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"Swimming
has been recorded since prehistoric times; the earliest recording of
swimming dates back to
Stone
Age
paintings from around 7,000 years ago. Written references date from
2000 BC. Some of the earliest references to
swimming include the
Gilgamesh, the
Iliad,
the
Odyssey, the
Bible,
Beowulf,
and other sagas. In 1578, Nikolaus Wynmann, a
German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book, The
Swimmer or A Dialogue on the Art of Swimming (Der Schwimmer oder
ein Zwiegespräch über die Schwimmkunst). Competitive swimming in
Europe
started around 1800, mostly using
breaststroke. In 1873, John Arthur Trudgen introduced the
trudgen
to Western swimming competitions, after copying the
front crawl used by
Native Americans. Due to a British dislike of splashing, Trudgen
employed a
scissor kick instead of the
front crawl's
flutter kick. Swimming was part of the first modern
Olympic games in 1896 in
Athens.
In 1902 Richmond Cavill introduced the
front crawl to the Western world. In 1908, the world swimming
association,
Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), was formed.
Butterfly was developed in the 1930s and was at first a variant of
breaststroke, until it was accepted as a separate style in 1952.
Source:
Wikipedia
Diving is the
sport of
jumping or falling into water from a
platform
or
springboard,
sometimes while performing
acrobatics.
Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the
Olympic Games.
In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational
pastime. Diving is one of the most
popular
Olympic
sports with spectators. Competitors possess many of the same
characteristics as
gymnasts
and
dancers,
including strength, flexibility,
kinaesthetic
judgment and air awareness.
Source:
Wikipedia |