History of swimming

Competitive swimming in Britain started around 1830, mostly using breaststroke. Swimming was part of the first modern Olympic games in 1896 in Athens. In 1908, the world swimming association, Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), was formed.

Ancient times

10,000-year-old rock paintings of people swimming were found in the Cave of Swimmers near Wadi Sura in southwestern Egypt. These pictures seem to show breaststroke or doggy paddle, although it is also possible that the movements have a ritual meaning unrelated to swimming. An Egyptian clay seal dated between 9000 BCE and 4000 BCE shows four people who are believed to be swimming a variant of the front crawl.

More references to swimming are found in the Babylonian bas- reliefs and Assyrian wall drawings, depicting a variant of the breaststroke. The most famous drawings were found in the Kebir desert and are estimated to be from around 4000 BCE. The Nagoda bas-relief also shows swimmers inside of men dating back from 3000 BCE The Indian palace Mohenjo Daro from 2800 BCE contains a swimming pool sized 30 m by 60 m. The Minoan palace of Knossos in Crete also featured baths. An Egyptian tomb from 2000 BCE shows a variant of front crawl. Depictions of swimmers have also been found from the Hittites, Minoans, and other Middle Eastern civilizations, in the Tepantitla compound at Teotihuacan, and in mosaics in Pompeii.