History

Of course regular swimming goes back thousands and thousands of years ago. But competitive swimming circles back to the early 1800s in London.  This was when the first man-made pools were created in London and where competitions were held. This was when men were only able to swim and women were not. But after a short while, it eventually became legal for women to be able to swim in competitions. Nobody wore swim caps yet and very few were able to get their hands on goggles.  And as far as bathing suits go, all they had were flimsy bathing suits made out of wool. Before all of the main strokes that you see today in competitive swimming were allowed, (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle) there used to be weird obstacle races that took place in the water. This consisted of jumping over poles and swimming under a line of boats in 200 meters.