Since no one actually 'invented' swimming, its hard to know when and where it was discovered or who did it first, its though to have been first done some 10000 years ago however this timeline will give you the competitive side of swimming history
1800- swimming as a competitive sport starts in Europe
1896- swimming is first competed in the Olympics
freestyle and breastroke
swum in the Mediterranean sea
1896 Athens Olympics
1900- mass popularization of swimming
1900 Paris Olympics
1904- Olympic backstroke added
1904 Missouri Olympics
1908- FINA founded
The Federation Internationale de Natation
1908 London Olympics
1912- Women's swimming added to Olympics
Stockholm Olympics
All same events as men.
1912- Electronic Timing first used
more accurate times recorded
1912 Stockholm Olympics
1920 Antwerp Olympics
1922- first man to go under 1 minute for 100 freestyle
1924- first swimming pools with lane ropes used (50m)
1924 Paris Olympics
1928 Amsterdam Olympics
1930- Butterfly developed
1932 LA Olympics
1936- first male backstroker to go under 1 minute for 100yrd backstroke
1936 Berlin Olympics
1948 London Olympics
1952 Helsinki Olympics
1956- Butterfly first swam at Olympics
Melbourne Olympics
1956 Melbourne Olympics
1960 Rome Olympics
1962- First woman to swim 100m freestyle under 1 minute
1964 Tokyo Olympics
1968 Mexico City Olympics
1972- Mark Spitz, the legend
first person to win 7 medals
world record in every event swum
1972 Munich Olympics
1976- Goggles first used
1976 Montreal Olympics
1980 Moscow Olympics
1984 LA Olympics
1988 Seoul Olympics
1991- Short course records recognized
1992 Barcelona Olympics
1996 Atlanta Olympics
2000 Sydney Olympics
2001- first man to swim sub 1 minute in 100m breaststroke
2002- first woman to swim under 1 minute for 100m backstroke
2004 Athens Olympics
2008- Michael Phelps, the legend
8 gold medals
won every event swam
2008 Beijing Olympics
2010- body suits banned.
proved to disadvantage smaller swimmers
2012 London Olympics
2016 Rio Olympics
2020 Tokyo Olympics (2021)
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