Swimming is both a fundamental life skill and a highly competitive sport, spanning pool racing and open water events. Competitive swimming features four main strokes — freestyle (front crawl), backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly — across distances from 50 to 1,500 metres in p Read more
In swimming, which stroke is swum on the back?
EasyThe backstroke is the only swimming stroke performed on the back, with swimmers looking upward at the ceiling or sky throughout the race. It is the only stroke that does not start from the blocks - instead, swimmers start in the water holding the wall. Backstroke is swum in alternating arm pulls with a continuous flutter kick.
The backstroke was included in the 1900 Paris Olympics as the only stroke other than freestyle - the modern range of competitive strokes (butterfly, breaststroke, backstroke, freestyle) was not fully established in Olympic competition until 1952.