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2008 Olympics>Previews
UPDATED: August-7-2008   
Swimming
 

 

Origin

Swimming is an ancient discipline, as prehistoric man had to learn to swim in order to cross rivers and lakes. There are numerous references in Greek mythology to swimming, the most notable being that of Leander swimming the Hellespont (now the Dardenelle straits) nightly to see his beloved Hero.

Swimming as a sport was probably not practised widely until the early 19th century. The National Swimming Society of Great Britain was formed in 1837 and began to conduct competitions. Most early swimmers used the breaststroke or a form of it. In the 1870s, a British swimming instructor named J. Arthur Trudgeon travelled to South America, where he saw natives there using an alternate arm overhand stroke. He brought it back to England as the famous trudgeon stroke - a crawl variant with a scissors kick.

In the late 1880s an Englishman named Frederick Cavill travelled to the South Seas, where he saw the natives performing a crawl with a flutter kick.. Cavill settled in Australia where he taught the stroke that was to become the famous Australian crawl.

(BOCOG)

Preview for Team China

Although China's swimmers earned their fair share of Olympic glory during the 1990s, their medal hopes in Beijing appear to be anything but bright.

China's top men's butterflyer Wu Peng is the best prospect, while rising star Zhang Lin will strive for a medal in middle and long distance events.

On the women's side, veteran Qi Hui expects to be competitive in her pet events, the 200m breaststroke and 200m and 400m medley, but she faces formidable opposition in Australian breaststroke world record holder Leisel Jones and 400m medley world record holder Katie Hoff of the US.

(China Daily August 1, 2008)


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CHN

51 21 28 100
2

USA

36 38 36 110
3

RUS

23 21 28 72
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