Media Information Package Swimming

A. HISTORY OF THE SPORT
Great Britain is considered the first modern country to have developed the sport of
swimming. Modern swimming competitions began in 1837 in several London pools that
had already existed. In 1896, swimming was recognized at the modern Olympic Games
in Athens. The events were only for men and they consisted of the 100 and 1500 m
freestyle in open water. Women were allowed to swim in the 1912 Olympic Games,
competing in freestyle events. Stroke development began over the next decades,
refining the freestyle and breaststroke.
In 1934, David Ambruster discovered a way to make the breaststroke arm recovery
more efficient. A double arm, out of water “butterfly” technique was used to gain more
speed but required more conditioning and training. The following year, the dolphin fishtail
kick was developed by Jack Sieg, of the University of Iowa. Swimmers were not allowed
to use the dolphin kick along with the out of water recovery until 1952 when the butterfly
became an official swimming stroke. The final four strokes that have been developed
and refined over the past century are; butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.
Swimming at the Olympic Games has grown into 32 swimming races; 16 for men and 16
for women.
B. CANADA GAMES SPORT HISTORY AND PAST RESULTS
Swimming was featured at the first Canada Summer Games in 1969. Since then, the
program has grown at the Games, featuring opportunities for able-bodied swimmers,
swimmers with disabilities, and special Olympic swimmers.
PAST RESULTS
1969 1973 1977 1981 1985 1989 1993 1997 1997 2001
C C C M F M F M F M F M F M F M F
AB 3 3 4 2 4 2 4 2 4 1 4 4 3 4 3 2 5
BC 1 2 3 4 2 4 3 4 2 3 2 1 4 1 4 3 3
MB 5 5 7 7 7 5 6 5 6 7 7 7 6 7 6 5 4
NB 8 8 9 9 8 7 7 8 5 9 8 8 8 8 8 8 9
NF 8 10 8 6 9 9 9 9 9 8 9 9 9 9 9 9 8
NWT 8 - - 11 11 11 11 - - 10 10 11 11 11 11 10 12
NS 7 7 6 5 6 8 8 6 8 6 5 6 7 6 7 7 7
ON 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 3 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 1
PEI 8 9 - 10 10 10 10 10 10 11 10 10 10 10 10 11 11
QC 4 4 2 3 3 3 2 1 1 4 3 3 2 3 2 4 2
SK 6 6 5 8 5 6 5 7 7 5 6 5 5 5 5 6 6
YK 8 - - - - - - - - - - 12 12 12 12 12 10
C = Mixed
M = Male
F = Female
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