Swimming is movement by humans or animals in water, usually without artificial assistance. Swimming is an activity that is both useful and recreational for many species. Its primary uses are bathing, cooling, travel, fishing and escape. An individual's ability to swim can be judged by speed or stamina
Animals with lungs have an easier time floating than those without.Almost all mammals can swim by instinct. Bats, kangaroos, moles and sloths can swim, despite their rather strange shapes. The few exceptions include apes and possibly giraffes. Land birds can swim or float for at least some time. Ostriches, cassowaries and tortoises can swim.
Drawings from the Stone Age were found in "the cave of swimmers" near Sura, dating back to 2000 B.C.There is evidence that swimming was also a very popular sport in Greece and Italy in the original Olympic games Athletes would compete in competitions that usually involved many nations competing in water sports in order to gain a prize. In 1538, Nicolas Wynman, German professor of languages, wrote the first swimming book. Competitive swimming in Europe started around 1800, mostly using breaststroke. The front crawl, then called the trudgen (now known predominantly as the "front crawl" or "freestyle") was introduced in 1873 by John Arthur Trudgen, copying it from Native Americans.
Swimming was part of the first modern 1896 Summer Olympics games in Athens. In 1900, backstroke was included as an Olympic Event. In 1908, the world swimming association Federation Internationale de Natation was formed. Butterfly was first a variant of breaststroke, until it was accepted as a separate style in the 1952 Olympics. At present, there are the four strokes of butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle, while the IM ("Individual Medley") a combination of all four strokes.
The most common purpose for swimming is recreation. Recreational swimming is considered by many a good way to relax, while enjoying a good full-body workout. Several swimming styles are suitable for recreational swimming; most recreational swimmers prefer a style that keeps their head out of the water and has an underwater arm recovery. Breaststroke, side stroke, and dog paddle, are the most common strokes utilized in recreational swimming, but the out-of-water arm recovery of freestyle or butterfly gives rise to better exploitation of the difference in resistance between air and water.
The butterfly stroke, which consists of out-of-water recovery with even symmetry in body movements, is most suited to rough water swimming. For example, in a record-setting example of endurance swimming, Vicki Keith crossed the rough waters of Lake Ontario using butterfly. Most recreational swimming takes place in swimming pools, and calm natural waters (sea, lakes, rivers). Therefore freestyle (which does not work as well in rough water) is suitable.
