Swimming is an activity of the human being that consists of staying on the surface of the water or floating, moving the arms and legs. It is also seen as a sport if it is practiced to compete. Through its evolution and in accordance with individual and social requests, swimming presents various forms: recreational swimming, for pleasure and playfulness; swimming for prevention and health care, and competitive swimming. Swimming is a fabulous activity, with innumerable advantages for the one who practices it; It relaxes you from daily worries, due to its enormous degree of isolation, being in total contact with the water and the freedom to move in it.It presents immense benefits for our muscular, nervous, and respiratory systems, since it is a sport where more muscles include in its execution, increasing resistance and muscle toning throughout the body.
The origin of swimming is clearly utilitarian, although with the passage of time this activity has acquired the sports orientation that it currently has. It is known that swimming races were already held in ancient Egypt, and that this sport was widespread in the civilizations of Greece and Rome. However, it was in London in 1869 that the first pool club association was created, when swimming was established as an organized sport. This sport was Olympic in 1896 in the masculine modality, and by 1912 the feminine one was included.
The International Federation of Amateur Swimming (FINA), created in 1908, is the world institution that currently organizes the main competitions in this sport. Among these is the World Championship, held for the first time in 1973 and which, since then, has taken place every four years. Swimming events can correspond to four styles: crawl or freestyle , which is the fastest style; back , it is the only style in which a supine lying is adopted; that is, with your back to the water; breaststroke , which swims prone; and butterfly , second fastest style although it requires high levels of strength and coordination in its execution.
The facility where this sport takes place is the swimming pool, except for most long-distance competitions, which take place in natural areas (sea, river or lake). Currently there are other sports closely related to swimming such as water polo, synchronized swimming, trampoline jumping, scuba diving, etc.
