Today's Article - Olympic Swimming Records

This article is for quizzes on Thursday October 15th...

The International Olympic Committee recognises the fastest performances in pool-based swimming events at the Olympic Games. Men's swimming has been part of the Summer Olympics since the Games' modern inception in 1896; it was not until 1912 that women competed against each other. The swimming events at the 1896 Olympic Games were held in a bay in the Aegean Sea with swimmers being required to swim to the shore—Hungarian swimmer Alfréd Hajós won two gold medals that year, saying "My will to live completely overcame my desire to win." The 1900 Games in Paris saw the swimming events take place in the River Seine while the 1908 events were hosted in a 100 m pool located within an athletics track in the White City Stadium in London.

Races are held in four swimming strokes: freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly, over varying distances and in either individual or relay race events. In the 2012 Olympic Games in London, both men and women competed in sixteen events in the pool, each sex in the same events with the exceptions of the 800 m freestyle (women-only) and the 1500 m freestyle (men-only).^[2] Of the 32 pool-based events, swimmers from the United States hold sixteen records, China five, Australia four, the Netherlands two, and one each to Brasil, France, Great Britain, Hungary, and South Africa.