At the 1896 Summer Olympics, four swimming events were contested, all for men. They were planned and organized by the Sub-Committee for Nautical Sports. All events took place on 11 April in the Bay of Zea. There was a total of 13 participants from 4 countries competing.
Alfréd Hajós was a Hungarian swimmer, football player and manager, and architect. He was the first modern Olympic swimming champion and the first Olympic champion of Hungary. No other swimmer ever won such a high fraction of all Olympic events at a single Games. He was also part of the first-ever team fielded by Hungary in 1902.
Laure Manaudou is a retired French Olympic, world and European champion swimmer. She has held the world record in freestyle events between 200 and 1500 meter. She is the daughter of a French father and a Dutch mother, and she is the older sister of Florent Manaudou who is also an Olympic gold medalist swimmer.
The men's 100 metre freestyle event at the 2004 Summer Olympics was contested at the Olympic Aquatic Centre of the Athens Olympic Sports Complex in Athens, Greece on August 17 and 18. There were 69 competitors from 62 nations. Nations had been limited to two swimmers each since the 1984 Games.
Swimming has been a sport at every modern Summer Olympics. It has been open to women since 1912. Swimming has the second-highest number of Olympic medal contested events after athletics.
Paul Neumann was an Austrian swimmer and physician, who competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens and became the first ever Austrian gold medalist.
Efstathios Chorafas or Khorafas was a Greek swimmer. He competed at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.
The men's 100 metre freestyle was one of the four swimming events on the Swimming at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. The 100 metre freestyle race was the first of the swimming events. Ten swimmers entered the race. The two competitors from Austria-Hungary finished in the top two places, though no record distinguishes the places of the other eight competitors. The names of four of the Greek swimmers are not known. Alfréd Hajós of Hungary beat Otto Herschmann of Austria by less than a body length, with the other swimmers far behind. The Hungarian flag was hoisted, but the band began to play the Austrian anthem until the Hungarian team sang the Hungarian anthem (Himnusz).
The men's 1200 metre freestyle was one of the four swimming events on the Swimming at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme.
The men's sailors 100 metre freestyle was one of the four swimming events on the Swimming at the 1896 Summer Olympics programme. The second swimming race was open only to sailors of the Greek Royal Navy. Eleven entered but only three actually took part in the event. The winning time was nearly a minute slower than that of the open 100 metre freestyle.
Robert George Windle is an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1960s, who won four Olympic medals, including an individual gold medal. Windle won the 1500 m freestyle and took bronze in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and silver and bronze in the 4 × 200 m and 4 × 100 m freestyle relays respectively at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Known for his versatility, he is the only male swimmer to represent Australia at the Olympics in all freestyle distances from 100 m to 1500 m. During his career, Windle set six world records and won six Commonwealth Games gold medals. He won 19 Australian championships in all distances from 220 yd to 1650 yd.
Otto Scheff, born Otto Sochaczewsky was an Austrian freestyle swimmer, water polo player, lawyer, politician, and sports official who competed in the 1906 Intercalated Games, in the 1908 Summer Olympics, and in the 1912 Summer Olympics.
The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10–12 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China. There were 58 competitors from 50 nations.
Ryan Andrew Cochrane is a retired Canadian competitive swimmer who specialised in freestyle distance events. Cochrane is an Olympic silver and bronze medallist as well as a triple gold medallist from the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. He is also a four-time Commonwealth Games champion in the 400-metre and 1,500-metre having won both medals in 2010 and 2014. He holds six world championship medals from the 800-metre and 1500-metre, this also makes Cochrane Canada's all-time leading medallist for a swimmer at the World Aquatics Championships. Cochrane also won gold medals in the 400 and 1,500 m freestyle at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, as well as a bronze in the 4 x 200 m freestyle at the 2015 Games. From the year 2008 - 2015, Cochrane was named the Canadian male swimmer of the year - winning the award 8 times in a row.
Michael Fred Phelps II is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold medals (23), Olympic gold medals in individual events (13), and Olympic medals in individual events (16). When Phelps won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, he broke fellow American swimmer Mark Spitz's 1972 record of seven first-place finishes at any single Olympic Games. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Phelps already tied the record of eight medals of any color at a single Games by winning six gold and two bronze medals. At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Phelps won four gold and two silver medals, and at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, he won five gold medals and one silver. This made him the most successful athlete of the Games for the fourth Olympics in a row.
Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water. Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic sports, with varied distance events in butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, and individual medley. In addition to these individual events, four swimmers can take part in either a freestyle or medley relay. A medley relay consists of four swimmers who will each swim a different stroke, ordered as backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.
Freestyle is a category of swimming competition, defined by the rules of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), in which competitors are subject to a few limited restrictions on their swimming stroke. Freestyle races are the most common of all swimming competitions, with distances beginning with 50 meters and reaching 1500 meters, also known as the mile. The term 'freestyle stroke' is sometimes used as a synonym for 'front crawl', as front crawl is the fastest surface swimming stroke. It is now the most common stroke used in freestyle competitions.
Shrone Austin is a Seychellois swimmer, who specialized in freestyle and breaststroke events. She first competed in the women's 100 m breaststroke at the 2004 Summer Olympics, before turning her sights on the long-distance freestyle at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Apart from her Olympic career, Austin had collected a career total of six medals in two editions of the All-Africa Games.
Ratapong "Nuk" Sirisanont is a Thai former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke, but also competed in long-distance freestyle and individual medley. He is a four-time Olympian, a three-time Asian Games participant, and a seven-time SEA Games athlete (1991–2003). Regarded as Thailand's top swimmer, he has won a total of sixteen medals at the Southeast Asian Games since 1995, and six at the Asian Games, including two golds in the 200 and 400 m individual medley. At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Sirisanont became the first Thai swimmer to reach the final twice. Sirisanont is also one of three Southeast Asian swimmers, along with Malaysia's Alex Lim and Philippines' Miguel Molina, to train for the California Golden Bears in the United States, under head coach Nort Thornton.
