Swimming

奥运项目——游泳

（选自《英语世界》2012年第7期）

Find out more about the different swimming events at the Olympics.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

I love swimming. Do you?

Not really. I can’t swim very well. I don’t like the water.

The Ancient Greeks would say you need educating. They thought a man who couldn’t swim was ignorant.

Well, I can swim a little. I can do the doggy paddle but that’s not real swimming, is it?

Actually, the doggy-paddle was probably man’s first stroke. We’ve been swimming like that since pre-history. Then the doggy-paddle developed into the breaststroke…

What about the other strokes?

Well, some Native Americans introduced the crawl to Britain in 1844.

Did it become popular straight away?

No! The Americans splashed so much the British didn’t want to learn the new stroke. They thought it wasn’t polite, even though it was much faster than breaststroke.

Did everyone think so?

I don’t know—but the crawl only became popular in 1902.

Why was that?

An Australian called Richard Cavill swam the crawl and set a new world record. He copied the way the people of the Solomon Islands swam. That’s how modern freestyle began!

What about the butterfly stroke? That looks the hardest to me.

Perhaps that’s why the first butterfly event was only in theMelbourne Games in 1956.

And how many swimming events were there in the first modern games?

There were only four events in the first Games, but in the next Games there will be thirty-four!

That’s amazing! I bet there have been other changes, too.

Yes, in the first games only men could compete. And there wasn’t a heated, indoor pool—the athletes had to swim in the sea!

Really? Lucky it was a Summer and not a Winter Olympics event!

RULES FOR SWIMMING

• The Olympic pool is 50m long and 21m wide. Floating lines, called lane lines, divide the pool into eight lanes.

• Each swimmer must stay in his lane.

• The different ways of swimming are called “strokes”.

• There are four strokes that swimmers can use: crawl or freestyle, breaststroke, butterfly and backstroke.

• Races can be:

• Individual but using the same stroke e.g. 50 m freestyle or 200 m breast stroke.

• Relay which means a race between teams of swimmers. Each swimmer swims one leg (length of the pool) of the event.

• Medley which means swimmers or relay teams swim a combination of backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly and freestyle.

• In most races swimmers begin by diving into the water from starting blocks.

• In the backstroke swimmers begin the race in the water.

• They swim down their lanes to the end of the pool and touch it. A touch pad records their time. Then they turn and swim back.

• Backstroke and freestyle swimmers use tumble turns.

• Breaststroke and butterfly swimmers use open turns.

• In long races a lap card shows the swimmers how many laps remain.

ACTIVITY

1. What stroke developed from the doggy-paddle?

2. Who first introduced the crawl to England?

3. Which people did Richard Cavill copy to develop the crawl?

4. When was the first butterfly event?

5. How many swimming events were there in the first Games?

6. How many swimming events will there be in 2012?

7. Were women allowed to swim in the first Games?

8. Where did the athletes swim in the first Games?

(Answers 1. The breaststroke; 2. Some Native Americans; 3. The people of the Solomon Islands; 4. 1956; 5. Four; 6. 34; 7. No; 8. In the sea)

WORDSEARCH

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butterfly / relay / medley / backstroke / crawl / stroke / lane / pool