On July 29, 2021, the women's 4X200m freestyle relay final at the Tokyo Olympics, China's Li Bingjie (front) competed. Source: Xinhua News Agency
As one of the most common sports, swimming has a long history of development, from a self-help skill to become a competitive sport, how has swimming undergone development? What was the swimming competition of the ancients like? How does it become a sport? Today, Xiaobian will take you to understand the history of swimming.
1
According to historical records, swimming was called "wandering" in ancient China.
When our ancestors first learned to swim, they were afraid of drowning and dying, often with the help of scoop gourds. Its flotation power is very good, and it was also called "dagger" by people at that time.
Water drama appeared around the Spring and Autumn Warring States period. Also known as "water play", it is a unique way of water recreation in ancient times on the mainland.
Since then, there have been various forms such as diving, playing, racing, grabbing gold bottles without water, water swings, and water songs and dances.
The earliest records of human swimming in mainland literature can be traced back to about the sixth century BC, and the Book of Poetry appears in the verses describing swimming: "On its depth, the ark of the square; on its shallowness, the swimming swim" describes the verse of swimming.
02
During the Han Dynasty, swimming was widely popularized as a form of entertainment.
At that time, in order to facilitate people's swimming, the ruler also funded the construction of a large-scale "Tailiu Pond" in Chang'an, providing exchange conditions for people who loved swimming to learn and improve swimming skills.
Swimming competitions have already begun in some areas of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the south.
At that time, the "tide maker" popular in the south and the "dragon gate" popular in the north were two kinds of water sports with high difficulty.
"Tiangong Kaiwu" deep-sea pearl fishing map
03
During the Song Dynasty, both commerce and handicrafts developed to a great extent. In order to meet the entertainment needs of the public, swimming at this time has also become a performance entertainment project.
Swimming competitions were held in the Jinming Pond in the Northern Song Dynasty, where participants needed to swim to grab the silver urn bottles in the pool.
In the folk people developed this game into a "duck chasing" game, which was played after the annual Dragon Boat Festival dragon boat race.
In addition, the Song Dynasty also created a water swing performance. People would swing high on the bow of the boat, and performers would swing the swing high.
When the body is close to balance with the swing's crossbar, suddenly take off from the swing, somersault, and then jump into the water.
It is somewhat similar to the current diving project, but it is more difficult than today's springboard and platform diving.
Because of this, the water swing performance is very dangerous, and it has disappeared from the history books after the Song Dynasty, becoming the "unique skill" of ancient Chinese water sports performances.
Qing Dynasty murals depicting swimming scenes in the Potala Palace in Tibet
04
All in all, swimming has a long history on the mainland, and the level of participation is quite high, combining sports, bodybuilding and entertainment. In ancient Egypt, in the early days, only the children of nobles and soldiers could swim.
It was not until the end of the 18th century, when the working class had more time and opportunities to participate in swimming, that swimming began to become a popular activity at all levels of society.
In 1828, the British built the first indoor swimming pool in Liverpool George Wharf. By the 1830s, such pools were popping up in major British cities.
In 1837, london established the first swimming organization and hosted the first swimming competition in Britain.
In January 1869, the Metropolitan Swimming Club Federation (the predecessor of the current British Amateur Swimming Association) was established in London, and swimming was officially established as a specialized sport.
It then spread to the British colonies and then all over the world.
05
Swimming as a sport has developed significantly for just over 100 years.
The swim competition is commonly referred to as competitive swimming, which originated in the United Kingdom and Australia and was later introduced to other countries.
From the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, swimming competitions in various countries around the world began to become common, and swimming clubs were established.
Founded in 1869, the British Amateur Swimming Federation was the world's first national swimming club.
Between 1850 and 1860, swimming competitions were held in both Britain and Australia. Swimming was listed as one of the Olympic events in 1894.
The main competitive swimming competitions include freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke, butterfly swimming and individual mixed swimming consisting of these four swimming, as well as relay swimming competition swimming.
The image comes from the Internet
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Organizer: Hebei Provincial Sports Bureau
Producer: Guo Lijun
Editor's proofreading: He Wanxuan