Swimming

Facts about swimming ~ The size of an Olympic pool is 50m but they swim 100m ~ The four strokes Olympians compete in are freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and Medley which is all four ~ Swimming strengthens you heart and lungs and works out all of the bodies major muscles ~Swimming started in the 1st century

Swimming Equipment Swimmers use all different swimming equipment to train. FLIPPERS – Flippers are used to improve kick strength, ankle flexibility, body position and to go faster during swim practice. PULL BUOY – Pool buoys are used to place between your legs to provide support to the body without kicking the legs; this allows the swimmer to just focus on their arms. KICK BOARD - Kick boards are used to be held by the swimmers hands while they focus on their legs. SWIMMING CAPS – Swimming caps are used because hair can create drag and slow you down. Some Olympic level swimmers wear two caps. GOGGLES – Goggles are worn so swimmers can see where they are going and for comfort as chlorine can make your eyes uncomfortable.

FLIPPERS KICKBOARD PULL BUOY SWIMMING CAP RACING GOGGLES

STROKES

WORLD RECORDS NAME GENDER NATION DISTANCE STROKE TIME DATE Libby Trickett Female AUSTRALIA 100m Freestyle 51.01sec 13 April 2008 Amaury Leveaux Male FRANCE 44.94sec 13 December 2008 Shiho Sakai JAPAN Backstroke 55.23sec 19 December 2009 Nick Thoman USA 48.94sec 18 December 2009 Rebecca Soni Breaststroke 1:02.70min Cameron van der Burgh RUSSIA 55.61sec 15 November 2009 Diane Bui Duyet Butterfly 55.05sec 12 December 2009 Evgency Korotyshkin RUSSUA 48.48sec Julia Smit 200m IM (all four) 2:04.60min Ryan Lochte 1:49.63min 14 December 2012

Refrences http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2011/10/000802ab4a630907811e04.jpg http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/results/records/WorldRecords_SCM.pdf