SWIMMING
Swimming is only one of five sports that has been contested at every summer Olympic Games since 1896.
It was however originally only open to men and with women only able to compete in Olympic competition from 1912. It is one of the most popular spectator events at the Games and has the second-highest number of Olympic events (after athletics).
In the first four Olympics, competitions were not held in pools, but rather in open water (1896, the Mediterranean Sea; 1900, the Seine; 1904, an artificial lake; 1906, the Mediterranean). The 1904 Olympics’ races were the only ones ever measured in yards, instead of the usual metres. A 100-metre pool was built for the 1908 Olympics and was located in the centre of the main stadium’s track and field oval. The 1912 Olympics, held in the Stockholm Harbour, marked the beginning of electrical timing.
The 1924 Olympics were the first to use the standard 50 metre pool with marked lanes. In the freestyle, swimmers originally dove from the pool walls, but diving blocks were incorporated starting at the 1936 Summer Olympics. The flip-turn was developed by the 1950s. Swimming goggles were first allowed in 1976.
Women were first allowed the longer distance of 800 metres freestyle in 1968, which remains the longest distance for women in the swimming pool. Up until then, women were considered to be too “delicate” to swim a race this long, even though the men had had the 1500 metre freestyle from the very early years. Women’s teams were first granted the 800 metre freestyle relay race in 1996 even though there had been a men’s relay race at that distance since 1912. At six Olympiads, the men had two freestyle relay races, but the women only had one. Now, both sexes have two. The medley relay races (4×100 metres) were not held for men or for women until 1960, but they have continued in every Olympiad since then.
Starting in 2008, both men and women compete in 10 km open water marathon swim events.
The 2020 Olympics will see the introduction for the first time of a 4 x 100m Mixed Medley Relay.
National Federation: Swim Ireland
International Federation: International Swimming Federation
SWIMMING NEWS
Dr. Jon Rudd | Team Behind The Team
There is surely a promising thesis subject in why Northern Englishmen seem to click so well when it comes to elite sports leadership in Ireland. Jack Charlton and Andy Farrell are two outstanding examples and another is Dr Jon Rudd, the Performance Director for Swim Ireland since 2017 and a very proud Yorkshire man from [...]
Performance Round Up – December
Catch up on the latest results of Team Ireland athletes throughout the month of December! Daniel Wiffen Smashes The Oldest Swimming World Record Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen had the swim of his life on Sunday, smashing the oldest World swimming record on the books in the 800m Freestyle Final at the European Aquatics Short Course Championships in Otopeni, Romania. Wiffen, [...]
Daniel Wiffen Smashes Oldest Swimming World Record
Daniel Wiffen Smashes Oldest World Swimming Record Ireland’s Daniel Wiffen had the swim of his life on Sunday, smashing the oldest World swimming record on the books in the 800m Freestyle Final at the European Aquatics Short Course Championships in Otopeni, Romania. Wiffen, the European Record (7:25.96) holder, took almost three seconds off Australian legend Grant Hackett’s 2008 time of 7:23.42, [...]
Olympic Movement Breaks Launched in Primary Schools Nationally
Team Ireland athletes star as Olympic Movement Breaks is launched in primary schools nationally The Olympic Federation of Ireland and the Active School Flag programmes work together to get Irish primary school pupils more active Minister of State for Sport and Physical Education Thomas Byrne TD Launches Initiative The Minister of State for Sport and […]
SELECTED ATHLETES
Ellen Walshe
Ellen WalsheSWIMMING BIOGRAPHY Ellen won a silver in 100m butterfly at the 2015 European Youth Olympics and gold in 200m butterfly at the 2017 World School Games. In January 2020 she became the first Irish woman to break a minute for 100m butterfly with her 59:54 victory at the Flanders Cup and she lowered that [...]
Daniel Wiffen
Daniel Wiffenswimming BIOGRAPHY Daniel, who developed with Lisburn Swimming club, is now a student at Loughborough University. He qualified for Tokyo with a remarkable performance at the Irish Trials in April 2021 when he knocked 22 seconds off his own 800m freestyle PB and 13 seconds off the Irish record. He also holds the Irish [...]
Danielle Hill
Danielle Hillswimming BIOGRAPHY Danielle’s time of 1:00:18 at the Irish Olympic trials in June was also her latest Irish record. She was a Commonwealth Games finalist in 2018, a year in which she also dislocated her shoulder during training. She was a finalist at the 2019 European SC Championships, is a student of Sport and [...]
Finn McGeever
Finn McGeeverSWIMMING BIOGRAPHY Finn grew up on the banks of Lough Derg and is a second-year student at the University of Limerick where he is part of Swim Ireland’s high performance squad. He caused a sensation when breaking the Irish 400m freestyle record at this year’s Nationals in April (3:52.83) and was part of the [...]
Shane Ryan
Shane Ryanswimming BIOGRAPHY Shane, whose father hails from Portarlington, has won four 50m backstroke medals since 2017. He was World Student Games champion in 2017 and a bronze medallist at the 2018 World SC Championships, the 2018 European LC Championships and the 2019 European SC Championships. He made the 100m backstroke semi-finals at the 2016 [...]
Darragh Greene
Darragh GreeneSWIMMING BIOGRAPHY First Irishman to break one minute for 100m breaststroke in European semifinal in 2018 but beaten in a ‘swim-off’ for place in the final. Made semi-finals of 50m breaststroke at 2019 World Championships and 2019 European (short-course) Championships. Holds Irish senior records in 50m/100m/200m breaststroke. His 100m national record of 59:76 seconds [...]
Brendan Hyland
Brendan HylandSWIMMING BIOGRAPHY Brendan, a 15-time Irish champion, was Ireland’s 2019 High Performance Swimmer of the Year and has made finals at the 2021 and 2019 (SC) European Championships. In 2019 he broke the Irish 200m butterfly record at the World Championships, finally breaking 1:57 with his 1:56.55 in the semi-finals to place 11th overall. [...]
Jack McMillan
Jack McMillanSWIMMING BIOGRAPHY Part of Irish team who broke national 4x200m record twice at this year’s European Championship, finishing fifth in final when they lowered it to 7:12.00. He set an Irish 200m SC freestyle record of 1:42.74 at the 2019 Europeans and smashed that with 1:42.18 in December 2020. Jack won gold in 200m [...]
Mona McSharry
Mona McSharrySWIMMING BIOGRAPHY Sligo star Mona, who developed at Ballyshannon Marlins club, was world junior champion at 100m Breaststroke and European Junior champion at 50m and 100m breaststroke in 2017 and won a senior European SC bronze (50m breaststroke) in 2019. In 2016 she won silver (100m) and bronze (50m) at European Juniors. In 2017 [...]
