Swimming

Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water.

Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic sports, with varied distance events in butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and individual medley.

Swimming each stroke requires a set of specific techniques.

Evidence of recreational swimming in prehistoric times has been found, with the earliest evidence dating to Stone Age paintings from around 10,000 years ago.

Written references date from 2000 BC, with some of the earliest references to swimming including the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Bible, Beowulf, the Quran and others.

In 1538, Nikolaus Wynmann, a Swiss-German professor of languages, wrote the earliest known complete book about swimming, Colymbetes, such as " The Swimmer ", or " A Dialogue on the Art of Swimming " and " Joyful and Pleasant to Read ".

Synchronized swimming was popularized by actress Esther Williams in her "aqua musicals" of the 1940s and 1950s.

Swimming was known to be a noble skill for Japanese samurai.

Swimming emerged as a competitive recreational activity in the 1830s in England.

In 1828, the first indoor swimming pool, St George's Baths was opened to the public.

By 1837, the National Swimming Society was holding regular swimming competitions in six artificial swimming pools, built around London.

The recreational activity grew in popularity and by 1880, when the first national governing body, the Amateur Swimming Association was formed, there were already over 300 regional clubs in operation across the country.

The US National Swimming Pool Institute was founded in 1956, and still sets safety standards for pools today.

Can you imagine swimming under a volcano with black sand and jungle all around you?

Otters are born with their eyes closed, and as soon as they open they have a lot to learn like swimming and hunting.

To enable swimming, it has webbed feet with long claws.

Otters are small, playful animals that love swimming.