders, and ankles and cannot be more than 1mm thick.

Olympic Games

The Olympics included women's swimming events for the first time at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. Men competed in swimming events at the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 and at each Olympic Games thereafter. FINA did not achieve gender parity in the number of men's and women's events included on the swimming program at the Olympic Games until 1996 in Atlanta. The swimming events at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing included 17 women's and 17 men's events in the pool; however, the women competed in the 800m freestyle while the men compete in the 1,500m freestyle. In Beijing, swimmers competed in women's and men's 10km open water swimming events for the first time. At the 2008 Para-lympic Games, the swimming program included 11 women's events, 12 men's events, and four relays for competitors in several classifications.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution