Good afternoon readers, I hope your week is being wonderful. Today's post is about swimming! I particularly like this sport, I think it's very beautiful. And because it looks beautiful, I chose to write about this modality here in the blog so you also know how swimming works.
Are you ready?
Swimming has existed for many years, it has become a physical quality essential for the survival of man, whether in the search for food or in the escape of a danger on land. In Greece, swimming practice gained great importance, knowing swimming became a prerequisite to becoming a soldier and thus could improve his physical form, in addition, swimming for the Greeks provided the harmonious development of the body, something much appreciated by Greek society. Plato, for example, asserted that individuals who had not learned to swim couldn’t be considered educated. It was in Greece that the first swimming contests arose: the Isthmian Games, played in honor of the god Poseidon.
Over the years, many cultures have given swimming some relevance, but none has made it very popular. During the Middle Ages, the belief that swimming was responsible for the spread of disease, the history of swimming reveals another rise of the sport during the Renaissance: several public swimming pools were created throughout Europe, especially in Paris, during the kingdom of Louis XIV. In the seventeenth century the Japanese began to take compulsory swimming lessons in schools.
In the 19th century, swimming as a competitive sport began in England. In 1837 were fought the first tests of the sporting modality, in the city of London. Swimming was a modality present since the first edition of the modern Olympic Games, inaugurated by Baron Pierre de Coubertain in 1894. In Brazil, swimming was introduced in 1897, with the foundation of the Union de Regatas Fluminense, in the city of Rio de Janeiro .
That was a small part of swimming history. I love knowing how each sport started so I just understand more easily how each mode works, and being able to share with you is being incredible! Let's continue with the post ?!
Swimming style and its distances
In competitions 4 styles are used, they are:
Breaststroke: The athlete stands with his chest down and makes a movement where he pushes both arms forward at the same time and then opens them, simultaneously doing the same with the legs.
The distances covered are:
- 50 meters
- 100 meters
-200 meters
Crawl: The swimmer has his chest facing down and makes a circular movement with his arms, alternating left with right, almost two propellers. The legs also make a synchronized movement from the bottom up alternately.
The distances covered are:
- 50 meters
- 100 meters
- 200 meters
- 400 meters
- 800 meters
- 1500 meters
Back: This style is equal to that of the swim crawl in movements of arms and legs, the only thing is that it is done from the back (belly facing up).
The distance traveled are:
- 50 meters
- 100 meters
- 200 meters
Mariposa: The swimmer is boosted using both arms simultaneously, almost like the movement of being to dive. The feet stand together and make a simultaneous movement downward and upward, resembling a dolphin's fin.
The distances covered are:
- 50 meters
- 100 meters
- 200 meters
Swimming Pools
The pools can measure 2 different lengths: 25 meters (short swimming pool) or 50 meters (Olympic pool). The only thing that changes between them is the length.
The pool should be 2 meters deep and divided by lanes along its entire length, there being a distance between them of 2.5 meters represented thus the designated track for each swimmer.
The side margins should be 50 centimeters between the wall and the nearest streak. It must also have a starting block for each of the swimmers, having its platform at least 50 centimeters from the water level (up to a maximum of 70 centimeters) and its slope can’t exceed 10 degrees.
Referees or Staff
Referee: Responsible for developing the race and has final say on any decision. There are 2, one for male and one for female.
Starting Judge: This is what signals the match with an electronic signal. Here there are also 2, one for each genre.
Swimming Judges: These are 4 for races, 2 on each side of the pool and accompany the swimmers by the pool to verify that they are swimming correctly, without errors or faults.
Round Judges: There are 16 per race, each at one end of the swimmer's lane (there are 8 lanes) to see if the swimmer is well on the way.
Scorer: This one is in a special room to take care of the results that show in the electronic markers and the signs of the judges.
False exit rope judge: Responsible for the rope that is located 15 meters from the edge of the pool and which marks the place where the swimmer already has to be on top of the water. If any of them do not meet this requirement at the start, then the rope falls into the water and is started again.
Other forms of swimming
There is open water swimming which is done in the open sea and also has the same objective, but with much greater distances (several kilometers, sometimes making the connection between two islands). And there are other more different types like Diving, Synchronized swimming, water jumping, among others...
Talking about of swimming and how it works, this month Brazil will host the 49th CISM WORLD MILITARY SWIMMING CHAMPIONSHIP. The military swimming world championship will take place between the 11th to the 15th of December in Rio de Janeiro - Brazil. It sure will be a beautiful event and a great show in the water. Soon we will return to the blog with more information about the world cup. I'm anxious and you?
Anyway, today's post is over and I hope you have enjoyed it and a great month of December! Have a good week and until the next post. Goodbye!
