Swimming

Swimming, the water sport par excellence, has gained a prominent position in the Olympic programme.

It can be practiced in the pool with distances ranging from 50m to 1,500m or in the open water, covering much longer distances up to 25 kilometres.

In competitive swimming, there are four major styles: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly. Competitive events are divided into individual events and team events (relays).

The relay race involves a team of four swimmers. There is the freestyle relay, where all swimmers swim crawl, or the medley relay, where each swimmer swims a different stroke, starting as soon as the previous swimmer touches the wall. The stroke order is: backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, and freestyle.

Italian version