Now that we’ve learnt loads about the ins and outs of the freestyle such as some of the common mistakes made by many swimmers and also how to flutter kick efficiently, it’s time to learn about the history behind one of the most famous strokes in the world! Speaking of this, how intense has the Olympics been?! These talents are FAST and when I say fast, I mean if you blink you’re going to miss the whole 100m freestyle event! On the same note, my heartfelt congratulations goes to not only the winners who got the chance to stand on the pedestal but also to every single Olympic athlete who put thousands of hours into practicing for their craft.

Before we dive into the history of this swimming stroke, do take note that the “freestyle stroke” is not the name of the swimming stroke but is in fact a category in swimming competitions! The swimming stroke “front crawl” is commonly used during freestyle events (as it’s the fastest) and hence usually used interchangeably with “freestyle”!

The front crawl dates back all the way to 2000 BC. How do we know that? It’s seen in Egyptian bas-relief artwork (yes, people were drawn swimming the freestyle arm stroke). However, it was not until 1844 that the freestyle was picked up in the Western World during a race at the British Swimming Society which was reported in The Times newspaper when it happened. Since then, the mechanics of the stroke have been adapted to be made more efficient multiple times by many individuals. An example of an individual is John Trudgen who took away the usual flutter kick and replaced it with the breaststroke kick which led to the stroke being called “Trudgen Stroke”. It has also been further modified and called the “Australian Crawl” and “American Crawl”!

Fun fact: during the first Olympic games in 1896, front crawl swimmers actually swam the “Trudgen Stroke”! This continued on for the next 3 Olympic games as well.

If you’re wondering if the freestyle stroke came about first, as far as the internet knows, the answer is no. The sidestroke and breaststroke were founded before the front crawl. It’s also said that the breaststroke is the very first swim stroke, which is believed to date all the way back to the Stone Age. Similar to the freestyle, these strokes were adapted and modified many times to get to the variations that are widely practiced now!

Duke Kahanamoku introduced the closest variation of the freestyle kick in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics when he used a six-kick cycle which won him the 100m freestyle gold medal. In case you’re wondering what a six-kick cycle is, it is currently the most popular kick pattern used in the front crawl and basically involves kicking 6 times during every arm cycle! There are other kick patterns such as the four-beat kick and the two-beat kick. Picking an ideal kick timing is extremely important as it can be used to unleash the swimmers’ full core power to push forward in the water faster.

Finally in 1924, during the Paris Olympic Games, the 100m freestyle was swam in under a minute by Johnny Weissmuller which was a huge moment in the history of the front crawl. He came in just under a minute, at 59.0 seconds! He went on to break his own record during the next Olympic games 4 years later, at an Olympic Record of 58.6 seconds. Ever since then, this record has been challenged countless times at the Olympics, World Championships, World Aquatics Championships and plenty of other FINA events. The current 100m freestyle record stands at 46.91 sec and this record was set by César Cielo in 2009.

Conclusion

We’ve quite literally travelled through time with the freestyle. Now, the freestyle is known as one of the fastest contemporary swimming strokes! This year at the Tokyo Olympic games the men’s 800m and women’s 1500m events took place for the first time in history. It’s safe to say that history will continue to be made for a lot longer. 

Here are the current freestyle world records waiting to be broken:

50m freestyle: 20.91 sec (2009)

100m freestyle: 46.91 sec (2009)

200m freestyle: 1:24:00 min (2009)

400m freestyle: 3:40:07 min (2009)

800m freestyle: 7:32:12 min (2009)

1500m freestyle: 14:31:02 min (2012)

Who knows, it might be YOU! Keep swimming!

Join us at Condo Swimming Lesson to learn your improve your freestyle techniques. 

Hello everyone! I'm a gym enthusiast who gets very excited at the sight of dogs. Drinking teh tarik is my form of relaxation. I hope you share my passion for anything fitness-related through my writing!