Freestyle

Level 1 · History & Evolution

Open to everyone. Start here without completing another game.

Front crawl gradually replaced older competitive styles. Duke Kahanamoku’s 1912 Olympic success helped popularize a technique closer to modern crawl. Today, swimmers refine body position, breathing and propulsion.

Read the history source →

Watch · Swimming overview

World Aquatics includes this introduction in its swimming history feature. Use it as an overview, then follow the stroke-specific history above.

World Aquatics · video source · Open video if the player is unavailable

Look closer

What do you notice about the start, body position, arm action, kick and turn? Compare an older race with today’s technique when historic footage is available.