SWIMMING

The Sport

            Swimming is an Olympic sport individual or in teams. It has 4 different styles: butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle and another one called medley that mix all the four together. It can be done in pool or in open water, an in Olympics we have both.

Swimming in the Olympics

            It became an Olympic sport in the first Olympic games of the Modern Era, which happened in Atenas in 1898. In the beginning, there wasn’t pools, so there were just a few athletes, put by the next Olympic game, the number grown up and it started to happened in swimming pools. Just in 1912 that women started to participate, the most part of the athletes were from North America.

            Today, in the Olympic games, there are 34 swimming races being 17 for women and 17 for men. The races very between 50 meters to 1.500 meters. Out of the pools, we have the aquatic marathon with 10 kilometers. To go to the Olympic games you have to make a time under the time they have stipulated. When you are in the Olympic, you have to stay between the 9 bests to go to the final race, and if you stay between the first 3 in the final, you get the medal.

 Michael Phelps

  

The best swimmer of all the times is Michael Phelps. He broke 37 world records and got the biggest number of golden medals in the same Olympic game: 8. In the total, he won 28 Olympic medals, 23 golds, 3 silvers and 2 bronzes. Rio de Janeiro was his last Olympic game, and he lets all the swimmers as an idol forever.

Katie Ledecky

Katie Ledecky was consider the best swimmer in 2015. She runs in freestyle. In the 2015 world championship she won from 200 to 1.500 meters, being the first girl to do such a great thing. She is American, like Michael Phelps, and maybe she will be the great future swimmer in the world.

Poliana Okimoto

For me, the best brasilian swimmer is Poliana Okimoto. She swims open-water runs, and she won the 10.000 m in the world championship, in 2015. By the Olympic games, now, she got a bronze medal on the same run. Now she is 33 years old, and maybe she will stop swimming in the next years, but I think she did a great job, considering all the others brasilian swimmers.

For Health

Swimming as just a sport is very good for the healthy.  It is a low-impact activity that has several mental and bodily health benefits, that is a recreational motion for everyone. Swimming can provide a low-impact workout. Swimming builds endurance, muscle strength, and cardiovascular fitness.

MATEUS GIACOBBO ARISTIMUNHO           9C