page_title: Swimming
section_title: Sport
hierarchical_section_title: Swimming / Purpose / Sport
caption_attribution_description: English: Start of the 4x100 meters relay in the Watercube, Beijing, august 11th 2008. Michael Phelps is standing in the number 4 lane. See also File:Phelps4x100.jpg. Français&#160;: Départ du 4x100m dans le cube d'eau, Pékin, le 11 août 2008
context_page_description: Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs, the body, or both. Humans can hold their breath underwater and undertake rudimentary locomotive swimming within weeks of birth, as a survival response.
  Swimming is consistently among the top public recreational activities, and in some countries, swimming lessons are a compulsory part of the educational curriculum. As a formalized sport, swimming features in a range of local, national, and international competitions, including every modern Summer Olympics.
context_section_description: Swimming as a sport predominantly involves participants competing to be the fastest over a given distance in a certain period of time.  Competitors swim different distances in different levels of competition. For example, swimming has been an Olympic sport since 1896, and the current program includes events from 50 m to 1500 m in length, across all four main strokes and medley.  During the season competitive swimmers typically train several times a week, this is in order to preserve fitness as well as promoting overload in training. Furthermore when the cycle of work is completed swimmers go through a stage called taper where intensity is reduce in preparation for racing, during taper power and feel in the water are concentrated.
  The sport is governed internationally by the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), and competition pools for FINA events are 25 or 50 meters in length. In the United States, a pool 25 yards in length is commonly used for competition.
  Other swimming and water-related sporting disciplines include open water swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo, triathlon, and the modern pentathlon.
caption: Start of the 4 × 100 meters men's relay during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
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