Freestyle swimming

Individual freestyle events can also be swum using one of the officially regulated strokes (breaststroke, butterfly, or backstroke).

Cavill developed the stroke by observing a young boy from the Solomon Islands, Alick Wickham.

Cavill and his brothers spread the Australian crawl to England, New Zealand and America, creating the freestyle used worldwide today.

In the first four Olympics, swimming competitions were not held in pools, but in open water (1896 – the Bay of Zea, 1900 – the Seine river, 1904 – an artificial lake in Forest Park, 1906 – Neo Faliro).

Male swimmers wore full body suits up until the 1940s, which caused more drag in the water than their modern swimwear counterparts.

Also, over the years, some design considerations have reduced swimming resistance, making the pool faster, namely: proper pool depth, elimination of currents, increased lane width, energy-absorbing racing lane lines and gutters, and the use of other innovative hydraulic, acoustic, and illumination designs.

In freestyle events, swimmers originally dove from the pool walls, but diving blocks were eventually incorporated at the 1936 Olympics.

Lane design created in the early 1970s has also cut down turbulence in water, aiding in the more dynamic pool used today.